Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)

I am happily back in Tiflet after a few weeks of being on the road! The first half of my travels involved an 11-hour journey to a small town in the south of Morocco called Taznakht. One of my Peace Corps friends organized a camp called Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) and I joined 8 Peace Corps Volunteers and 10 Moroccan staff to help run the 4-day program. 

GLOW camps were first started back in the 90’s by Peace Corps Volunteers and since then have spread throughout the Peace Corps network as a way to educate girls on important life skills and to empower the girls to use those skills in their lives and to share with their communities. Our camp had a variety of workshops ranging from very serious topics to more lighthearted: gender roles, self-esteem, Morocco’s family code law, goal-setting, self-defense, women's health, beauty, calligraphy, rape laws in Morocco, harassment, henna, belly dancing and cinema. In between the workshops, we led them in singing, dancing, games, scavenger hunts, field trips, and did I mention dancing?

For many girls, this is often the first opportunity to leave their town and participate in a camp-like experience and it was really amazing watching them grow over the course of the 4 days, develop a sense of comfort with the group, and make lots of new friendships. For me, it was also a welcome challenge with my language skills - the camp was run almost entirely in Moroccan Arabic, and in leading some of the workshops and participating in others, I found myself talking about topics that I had not yet discussed with Moroccans. It was nice to step outside of the boundaries of typical language that I use in English classes and in day-to-day interactions. 

I left the camp feeling mentally and physically exhausted but so grateful to have had the opportunity to share this amazing experience with 45 of my newest Moroccan friends ;) Fortunately, my recovery came in the form of an awesome vacation with Justin. More on that in the next post - In the meantime, enjoy the photos from the camp!

First day of camp, getting everyone up and moving.

Homemade face masks in a beauty workshop.

A "Hands of Peace" poster that girls created.

One of the MANY impromptu dance sessions during the camp!

Girls practice moves in a self-defense workshop.

Some of the Peace Corps Volunteer staff, on field trip day.

Playing games with the girls on field trip day.

In my harassment workshop, girls wrote on slips of paper how
harassment can make them feel. In the middle, in Arabic,
it says "Everyone deserves respect."

Girls create a poster about a world without harassment.

With 2 other Volunteers, enjoying the beautiful weather!

Winter holiday!

It’s a winter break from school in Morocco and Justin and I are using the time for work and for play! We finished up our fall/winter session of classes and had small parties with the students to celebrate the completion of our “semester” – check out some photos below from some of our classes:

Our adult conversation class

Justin and 2 students from our beginner class for young students.

Our beginner class for high school students and adults.

We’ll be starting a new semester of classes in February, but in the meantime, some new experiences and adventures: First, I am currently in Taznakht, (a small town near Ouarzazate, in the south of Morocco) helping a Peace Corps Volunteer to run a girls-only leadership and empowerment camp called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). The camp is geared towards girls in underserved rural communities, and includes 4 days of programming aimed at building leadership and self-confidence, developing a safe and supportive community, and teaching girls valuable lessons related to gender roles, health, and future planning. I’ll be running one program about gender roles and another about sexual harassment. I’m extremely excited about this unique opportunity and can’t wait to share more with you in February!

After the GLOW camp, Justin and I are taking some time to explore some parts of Morocco that we have not yet seen! With less than a year left we still have a long list of places we want to visit, and we are going to try to get to as many as we can. More on these when we return, I promise with lots of photos :)

Women and exercise

Yesterday, I held my first women-only aerobics class at our Youth Center. In my community (and in many others in Morocco) women do not seem to have access to enough exercise opportunities. Boys and young men play soccer morning and night everywhere you look, and while younger girls run around outside playing with friends, older girls and certainly married women seem to get very little exercise. I run several times a week and rarely do I see any females running or walking, and based on what other Peace Corps Volunteers have told me, in some communities it does not happen at all. There are several gyms in our community, but all are men-only, either by rule or in practice, as far as I can tell.

Now don't get me wrong, women work quite hard in the home - cooking, cleaning, taking care of the house and the family - but they don't have the opportunity to do cardiovascular exercise. The top reported cause of death in Morocco is coronary artery disease - with the most common risk factors including obesity and lack of exercise. And a recent study reported that 67% of chronic diseases in Morocco are due to unhealthy nutrition, lack of exercise, and smoking (though this affects mostly men as women seen smoking are, in many communities, presumed to be prostitutes, so few do), with only 20% of Moroccans exercising regularly and 40% not consuming adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables. In comparison, 50% of Americans report that they exercise regularly, and think about how much we hear about Americans' health problems!

