I Get to Paint on Walls When I go to Work

One of my main goals, for the Dar Chebab (youth center) where I work, is to aid in making it a more welcoming place for kids. Upon arriving to Azrou and visiting my Dar Chebab for the first time I didn’t walk away with the youthful energy that one might expect to find at a ‘youth center’. The rooms were empty, the walls were white and stained, and even worse… there were no youth. 

Since then, the attendance has grown and I have started a number of different clubs and classes. This wasn’t  easy at first, with only  a small following of about 3 to 5 youth  coming to class. But as friends told friends and parents told parents my class sizes grew. Now I have between 20 and 30 students when I show up to the Dar Chebab gate. 

After a number of meetings with my mudira (Dar Chebab director) it was agreed that there needed to be something more than just my classes getting youth to come to the center. While this may be good for the time being, I will not be in Azrou forever, and therefore things need to be more sustainable. 

 

We decided (much to my excitement) that creating murals would be both useful for the Dar Chebab and have an impact on the youth. By allowing the youth to have a key role in the implementation of the murals they not only take something away from the ideas behind the images but also gain a sense of pride in their Dar Chebab. 

 

The first mural’s theme was ‘Peace and Friendship’ and it was created on the main wall of my classroom. The mudira and the youth all stated ideas of what they wanted to see on this mural and I compiled the ideas together to make one image. 

 

 

 

Once the ‘Peace and Friendship’ mural was complete we began on a second mural with the theme of ‘Community’. This mural didn’t start with one design. Instead it is layered with different colors and small images. I started by allowing the younger kids to paint the base. This allowed them to use colors and brush strokes freely (no mess ups!!) . Then the older youth painted more defining images over that. Finally, as a group, we painted children from around the world as the overall focal point.

 

 

The youth seem to be really happy with what they have created and it has made the Dar Chebab look so much brighter!

Veganism in Morocco

Being vegan is hard… sometimes really hard. In Morocco it can be even harder, with the lack of vegan (or even vegetarian) options anywhere. But, I have also found that it is a lot of fun. Although being vegan proves to be a challenge it has also forced me to be more involved with my food. In America if I wanted a cookie without dairy or eggs, I could go  to a health shop and get it. Simple as that. In Morocco, if I want such an odd cookie, it is up to me to create it myself. At first this was daunting considering a year ago I would have never pictured myself as a kitchen wiz, now the idea of trying a new vegan trick can be the highlight of my day! Pancakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, creamy pasta sauce! All of  these can be made vegan with the simple ingredients that Morocco has to offer! 

 

Something that was hard for me to get  past was not having a surplus of milk alternatives available to me. Sure, I could look a vegan recipe on the internet, but if it called for a milk substitute I would be stuck. Or I would just rely on the magical-fix-all-fruit banana and hope things would turn out. After doing this a few times I became determined to create my own plant based milk. My town’s market has about five different varieties of flax seed, so this is what I settled on. Homemade flax seed milk! Which I now use with tea, coffee, creamy soups, and baking. I have also made oat milk but the taste from the flax seed is much better.

Here is a vegan recipe that I have used a lot recently to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day:

Vegan Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups oat flour
• 2 cups non-dairy milk (Flax seed milk!)
• 2 tsp apple-cider vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp raw sugar (optional)
• 1/2 cup raisins, nuts, seeds, etc. (I added lavender!!!)

Directions:

1. Combine apple-cider vinegar and milk; set aside.
2. In mixing bowl, measure in your flour, soda, salt, sugar/seasonings/nuts/fruit, etc. Whisk thoroughly so as to get an even mixture.
3. Superspeed whisk your cider/milk combo, so as to curdle it a bit.
4. Slowly pour the liquid-ness into the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon. Adding the milk mix in intervals helps this whole process. 
5. Once moist-ish and mixed, gently knead the bread a few times only. 
6. Place on a greased baking pan or cast-iron skillet (which, I hear, is the Irish way) and bake for 35-45 minutes. 

I  gotta say I am really  going to miss all of the fresh organic produce that I can get in town. I love being able to buy my veggies directly from the local farmers, use freshly pressed olive oil, and pick out fresh herbs at the market. Today I went to souk and bought a kilo of the the most beautiful lemons I have ever seen! 

St. Patrick’s Day and a Year Away

Today is St. Patrick’s Day! Which means it was exactly a year ago that I said goodbye to my friends and the college town of Bellingham. A year ago today that I had a parting Irish Car Bomb with Calista Klein and then headed out of the pub for a group hug on the sidewalk and a ride to my parent’s house. There I would have potato soup and prepare for departing the next morning.

Leaving Bellingham

 

St. Patrick’s Day in Morocco is just like any day. I got up and began my morning routine; feed the pets, boil water for tea and barley oats, mop floors, hang clean clothes in the sun. In fact, if this wasn’t my year marker and my boyfriend wasn’t off in England singing Irish folk songs with his band, I might have not even remembered that is was St. Patrick’s Day. Don’t worry though, I wore green and I even made Irish soda bread (vegan!).

