Rural Morocco and rural Missouri are not so very different. I grew up on One Step Farm, a small pastured poultry farm on C highway. We had an outhouse, we raised our own milk, eggs, meat, and vegetables, I could drive a tractor before I could drive a car, and in the summer we watched the sky, searching for signs of rain.
For the first two months of our two and a half years in Morocco as Peace Corps volunteers, my husband and I lived with a host family in a tiny village way up in the mountains while we studied Arabic. The olive oil and honey we dipped our bread in every day came from their own trees and bee hives, the rugs on the floor were made from wool from their own sheep, the figs, apricots, apples, plums and cherries were all from their orchard. And whenever it rains, everyone says, “Hamdulillah,” or “Praise God,” because just like in Missouri, rain brings life.
There may be similarities between my life in Morocco and my life in Dent County, but it took me a long time to get here. I always knew that I wanted my life to make a difference in the world, and after spending six months working at an orphanage in Morocco in 2006, I decided I wanted to work in development in the Middle East long term. I studied Arabic while getting my bachelors, and that’s when I met and married Chadwick. He was originally from Indiana but had grown up in Turkey and shared my passion for a safe and peaceful Middle East. After we finished our undergrads, we wanted to do a short-term service in the Middle East to gain experience in development work, as well as the language and culture. A year ago today we got on a plane heading to Morocco, a diverse country of rugged mountain villages, modern cities, whitewashed towns on the Mediterranean Sea, and oasis villages in the Sahara Desert.
My husband and I live in a sleepy little coastal town in southern Morocco. We work in the Youth Development sector, helping youth learn healthy lifestyles and gain employability and entrepreneurial skills. At the community center we teach English, courses on personal and career development and coach basketball, soccer, yoga and aerobics clubs. We also work with local Moroccan volunteers and organizations on other projects, like an internship program and an HIV/AIDS testing and sexual health program. In our spare time Chadwick hangs out in the cafes with his friends or plays basketball with a local team, and I drink tea and gossip with the women in my community. He and I eat our breakfast in the sunshine on the roof of the house we share with our host family, and after our classes are over for the day, we climb up onto the ramparts that surround the old city, sit on the ancient cannons that once protected it from pirates and invaders, and watch the sun sink into the sea.
For most of our projects and classes we don't need outside funds, since we either contribute from our own money or get creative and make do without. But for big projects Peace Corps has a grant system. We fill out an extensive application, and if approved, it gets posted online, and the grant is filled by individual donations.
The project I'm working on right now is a GLOW Camp, which stands for Girls Leading Our World. I’m partnering with several other Peace Corps volunteers and a Moroccan women's association to put on the camp in April, just a few weeks away. This is a five-day camp for 50 teenage girls from my town and other small villages in the region. We will be emphasizing women's health, being an active citizen, setting and achieving educational and career goals, and empowering them to become leaders in their families and communities.
Especially in the rural areas, sometimes girls have little or even no access to education, they often are married very young, and the conservative gender roles can disempower women. We want to respect the girls' religion, family and culture, so most of the sessions will be led by female Moroccans to ensure the material is culturally sensitive. The women's association we're working with has put on GLOW Camps in the past and is extremely capable and devoted to helping women and girls become strong, active members of their communities and countries.
The Dalai Lama once said, “Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.” My hope is that this project will help this happen in Morocco, by empowering girls to become confident, healthy and capable women, able make their own country a more just and peaceful nation.
For more information on GLOW Camp go to peacecorps.gov, click on “Donate to Volunteer Projects,” and search “Morocco” as the keyword.
