Violet - how the environment led to my Grandma.

Okay, so, long story short, I'm in the middle of an extensive Post Pre-Service Training (PPST) extravaganza in Azrou for two weeks where we are having various long-winded sessions on random aspects of opportunities that could be presented to us over the next two years. Speaking of long-winded, look at that sentence. Yikes. Anyways, to draw a wee anecdote out of one of these sessions I will provide the following:

One of our sessions yesterday was on how to incorporate Environmental Eduation into our Dar Chebab classes and collaborating with regional volunteers of other sectors. Which, obviously, lead to impromptu nature-themed haiku writing and sharing with the class.

Grandma's Lemon Tree
Waited Outside, While She Died.
Lemon Cake Service.

So since my fellow volunteers thought I was a little looney-tooney, I thought I'd throw it out here and kind of explain what I meant.

I guess it was just kind of a sweet reflective moment for me. While most people went with grand-strong-burly-tree-enraptures-my-view-and-stimulates-liberal-thinking sort of poems, my mind sort of took a detour and drifted towards my grandma's house which was pretty much enveloped in some sort of foliage at any given time. Particularly, she had this huge lemon tree next to her front door which was always the last thing I saw going in and first thing I saw going out. We would always steal a few of them before jumping into the back of my Dad's jeep after our weekly visits. It was just kind of a given whenever we would venture out there every Wednesday afternoon. So when she died almost six years ago, it warmed me when her neighbours across the street made the most amazing lemon cake I had ever tasted for the funeral service and I knew it had been made from that tree. The tree that had waited outside all those years and was ultimately utilized in just a really sweet and simple way.

Anyway, I know this was totally tangental from my service here in Morocco, but I kind of like the fact that my mind wandered in the direction of my Grandma during an environmental activity rather than any hippie dippie expectation my Greenpeace time could have fostered. Miss you Grandma.