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Published: August 8th 2007
Nouveau Couture Competition
This was definitely the most elaborate of the competitions.Looking at my blog it seems like I am always on vacation. Peace Corps can be a lot of fun and I am so lucky to live in such an amazing country that has so many tourist attractions. But I am most often in Kelaa and usually doing something productive.
This was a big weekend for me. On the 19th the women’s association I’ve been working with, El Ghad Al Bassim, organized a “cultural competition”. I’ve never seen anything like it in the US but it seems to be a fairly normal event here.
There was a performance by Kelaa’s star lute player, Abderrhmane. I’ve seen him at events around town before and always noticed him for playing and singing beautifully. What I didn’t know until Saturday was that he speaks English perfectly. He’s never noticed me (though I stand out here) probably because he’s blind. We chatted a while on Saturday, he told me about getting his degree in Marrakech and his wife invited me to their house. The hospitality here just never ends.
Besides the lute, there was also a traditional men’s musical group that played drums and danced and sang for us between competitions.
Press Conference
The president of El Ghad Al Bassim spoke with local media about the day's events. There were competitions in arts and crafts, poetry, theater, couture, hair styling, modeling and many other things. The place was packed and many people had to stand since we only had about a hundred and fifty chairs. The whole event was a big success and once again I was very impressed with the work El Ghad Al Bassim does. The photos I included were also taken by a local group that maintains Kelaa’s website at www.alkelaa.com. It’s a great site, but so far only in Arabic.
The next day a Moroccan AIDS awareness association, ALCS, came from Marrakech to help me with this year’s Candlelight Memorial. (Check out www.candlelightmemorial.org). Peace Corps notified me of the opportunity a couple months ago and I contacted the association ALCS (Association pour la Lutte Contre SIDA) at their Marrakech office. Two speakers came and held a workshop, encouraging the participants to talk about AIDS and to ask questions. It lasted for over two hours and nobody seemed to get tired of rehashing the same topic over and over. I was surprised by how many questions people had and so happy that they weren’t too shy to ask them.
It’s just a start
ALCS
These are the two speakers who came to Kelaa from Marrakech. This photo was taken during an interview they did with alkelaa.com. for Kelaa. I have taught AIDS education classes here before but I think it was so much more effective for Moroccans (who actually speak Arabic) to lead the session. My hope is that some of the participants will take what they know and start a group in Kelaa to do AIDS education. It’s wonderful to have ALCS so close by in Marrakech, but Kelaa needs its own group.
To learn more about ALCS go to their website at www.alcsmaroc.org. The group that took photos on Saturday for alkelaa.com was also at the AIDS workshop.
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Moroccan yassine
non-member comment
I used to be a student for Heather
Hello, My name is Yaseen, and I used to be a student of that blond girl in the picture. She helped enormously in my English. I owe a lot of what I am today to her. I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks a lot for what you did. It really meant a lot to me, it still does.