 

As a celebration of a year in Morocco (and also because we wanted to), my housemate and I bought ourselves some Berber rugs. This is something that I had been wanting  to do for a long time but never wanted to spend the money. It was worth every ryal and now I am addicted to them. Azrou is known for its rugs because many artisans from the villages come to sell their creations in our medina.  Luckily, I knew just where I wanted to make my purchase. When I first got to Azrou I ran into a medina shop owner that had known Peace Corps Volunteers for many years. He invited me to look at his shop and have a cup of tea. A shop is just a simple term for what this place is, it is more like an archive. To paint a picture, think of the movie Aladdin, this place is like walking into the cave of treasures. Inside there are layers upon layers of carpets and antiques from all over Morocco. There are hundreds of rugs, all with their own history and origin. The owner is the perfect man for the job. He knows each of the carpets personally. If you point to a rug squashed at the bottom of a five foot stack he will know exactly which one you are talking about. I call him the carpet librarian. My housemate and I spent hours looking through his collection and listening to what he had to say about each piece. I ended up buying to smaller rugs to hang on my wall. One was made right outside or Azrou and the other was made in a village in the high Atlas region. 

Tabarkalikum to my fellow volunteers for making it to a year in country! 

 

A Little of This and a Bit of That

Just wanted to give a few updates about what I have been doing lately!

First of all, the weather has been much better recently. We haven’t had any rain or snow in about two weeks now, just clear skies. It is still really cold inside my house and the nights are freezing, but having a bit of sunlight makes up for that.

Speaking of temperatures! My housemate and I got ourselves a hot water heater a few weeks ago! Basically the best idea we have ever had (besides adopting our babies). We had gotten to the point where our bucket baths were at an ultimate low due to the cold. Now all we have to do is turn on our water heater, wait for about an hour for enough water to get hot, and then hop in the shower. I never knew how happy a warm shower could make me! The heater was a bit pricey but luckily I have someone to split the cost with, I don’t think either of us regret a penny.

Last week was Superbowl Sunday so a bunch of volunteers from my region got together. We all brought food (the most American things we could think of), hung out, and streamed the game live from a lap top. Most of us weren’t able to stay awake for the whole thing, considering it started at 11:00pm Moroccan time, but at least I got to see Beyonce.

The week before I got together with a couple of the female volunteers in my area to take advantage of the sunny weather. We all met up at fellow volunteer Monica’s house in a small town called Skoura. Our day there was fairy tale perfect! We got up early to go hiking; taking a route through waterfalls, tiny villages, and a ledge that overlooked the town and valley. We stopped at one of the many view points for a picnic before we returned to town. Once we were back at Monica’s house we enjoyed homemade chai tea and kettle corn. For dinner we made vegetarian soup and our own bread bowls, flavored with fresh rosemary that we picked on the mountain.

Now for some more important things, work! I am still working at the youth center (Dar Chebab) not far from my house in Azrou. I have recently added a few more classes to my schedule. I have Elementary English twice a week, Advanced English every Friday, Art and Environment Club twice a week, and a Life Skills class for teens. The Art and Environment Club is mostly geared toward the younger kids that I have in my Elementary English classes, 12 years old and under. The class is formulated to allow the kids to be creative with a focus on using recycled products. It has been great to give the kids a chance to do more art, especially the girls who don’t have many options of things to do at the Dar Chebab. The Life Skills class is done with my Advanced students (many of whom are nearly fluent in English). This class goes over topics such as personal values, community relationships, self-expression, critical thinking, and goal setting.

I am also working with a group of female volunteers to plan a GLOW Camp (Girls Leading Our World). This camp will invite successful Moroccan women to do workshops and seminars for the female campers. We hope to have workshops covering health topics, leadership skills, community/volunteer work, and entrepreneurial skills. This will potentially be a very rewarding experience for both the campers and volunteers!

I also found this lovely thing in the Azrou market the other day…

7 Days of Creation

I had an unexpected week off from the Dar Chebab in celebration of the Prophet Mohammed’s (Peace be upon Him) birthday. Instead of doing the usual winter hibernation thing (although my blankets are always tempting), I decided to set in little goal for myself. During the cold months in the mountains it is really hard to have the motivation to do anything, unless you have a work schedule to follow. Thus I came up with the idea of doing ‘7 days of creation’. On each of these seven days I have to create something, anything… useful, artsy, eatable; as long as I am up, moving, and creating.

This really wasn’t too much of a challenge for me, I live for this kinda stuff. I love playing around with crafts and cooking can be a great pass time. The only thing was, this time I was holding myself responsible for doing something each day for a week. Normally these things just start with a sudden burst of inspiration with no rhyme or reason.

7 Days of Creation

Day 1: Dreamcatcher
I made this dreamcatcher completely from materials around my house. Some leftover rope from the clothesline, pieces of loose fabric, and sticks from outside all came together to make a decoration for my bedroom.