So I think exercise and nutrition for women are both really important areas to which I can contribute during my time in Morocco (and hopefully I can discuss nutrition more in conjunction with the aerobics class). The reason I chose to make this a women-only class is simply to help women to feel comfortable. We have women-only gyms in the U.S., but I think even more so in Morocco, for many women to be willing to come to classes, they need privacy and a separate environment from men. For my first session, I had 7 girls and women show up, ranging in age from 16 to 35. It's great for a start, and hopefully in time that number will increase. The class went really well - all of my years doing aerobics classes at gyms paid off and everyone loved getting the chance to move around and listen to fun pop music. After the class was over, 3 of the girls stayed around and danced to the music for a while because they enjoyed it so much!

In case you are curious, the playlist from the class is below. I spent a LOT of time finding the latest "cool" music that Moroccans like to listen to, some American, some Moroccan, and some international. A lot of the songs are available on YouTube if you don’t recognize some and want to know what is popular with the youth here, but for the next class I got requests for more Pitbull and Celine Dion!

1. Warmup Song: Moukana Wein, Myriam Fares
2. C'est La Vie, Khaled
3. Rain Over Me, Pitbull feat. Marc Anthony
4. On the Floor, Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull
5. We Found Love, Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris
6. Mr. Saxobeat, Alexandra Stan
7. Love you Like a Love Song, Selena Gomez
8. Glamorous, Fergie feat. Ludacris
9. Run the World (Girls), Beyonce
10. Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), Shakira
11. Cooldown song: Inas Inas, Mohamed Rouicha

I'll post more updates as my class continues!

My first event!

A few weeks ago, I held my first program in the community! (outside of activities related to English classes)

The invitation to the event

I wanted to do an activity specific to women, because so many boys come to our Youth Center on a daily basis, and not nearly as many girls. Plus, there are so many things that a man can do in the community (go to a cafe, soccer games, etc) that a woman just does not do here - so I wanted to give girls a chance to have an activity of their own in a comfortable and open environment. And selfishly, I wanted to spend more time with the girls and learn about their interests for potential future activities.

Soda and cookies, wrapped in cute individual packages for each girl

I planned the event along with my host sister and mother, and I was so pleased with the end result! Over 75 girls showed up, and we started with a discussion on being a woman. The conversation centered around questions like, Is it important to have children? Or to have a husband? We had a panel of 3 high school girls and an open microphone in which any girl could speak or ask questions. A lot of discussion, and some debate, but generally a good chance for girls to voice their opinions. 

We adjourned the discussion to a much lighter activity, a Moroccan/American dance party, in which I taught - and learned - lots of moves. Following an hour or so of dancing, we took a break for soda and cookies, which my host mom made. Then, we had 3 volunteers painting henna on girls' hands, something that is done often in celebrations and parties. 

For a first event, I was really excited about the result, and it was a great chance to get to know the girls of Tiflet better. And I even learned some valuable lessons along the way: First off, I think it definitely helped my language skills, because I had to talk about things that are not in the realm of my day-to-day activities. Second, I learned the importance of informal interactions in Moroccan culture - As opposed to formal meetings in the US as a way to get things done, here, it seems as if informal interactions, whether seeing someone on the street, before a meal, or in a cafe, often leads to getting more things accomplished. Next, I learned the importance of flexibility - when the inevitable changes occurred, due to scheduling (a Moroccan view of being on time is very different from my view!) or perhaps language misunderstandings, I recognized that it's a part of getting the job done, and while still stressful, I learned to grin and bear it. And lastly, I learned the importance of leaning on others (particularly Moroccans) to help me. My host sister helped me to understand what would be culturally appropriate for the event and the process needed to plan it out, some of the boys in the Youth Center helped me to set up speakers and chairs in the room, my host mother helped to make cookies and accompanied me to the market to find henna materials, and a group of willing girls helped me through the event itself, speaking about being a woman and doing the henna.

A lot of important lessons that I'm glad I've learned early on! Out of respect for the girls and for the safe space that we created, I have not posted any photos with specific faces, but if anyone is interested in seeing more photos from the event, please email me and I can share a private password-protected album.

In other news....

After 4 months in a cast, hobbling around on crutches, and doing physical therapy (remember those posts??) I have officially started running again!! Only about 30 minutes around town so far, but it's nice to be back. I have received a few funny looks from people as I run by, but it's another good way to show people about my life back in the US of A. 

And speaking of the US of A - the Bernsteins and friends have entered the country!! Coming next week, a post with lots of photos about adventures with our first American visitors :)

Women's day, every day

This past Thursday (March 8) marked an internationally-recognized day called International Women's Day. In 29 countries throughout the world, it is considered a national holiday (the U.S. and Morocco are not included on that list). International observances of this day date back all the way to 1910, initially having started as a Socialist political event, and then gaining traction in the West many years later with a declaration from the United Nations in 1977 to proclaim this as a day for women's rights and world peace. If you are interested in learning more about the day and its history, you can read more here. And if you are wondering (as I was) if there is also an International Men's Day, there is.

