I am having a great time near the Algerian border at a spring break camp, called an English immersion camp, for kids from primarily two towns. They are not all kids...the ages range from 14-30, actually, but all are here to improve their English skills, have a good time, and learn other things from Peace Corps volunteers and Moroccan teachers. I traveled a week ago for about 14 hours on bus to get to the first town, where Judy and I stayed with another volunteer, then the next morning we travelled 5 hours by bus to the next town, where we met the other 4 volunteers that are part of our team. We all stayed at a volunteer's house that night, then waited around most of the next day to get a bus to our final destination, Figuig. Since it was spring break, busses were overflowing, and there is limited public transportation out here. But we finally made it, not too much worse for the wear! There are two volunteers from small business development, two from youth development (who are in charge of helping run the camp) and two from the environment sector. We all live in different places. The entire youth sector is doing camps this week, I think 12 in all, and many other volunteers from other sectors are assisting.

The seventy-five campers arrived on Saturday, and after a reception, we told them about the "clubs" that were available, which we hold every afternoon for 1 1/2 hours. There is journalism, theater, environment, healthy, and mine...business. Surprisingly, my class was the one that many wanted to go to, but each class size was limited so we would have even distribution. We also gave a brief English skills test to each to determine which group they fit in for English class. The groups of about 15 students go to a different English teacher each day. My lessons are a little bit planned, but mostly off the cuff. We have students that know very few English words, to those who speak and understand fairly well. Even though we tried to group them in levels, there are always a few in the class who are better or less skilled than the majority, so it presents and interesting challenge. I have been teaching the words: right, left, hand, foot, head, body, put, turn, around, shake...and then we go outside in a circle and I teach them the "Hokey Pokey". It has been a big hit. It feels good to do teaching/presenting again after about an eight-month lapse!

In my business club, most of the 15 are advanced English students, so that has helped make it easier to actually accomplish something. We talked about products and services, and the class voted on a business they would like to start up, then discussed customer base, etc and they chose the city. We then talked about income and expense, how to differentiate our products from others, etc. One day we went next door and interviewed the director of the artisan's association, using prepared questions. The last day we will interview the owner of this cyber, who happens to be an English teacher, and I will also show them how computers are used in business, with a briefing on Word and Excel.
It's been very exciting, and also very exhausting! We start each morning with "sport" (what they call exercise) at 7 a.m. for 30 minutes. We shoot baskets, do yoga. A couple of mornings I took my Ipod with cheap speakers I bought here, put on some old disco music, and did aerobics. Amazingly enough, they really got into it...including the boys.

This is being held in a youth center. We six volunteers are staying in an old house that has not been occupied for some time. Has a bathroom with an American toilet that has to be flushed by using a bucket of water, a sink (with only cold water, of course) and bathtub which has cold water, in which we put a bucket, add boiling water to the cold, and take the usual bucket baths, same as most of us do at our own homes. We do have pretty comfortable hospital beds to sleep on, and a butagas burner to hear water. They feed us all our meals, and we sure are getting overloaded on white bread again. Last night the volunteers cooked and American meal, which was quite an experience. We did a couple of turkeys, many chickens, mashed potatoes, green beans, and apple crisp. Cooking for 100 in a ultra-basic kitchen was enough to make you crazy, but we did it! Today we went out into the desert all day for an "excursion" and tromped around. Most all the kids and Moroccan staff are just fantastic! They all help serve the meals and clean up and are just very thoughtful and kind. It has been a tremendous experience in so many different ways.
This photo is taken from the top of a tower of an ancient mosque here. We actually just skirted the mosque interior in order to climb the stairwell. Non-Muslims are not allowed in mosques in Morocco, except a beautiful one in Casa which is not used for prayer. Figuig is an oasis, and here is what they call a palmerie. These are date trees. Pretty, huh?!