Nicola Hands in Morocco - January to April 2006

We arrived late on Wednesday evening at Marrakech airport and were greeted by a group of very friendly people who had driven all the way from Taroudannt in order to meet us. After piling all of our things (and ourselves) into a large white van we set off for the hotel. Arriving in the main square of Marrakech in the evening was a memorable experience as we were greeted by the hustle and bustle of the town – people trying to convince us to buy things from their shops or eat their food or simply give them money…. After a good night’s sleep (interrupted at five by the call to prayer) we had breakfast and set off for Taroudannt by the mountain road. The views along this route were incredible and an extraordinary welcome to the country, in which the landscapes always beautiful and captivating. Unfortunately the journey lasted a little longer than expected and so we were unable to appreciate the enormous welcome organised for us as much as we would have liked. There were cakes, drinks, traditional music and lots of new faces. The most daunting aspect was being asked to ‘say a few words’ in front of all those people. Luckily I later got to know most of those people pretty well.

The first few days were spent getting used to our new families, being shown round the town and selected highlights such as the ramparts, the souk and the hammam ( public bathing – that’s a new one!). Fortunately for us we arrived during the religious festival of Eid Al-Adha and got to watch exciting events such as the sacrifice of the sheep. Each family buys a sheep and on the day cuts its throat and prepares it for eating.The next few days (or in fact weeks as it turned out) were spent eating sheep in one form or another. We also had henna put on our hands (which lasted for weeks as well).

We soon started our induction course of Arabic language, Moroccan culture and history lessons which passed very smoothly on the whole. The weeks of lessons were broken by accompanied weekend trips to Tiout and Agadir. These served both the purposes of seeing more of the country and of getting to know the members of Groupe Maroc Horizons better.

These trips were really appreciated as a chance to experience more of the country. We also had a trip to the mountains later on which involved most of the member of Groupe Maroc Horizons. We spent the whole day walking, climbing, eating and singing!

There were also opportunities for entertainment in Taroudannt during the weekends as GMH holds activities every Saturday night and during the day on Sunday. These activities provided a great way of making new friends, socialising and playing with small children…. Once the work started I really enjoyed spending my weekends with the members of GMH as often by the end of the week the children at school had started to drive me a little insane! I found that all the members of GMH were extremely welcoming and I could really feel at home amongst them.

My work placement was at the school Al Wifaq, spending half the day teaching IT (in French of course) and the other half a day working with a group of mentally disabled children. Although I was initially very frightened by the prospect of teaching, I soon settled into it and found that the majority of children were very interested and appreciative of the opportunity to use the computers (although naturally some of them only ever wanted to play computer games and almost ALL of them made a lot of noise!) The main problem with the IT lessons was that not all of the children had sufficiently high levels of French in order to understand what I was teaching them, but this problem was overcome most of the time.

I found the work with the disabled children very challenging, as all of them had different problems, were of different ages, and only understood Arabic (if that – some were unable to recognise any language).

The group consisted of eight children, each with different needs, so we set each child a different task and spent a lot of energy trying to keep them concentrating on what they were doing.

We would often break up the session with a bit of sport outside, such as football or throwing and catching or bowling.

The work was very difficult and required a lot of hard work and dedication, not to mention energy and inspiration to think of activities to do with the children! However by the end it was very rewarding as some of the kids had made definite progress – some had learnt the colours, the numbers, the weather and how to count and by the last lesson one very selfish girl had learnt to share an activity with another child! With some of the children though I did feel that it would take someone with proper training to make any kind of headway rather than an unqualified volunteer. By the end of the work program I had grown very attached to the children and we had little parties in the classrooms to say goodbye. It was very sad as although teaching IT wasn’t my favourite occupation I had enjoyed my time as the teacher and didn’t want to leave the kids behind (although with one or two I didn’t mind too much….)

Before our return to Marrakech we were taken on a five-day trip to the Sahara. This was a fantastic experience, particularly on one night as we rode camels into the middle of the sand, far away from anyone, cooked in the open and slept under the stars. An unforgettable night! This trip again gave us the opportunity to see more of the country and unwind after two months of work. The night before our departure we were given a farewell meal, with a few speeches and lots of tears. It was a really sad occasion as I realised that I would be leaving the friends I had made and got used to seeing every day.