One of my English students in class tonight echoed my thoughts on the day - why are we just celebrating one day? Shouldn't every day be Women's Day? I enjoyed reading this opinion on the day, and here's a quick excerpt:

It’s not my day because I am a woman every day of the year. I don’t want 24 hours to remind the world that I will speak what’s on my mind, make my own decisions and not be objectified, simply because I don’t need to be given what’s mine to begin with anyway;  health and safety, education, equal opportunities and control over my body and life choices.

So here's what I'm doing to celebrate women every day. I have just launched a website for Peace Corps Morocco's Gender and Development Committee. The site has been 3 months in the making, since I joined the committee back in January and felt that there was a need for resources and information to be more accessible to volunteers. The site is intended to help connect volunteers in Morocco and to give them the tools to develop programming throughout the year, for both women and men, to address gender equity issues. Here's a screenshot of the website but please go check it out and tell me what you think! I'll be making lots of changes/additions over the coming months, so if you have any thoughts, please let me know.

 
I'm also planning a party for women in my community next Saturday. Most of the time in our Youth Center, there's a very small ratio of females to males - probably 10 males to every 1 female. I really want women to feel more comfortable going to the Youth Center and I also want to meet more women in the community, learn about what they like to do, and possibly discuss activities that I could do with them over the next year or two. So I decided to start with a somewhat laid-back activity to get to know each other - a henna party. Girls here seem to love henna and it should (hopefully) create a relaxed atmosphere for just hanging out with each other.  Here's the front of the invitation - my host sister helped me write the words but I typed the Arabic all by myself - I looked like a grandmother at the cyber cafe, staring intensely at the keyboard, typing 1 key every minute or so! But after a long while, it came together. I'll let you know how it goes!

Tomorrow morning, Justin and I are off to Marrakech for a quick touristy trip. You can be sure to expect a new post next week (with lots of photos) on the sights, sounds, and smells that we will encounter. Hope everyone is doing well!

Our time in Tiflet so far

I realized that in between complaining about hobbling around in crutches (the cast comes off in NINETEEN days and counting the minutes!!) and teaching about Moroccan life here and there, I haven't talked much about what Justin and I have actually been doing day-to-day the past month in our new community.

Even though I only have 1 good leg, it feels as if we have been able to do a lot in a short time. Here are some of the things we've done:

• We are Fa-mi-ly: We have spent lots and lots of time with our host family, even taking a trip out to Khemisset to visit our mother's brother and sister-in-law's family (I talked about this in last week's blog post a bit).
• Top Chef Morocco: We tried our hand at cooking our family pizza (if you recall from a previous blog post, it's our second time, after cooking it for our family in Moulay Yacoub). Not quite as good as our first time but pretty decent – hopefully we will improve with more practice!
• Keeping up with the Joneses: Beyond our family, we have gotten to know the people in our neighborhood. Our host family runs what is called a “hanut” here (similar to bodegas in big cities in the U.S., just small little shops that sell necessary household items such as soap, canned foods, etc). So we've spent lots of time sitting with our family next to the hanut, chatting with people in the neighborhood and either impressing them with our vast language or making lots of mistakes and listening to them laugh at us (depending on the day). Lots of kids play in front of the hanut, so it keeps the area pretty lively.
• Meeting the Yoots: We've been spending lots of time at our Youth Center (here it is called a Dar Chabab – Dar means “house” and Chabab means “youth”, so House of Youth). We've been really fortunate to be placed in a community with a Dar Chabab that is well-stocked with amenities (it has a computer lab, a library, an auditorium with a stage, 2 classrooms, a pool table, a ping-pong table, a TV, and lots of musical instruments), and with a really committed director and group of youth who spend lots of time there already. So we won't have to work too hard to get people to actually come there in the first place. The areas that are most active in the Dar Chabab seem to be music, theater, and computers – every afternoon when we are there, we sit in on the Music Club's activities which usually involves guitars, keyboards, drums, violins, tambourines, singing, and dancing. And a theater group has started rehearsing for a play in January and they let us sit in on rehearsals. Sometimes we just play pool or chat with the youth and watch football (soccer) games on TV. The center is a great place for the kids to go and they seem to really enjoy being there and being around each other.
• Getting Ready to Teach: We've started to prepare for teaching English classes in January. Another really fortunate thing for us is that people are REALLY eager for English classes – almost every day, we have a new group of people ask about when classes are starting. Our biggest problem may be having too many people (which is a good problem to have). We have just posted an announcement around town (a small version is below, you can see our pictures on it!) that says that we are doing small assessments at the end of December to determine individual English levels, to allow us to create classes to address all levels/ages. Then we post a class schedule on January 3 and start classes week of January 10. If it were up to everyone here, we would be starting immediately, but I'm glad to be taking the time and getting to know the community a bit first.
• Meeting the Gals: I visited a Women's Center in town (called a Nidi Niswi) and spent some time with the girls there. It's kind of like a Dar Chabab but gives some more technical assistance to women in sewing, dressmaking, etc. A Peace Corps volunteer living in Tiflet in 2007 taught them aerobics which they seemed to LOVE, and they really want me to have a class with aerobics, yoga, dancing, etc, so assuming I am cleared to use both legs early next year, I might try to start some classes with them and get some good exercise and new friends out of it!
• Where to Live: We have talked to people about helping us to find an apartment for January. We've seen 2 apartments so far, not sure yet what we'll do but I'm glad that things are available and very much looking forward to having a place of our own!
• Forgetting our Newly Learned Language: The director of our Youth Center has been helping us to find a Darija tutor, to continue our (slow) progress. He just gave us a number for a teacher who is willing to help us, so hopefully it will work out.
• What Else: In between this, Justin is taking a lot of walks around the community (me, a little but ever so slowly) and reporting back on all of the things he is seeing and learning. And we are trying to study language a bit but not as much as we should be. We sometimes go to the cyber cafe near our house to catch up on emails and to Skype with people back home. We hope when we get an apartment to get an internet connection there, which should make things a bit easier.
  

