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Published: August 8th 2007
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My class
I got to teach the biggest beginner class and though it was challenging, we had a lot of fun. I had never spent any time in Khemisset before - just been rushed through on the accidental road trip with Maryam in January, 2006. There are a couple other volunteers in the area and one who works with artisans in Khemisset itself. I hadn’t heard very glowing reports of the town, but when I first got there I was so happy to see green fields and tall trees that I didn’t care what other problems there might be.
Camp has always been a fun time for me and though camp in Morocco is almost the polar opposite of the camps I attended in the mountains in Idaho, it is just as fun. In Idaho we tended to take kids from the cities and larger towns out to the country to live in tents or cabins, often without running water or electricity. We cooked around camp fires and foraged for huckleberries.
Spring Language Camps are run by the Moroccan Ministry of Youth & Sports. They tend to take kids from villages and bring them together at a hostel sort of place (centre d’acceuil) in a city. We had several buildings in the compound and evening activities tended to look more
My class in class
We went through the basics - for two hours every morning. They were long mornings. like a discotheque than a campfire.
But it was still camp, with songs and games and the national anthem every morning. I have now attended so many camps in Morocco that I can sing the Moroccan national anthem by heart, though I only understand about half the lyrics.
One catch to Spring Language Camp is that the kids are supposed to be learning English. There is a big effort on the Moroccan government’s part to push English: in schools, camps and by other activities. This is where Peace Corps comes in. Volunteers are supposed to teach two hours of English every day. We scheduled it for first thing in the morning: from 9am till 11am. Very few campers wanted to sit through two hours of class during their spring break, and none of the volunteers did either. But we got it out of the way in the morning, somehow, and had the rest of the day to play with.
Peace Corps asked me to coordinate a camp this year, and assigned me Khemisset. I wasn’t too excited about the extra responsibility to begin with, but I figured it couldn’t be that bad. I loved it. The campers
Hanging out with the campers
We had great weather for most of camp and spent after lunch rest time basking in the sun. treated me like a rock star. I basked in the limelight all week. It was thrilling to be surrounded by so many kids who looked up to me. Sometimes I get discouraged in Kelaa. I feel like I try and try and nothing happens. At camp all I have to do is think of an idea and a group of campers have jumped all over it and made it ten times better than I could have imagined. They were so motivated.
Camp wasn’t all fun and games. Every day we had an informational workshop with topics ranging from Human Rights to First Aid. I ended up teaching one on cinematography (with the German flick Run Lola Run) when the doctor who was going to teach about infectious diseases didn’t show up. We also had an AIDS education evening with a local group who came and performed skits and a longer play for us.
In all, it was an exciting week and I had a lot of fun. I felt renewed and motivated for work in Morocco again. Actually, I just got even more excited for camp this summer. I have projects going on in my site, but camp
Ping Pong
No camp is complete without ping pong. is just so much more fun.
I included more photos of campers than usual because several Khemisset campers have found my blog and asked to be on it.
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