Site visit in East Morocco

This last week I visited my field site; the place where I’ll be permanently for the next 2 yrs. It’s a community of around 500 people in Eastern Morocco. It’s a beautiful community with a large water reserve, a large river outlining the community (approx 20 ft wide and 6 ft deep at its greatest points), and two springs which are used for irrigation.

Agriculture is the primary staple of the community, with wheat being the primary crop. They also have fruit trees and wild herbs that grow amongst their crops. I’ve included some photos. In addition to agriculture, the community maintains itself by residents commuting and working in a town 20k away and by Moroccans from the surrounding area coming in the summer to swim. In the summer, the temperature can get above 100 F, and I’ve been told that as many as 200 tourists will come daily to swim in the river. In response to this, locals set up bamboo cafes that sell food, drink, etc. After the tourist season is over, the bamboo will be taken down and burned.

The infrastructure of the community includes 4 mosques, 10 general stores, a water tower (important), a school (through junior high; those wishing to attend high school have to travel to Jerada), a womens center, a youth center, and the kied’s office. The kied is comparable to a mayor, but often of a larger area that includes several villages. The community does have more features which I will divulge later, but that was my consensus in the quick survey that I conducted.

My host family that I will be living with for two months starting May 25 was very welcoming and accommodating. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer situation. My family includes brothers Yassine (2), Mohamed (11), Youssef (19), Hachim (22) and Nasrdine (25); sisters Safa (7) and Fatim (15); and mother Halima and Hammada. My host father is a farmer, and from what I know he drives a tractor around in surrounding communities helping with the harvest. They also have their own fields that they care for, along with assisting in the care of an extensive family network of farm land that includes uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents.

One of my main roles in the community will include working with the local mens association, which is very active and already has several projects that they want me to implement. In the beginning, they want me to teach english twice a week along with swimming lessons once it warms up. During that time, hopefully my language will progress steadily and I can begin working on other projects: establishing funding to help build and maintain a git (hotel), getting funding for a toilet facility for tourists down by the river, planting trees, teaching environmental education, surveying the local wildlife, and managing projects along with the Eaux de Forest (forest dept) in a protected ecological area next to my site. I also work closely with Graham, another volunteer who will be located nearby, and I’m sure he will do vice versa. We’ve become good friends, we work well together, and I believe they put us close together because of this. He has a construction management background, so will be able to be put that to good use. In all, I know that many of the projects I try or hope to implement will fall through. Maybe the best I can hope for is a 50% success rate (and that might be pushing it), but I’m motivated to get to work.

These next two weeks are like my finals weeks, very busy. It should correspond with finals in the states. Anyways, I'll try to keep it updated and send out emails, but fair warning. Salam.

Here's a photo of my youngest host brother, Yassine.