Spring Camp Taroudant

After having slept 13 hours upon my return to Sedona-miz, I now feel up to the task of filling you in on what I've been up to lately. Namely - Spring Camp down in Taroudant.

Last year I worked close to home, spending the week with around 90 kids in Marrakech's Centre D'Accueil, teaching English, holding an Environment club, touring the region's water treatment plant (which pretty much only reeked of methane, never again...). I had originally planned to work this year up in a town called Azzemour (Tash for olive) which is just north of El Jadida along the coast. It had only 18 campers last year, and after having had close to a hundred during Spring 2010, 18 sounded like a nice number for a week of near-sleepless nights. Fast-forward to a week before Camp 2011 is due to start. I was informed that Azzemour's Centre D'Accueil hadbeen closed for refurbishing, and I was now being sent to Taroudant. 'Sweet!', I thought, 'Two of my good staj friends are working that camp & I've never been south of these mountains, done and done.' Little did I know that 175 kids would be attending... my dream of a calm lackadaisical week with 18 campers evaporated the second I arrived.

Don't get me wrong, we had an excellent time and did the best we could with 9 PC volunteers & around the same number of Moroccan staff, but with 175 kids, it was pretty much insanity from start to finish. To give you an idea of our day-to-day, here's our daily schedule board:

Fellow PCV Bjai and I were in charge of Beginner-Low English, which means they basically knew squat upon arrival. With a class of around 45 we tried to keep activities as fun as possible, in order to keep the attention of not only that many people, but the punks that naturally find their way into any camp - in both Morocco & America alike. We did the expected number learning, animal vocab, fruits & veggies, etc. Lots of pictionary was played, men were hung, charades was enjoyed. The highlight, though, was definitely ending each day with about 20 minutes of Hello, Goodbye. A big shout out to the Beatles for creating a song with super simplistic lyrics so that even the most novice of Moroccan English speakers can wrap their heads around it. An a capella performance accompanied by desk drum beats made for an excellent close of each class. Mental high-five to Pringles-Beginner English Class.

Other than English, PCV Anna and I did a sweet Art club in the afternoon, in which we made Origami and friendship bracelets.

We all participated in the rest of the activities, which included a Scavenger hunt, Talent Show(s), a 'Religious Night', Improv Comedy, Taroudant Excursions, and a 'Spectac' to wrap things up the last night. Kids had so much fun, they all signed a petition to keep camp going an extra day. No joke. Moroccan staff were obviously as against this as we were, having not slept the entire week. I think we all averaged 2-4 hours of sleep a night, 5 if you were really lucky. And given the sleeping set up we had, that was impressive in itself:

Other random highlights include, but are not limited to:

- The dance five of us conselours did to Taio Cruz's 'Dynomite' for the talent show. There's a video out there somewhere, probably, (scarily,) (unfortunately,) making it's way to facebook soon. It was kind of awesome.

- The random homeless boy that joined our group on a walking tour of Taroudant one afternoon. Seriously the sweetest, most well-behaved Moroccan kid I've ever met, never mind the homeless part. He ended up showing up to camp every day after & just kind of tagging along. We fed him more than I thought was humanly possible to feed a 10 year old, and adored his company throughout the week. Adorable.

- This group of kids that could have easily beaten any group on America's Best Dance Crew. Like, Out. Of. Control. Good. Comparable to those Jabberwocky guys. So cool. So, so cool.

- Taking the winning team of kid's from the scavenger hunt out to smoothies in town. Most were excellent English speakers and we had a pretty awesome & liberal convo while enjoying our fruity drinks. Basically, it ended with the American PCVs begging the boys in the group to stay wonderful & sweet and not turn into the gross disgusting jerks that ruin a Moroccan male's reputation. They pinky-promised.

- Water balloon fight that lasted a couple days and ended in a one hour battle the last day of camp as the kids were leaving. Anna & Crisi introduced the first balloon in their English class as a disciplinary action against a punk kid that wouldn't shut up in the back of the room. They listened after that.

Anyway, all in all, another successful and enjoyable week of camp. Met some awesome PCVs I hadn't known before & loved a good chunk of the kids that came. Thankfully, after camp ended, we PCVs spent a good two days on the beach in Agadir, sleeping off the exhaustion in the sun. Just what the doctor ordered. And after another week of class here in Sedona-miz, I'm heading to London for a good friend's wedding on Easter Sunday. Can't wait to wear spring dresses & my hair down and have it be culturally appropriate!