our poster advertising English classes!

That's about all of it – otherwise, just starting to make plans for the upcoming months and reading a lot of books. My parents gave me a Kindle as a birthday present before leaving and while I was a bit hesitant about moving away from real books, it's been a much easier way to read books here where we don't have a lot of space or places to buy them (so thanks Mom and Dad!!). If anyone has recommendations on good books to read, please leave them in the comments; I have 2 years so looking for lots of suggestions!

I apologize that I haven't posted photos of our new community; the truth is that since I'm on crutches, I just don't carry around a camera very much. But hopefully come January when I have 2 workable feet, I will post lots and lots and lots of photos... so just hang tight for now!

I miss everyone back home. This time of the year I'm thinking about New York all lit up in Christmas lights, the tree in Rockefeller, the beautiful holiday window displays, music on Steinway Street in Queens, generally how happy people get during the holiday season. I fired up my holiday music mix on my iPod to hopefully keep a little bit of the feeling here with me, and I smile when I listen to it :) Please enjoy it a bit extra for me!

More to come over the coming weeks as we (hopefully) secure an apartment and a tutor and I very soon get this cast OFF!!! Hope that everyone is doing wonderfully!

A training update

The weeks are going by faster and faster! It has now been 5 weeks since Justin and I arrived in Morocco, though it feels like months with all that we have done and learned. In 2 weeks, we will find out our permanent site placement for the next 2 years, and in 1 month, we will (hopefully) be sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers and leave for our final site. 

I’m very much looking forward to having my own space and exploring a new community, but there’s a LOT to do in our training site between now and then. Every 2 weeks a new “Phase” of training ends and a new one starts (there are 4 Phases total). Right now I am in Fes with our full training group to mark the end of Phase 2 and the beginning of Phase 3. In Phase 2, we conducted in-depth community assessment work to try to understand some of the issues that youth in our community are facing (we are Youth Development volunteers, so all of our work is very youth-focused). We had a number of interviews and meetings with community leaders along with creative exercises with youth. 

The 2 most pronounced concerns for youth that have come out of our assessment work are education (primarily English education) and empowerment of women. In our community, students are only required to go to school through the 6th grade. We have a school for students from the 7-9th grades but many students in the community are not able to continue going to school, typically because they must work outside or inside of the home to help the family. There is no high school in the town, so after 9th grade, students have to take a bus or taxi every day to Fes to continue their education. For most families, this is a financial strain and there are also concerns for girls’ security, so few students in the community continue their education after 9th grade. Particularly for women, there’s not a lot of encouragement for education or the pursuit of their skills and talents. In my host family, I have two sisters age 16 and 17 who are no longer in school but are working in a women’s center in the community that is helping them train to become dressmakers… but in many families girls don’t even have these opportunities. 

Our group is planning a program at the end of our training to help address the issues of education and female empowerment. I’m planning an activity geared toward young girls, helping them to think about and discuss their individual talents or talents/skills that they would like to learn, in an open and supportive environment. It’s a bit frustrating that we are only in the community for another month and as such there is only so much that we can do for them, but at the same time I’m happy that we’re able to give something and to gain lessons that will help us in our permanent site.

 More to come on our training and the program planning as the weeks go by! I’ll end with a few more photos from the past week:

View of our community from the mountain - so beautiful!

My host sisters dressed me up on
Sunday in a traditional Moroccan dress!

Then they paraded me around town
and got me some henna - on the side
of my hand is "Layla," my Moroccan name here :)

An example of a daily "traffic jam"
in our community :)

your weekly allotment of food photos!
This is a tagine with kfta, onions
and olives... soooo good!

I miss everyone very much, and hope all is well!