Hello from the beautiful city of Agadir. We are in the middle of Spring Camp, a week long English camp that the Ministry of Youth and Sports puts on with the Peace Corps. It's Spring Break in Morocco, and all across the country these immersion camps are going on in local youth centers. The camp we have volunteered for in Agadir is about 4 hours from our home, and it is an overnight camp. Each day looks something like this:
6:45: We wake up and quickly gather materials and draft a lesson plan for our English classes
7:30 : morning rally
8:30 : breakfast
9:00 : English class
11:00 : walk to beach and play (!)
2/2:30/3:00 : lunch/clean/"rest"
4:00: American clubs (we are teaching a health club, and other volunteers are teaching theatre, science, and journalism)
6:00: snack
6:30: Moroccan clubs (dance, art, and music)
9:00: dinner
10:00 : evening activity (these Moroccans love to perform and basically put on a talent show every night
11:30 : quick meeting with staff
12-1:00 am : bedtime
Each day is very, very full and very, very exhausting. Here are a few key things to know:
- instead if 50-60 campers, there are 90
- instead of the kids being age 13-17, they are age 8-17
- instead of this being an English immersion camp, most of the kids have actually not studied English at all, so they don't understand us
- we have very limited supplies. I spent 15 minutes digging through a plastic Baggie of crayons and broken pencils trying to find at least 10 crayon shards that were longer than half of my pinkie finger.
- meals are frequently served 1-2 hours after the scheduled time. In fact, last night the staff ended up eating dinner around 11:00pm.
I have said to Pete more than once that I think this might be the hardest week of my life. Everyone is giving as much as they can give, but it is hard, exhausting work.
But there are a few highlights:
- the kids are divided into teams, and our team of 23 kids is team Texas. They have SO much Texas pride, just like real Texans! They can sing "Deep in the heart of Texas," and last night they performed a line dance to Boot Scootin' Boogie that we taught them.
- some of the kids are so very sweet. They shake our hands after English class and share their snacks with us.
- Lastly, this drawing, which made me laugh so hard I cried (out of genuine happiness and sheet, delirious exhaustion). It was drawn by a beginning English student. More pictures and stories to come.
I'd be lying if I said these highlights made it all worthwhile, and I don't think I will ever volunteer for an overnight Spring Camp again. But we are trying to see the good where we can, and Sponjboob Sceor Pintce is good.
6:45: We wake up and quickly gather materials and draft a lesson plan for our English classes
7:30 : morning rally
8:30 : breakfast
9:00 : English class
11:00 : walk to beach and play (!)
2/2:30/3:00 : lunch/clean/"rest"
4:00: American clubs (we are teaching a health club, and other volunteers are teaching theatre, science, and journalism)
6:00: snack
6:30: Moroccan clubs (dance, art, and music)
9:00: dinner
10:00 : evening activity (these Moroccans love to perform and basically put on a talent show every night
11:30 : quick meeting with staff
12-1:00 am : bedtime
Each day is very, very full and very, very exhausting. Here are a few key things to know:
- instead if 50-60 campers, there are 90
- instead of the kids being age 13-17, they are age 8-17
- instead of this being an English immersion camp, most of the kids have actually not studied English at all, so they don't understand us
- we have very limited supplies. I spent 15 minutes digging through a plastic Baggie of crayons and broken pencils trying to find at least 10 crayon shards that were longer than half of my pinkie finger.
- meals are frequently served 1-2 hours after the scheduled time. In fact, last night the staff ended up eating dinner around 11:00pm.
I have said to Pete more than once that I think this might be the hardest week of my life. Everyone is giving as much as they can give, but it is hard, exhausting work.
But there are a few highlights:
- the kids are divided into teams, and our team of 23 kids is team Texas. They have SO much Texas pride, just like real Texans! They can sing "Deep in the heart of Texas," and last night they performed a line dance to Boot Scootin' Boogie that we taught them.
- some of the kids are so very sweet. They shake our hands after English class and share their snacks with us.
- Lastly, this drawing, which made me laugh so hard I cried (out of genuine happiness and sheet, delirious exhaustion). It was drawn by a beginning English student. More pictures and stories to come.
I'd be lying if I said these highlights made it all worthwhile, and I don't think I will ever volunteer for an overnight Spring Camp again. But we are trying to see the good where we can, and Sponjboob Sceor Pintce is good.
No comments:
Post a Comment