Day 2: Power Bars
Power Bars, more like Protein packed, nutrient rich, vegan, gluten free, fiber filled, naturally sweetened, chocolaty bars. Yep, this creation was all of those things. I made almond and oat flour to make it gluten free, shredded apple and carrot for natural sweetening, blended black beans and some banana in replace of eggs, and a little bit of salt, pure cocoa powder and cinnamon. I know that having beans in there sounds weird, but really, give it a chance because it’s great.

Day 3: Art Supply Shelf
I’m a big organizer. I love it. Having a special place to put something lights up my life, seriously. For the past few months all of my teaching/art supplies were kept on top of my dresser. I had been wanting them to have their own spot for awhile. So I decided to create one. I asked around at a few veggie stands and was able to get a wooden crate to start with. Then I spotted an old window frame outside of a woodshop, perfect! After explaining that I didn’t need it to have glass or be repainted I received a few odd looks and the frame for free! The rest of the materials all came from around the house again and now I have a lovely upcycled shelf.

Day 4: Almond Butter
The cheap food processer that my housemate and I bought in town was probably one of my favorite purchases ever. And this creation even further enhanced my love of it. Almond butter, with a little bit of cinnamon and the natural sweetness from my sunflower oil, will now accompany my market bread in the morning.

Day 5: Painting
I call these ‘Silhouettes of Morocco’. I can’t find any canvas here so I have been using cardboard to do most of my painting on. From the left we have Atlas Mountain Donkey, a Mosque in Marrakech, and a Rooftop Stork in Ifrane.

Day 6: A Beach Rap
This is for any potential summer vacations I might be having this year… Can you tell I’m excited for winter to be over? This is just a simple dress that I can wear over a swimsuit or just have for a warm day. Sorry you can’t see the whole thing in this picture, I was too cold to take my three layers of pants off.

Day 7: Chai Tea Latte Mix
My favorite thing about cold weather is tea. I’m a little obsessed with it. And I have been even more obsessed with chai tea since high school. So naturally it has been a real downer to be in a country that doesn’t share my taste (although I do love Moroccan mint tea). Anyways, this just means that I had to create my own! Cinnamon, ground cloves, ginger powder, nutmeg, vanilla sugar, and cardamom all mixed together and there you have it! Just boil some oat milk and water, mix, and sweeten with honey.

Now that my week of creating is over it is back to the Dar Chebab. Classes there are getting much smoother now that the kids are getting used to a schedule. Today will be the first day of my Art and Environment Club. This is basically an art class with a focus on the environment and incorporating recycled products like plastic bags, empty bottles, etc. I have also started to help plan a GLOW Camp (Girls Leading Our World) with a group of female volunteers in my area, this will take place at the end of the summer.

Well, that’s it for now! Off to buy some fruit and a few treats for my newly fixed kitty cat.

Pizza and Snow Days

Snow on the ground and a day full of tornado like winds means no work at the Dar Chebab and extra time around the house. I have taken this as a chance to do a little bit of needed self care. Apart from the odd house chore (there seems to be some sort of leaking problem so, during times of heavy rain and snow, I am constantly mopping out my bedroom, the hallway, and the kitchen) I have nothing but schedule-less time.

Self Care Task List:
1. Drink hot chocolate. Made with oat milk and a little bit of care package Starbucks coffee.
2. Take a bath. I’m not going to tell you how long it has been because I don’t want to be judged… it’s cold okay. Taking a bath consists of boiling two pots of water on a slow heating gas stove, mixing with cold water in a big bucket, soaping myself all over, and dumping the water on my head. This system is perfect in the summer, but feels like death when there is snow outside and no heat inside.
3. Cuddle with the pets.
4. Make pizza! I finally found a pizza dough recipe that uses ingredients that are easily available. It also works perfectly in our little gas bread oven because I can make it crispy on the edges.
5. Put argon oil in my newly cleaned hair. Argon can only be found in Morocco but has quickly become popular in many places around the world.

My cheeseless pizza with a balsamic and olive oil sauce

I also spent a few hours at my neighbor’s house where I was invited to have tea and cookies. After my tea, I helped the kids with their math homework and drew a few pictures for them to use as coloring pages. My neighborhood has gotten increasingly more welcoming of my site mate and I. The kids all know us by name and are always asking to play games. I have been invited for tea a number of times now and the families are very hospitable, after seeing how much their kids like having us around. It is great to really feel like part of the community, even if it only extends to the end of the street we live on.

And there you have it! A day at home.

Holidays in Ireland

My first time leaving Morocco in 9 months was to visit my boyfriend and his family in Ireland for the holidays. It was wonderful to have a break from work for awhile and be surrounded by lots of Christmas cheer! I got warm meals cooked for me, chai tea lattes made with soy milk, the chance to see The Hobbit in theaters, broccoli, beer, karaoke, and plenty of hugs and kisses (tmi?). All in all, it was pretty perfect and just what I needed!