5K race for health

The 5k health fair is finally over.  It only took about 6 months of planning, grant writing, talking, meetings, and begging for help to make it happen.  Even with all the last minute problems that we ran into it ended up being really successful.
The first few weeks leading up the race were mostly Sarah and I trying to convince people we should start doing everything and them saying there was still time.  We made sure to get all the stuff we could do alone out of the way in preparation for the last week of running around.  We wrote 6 health programs to be presented, made health posters for the day of the event, and some real shanky carnival games.

We felt one of the most important aspects of the event was peer education.  We wanted the kids that attended the health fair to be learning from their peers instead of from us or teachers.  So the Friday before the event we held a day where about 20 high school students came and learned about nutrition, exercise, AIDS, and oral care.  They were given more in depth lessons on the topics and questions they needed to be able to answer.  Then they were given a form to sign that had they agree to help us on the day of the event to be teachers to the participants.  The students loved and made the day so much more successful.

 
The week before the event was a mess.  We spent it running around delivering letters, asking for favors, and trying to make sure the trophies would be there on the day of the event.  Never have I had more meetings with the same people about the same things.  In the end it all worked out, though we learned a lot from this year which we will definitely use if we do the event again next year.

The day of the event finally came and we started registering kids for the race at 8:30 in the morning.  Though the race was supposed to start at 10:30 the boys finally started around 11:15 with about 35 running.  As expected, as they crossed the finish line they were all fighting about cheating and yelling at each other.  About 15 boys got their numbers taken and were not recognized as finishers of the race.  The girls ran after the boys finished.  Though the age range we were hoping for was 12-14 and 15-18 we ended up with about 15 girls 9-15.  They were awesome and made it through the whole race.  We were very impressed.  After the race we headed over to have lunch at a restaurant with the crew that helped with the health fair and officiated the race.

When lunch ended we raced back to the Dar Chabab to set up for the health fair.  When it first started we only had about 15 kids but as lunch ended more and more kids started showing up and we ended up with about 60 or 70 kids.  10 or more at each booth.  The booths were an AIDS presentation and then a poster making session, anti-smoking where the kids got to make a video about why they shouldn't smoke.  There was an exercise station where the kids had to throw a football though cardboard hoops, dental care with a bottle knock out game and a free toothbrush, and toothpaste give away, nutrition with a food pyramid race, and germs where the kids got to play corn hole.  They were really active in all the presentations and loved the games at the end.  After we made it though all the groups we had the award ceremony for the racers.  It was about 6 o'clock at this point and we were all dead tired.  We quickly finished the awards and kicked the kids out.  We cleaned up and got out of there.

 I'm so happy the event is over but it's so weird now that we don't have to think about it.  For so long it was always in the back of our minds.  Now it's time for some summer, relaxing, and vacations!

Hey all, currently all our energy has been put into writing a grant and organizing this project.  We are hoping to to hold the run on May 19th and need some funds to support the prizes, advertising, and supplies.  We would love your help on filling our grant in the next few weeks.  It's going to be an awesome event with a run, carnival games, and health education!

Thank you!!


https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-378-032

Women's Day and Fashion Shows

Spring is in the air in Tafraout and it's nice to be able to walk about the house and not be freezing anymore.  For now, since the weather is no temperate, there are birds chirping, there's some grass, some rain, and even some beautiful buds on the almond trees.

Almond blossoms

Sarah was training for a marathon over the past few months so on her long runs, 16-20 miles, something I would never want to do, I would bike with her.  They were some amazing bike rides even if they always turned into some type of fiasco of an adventure.  The first time we were about 10 miles out when I hit a rock and broke my bike.  This meant 10 miles of walking my bike back home and coasting down the hills, not a fun time.  Another time it started to rain/hail on us.  I don't know if I've been that cold in a long time.  We were soaked to the bone and without hot water or heat had no real relief besides a bucket bath and lots of covers.

20 mile run in the mountains

More recently I've been lucky enough to get out of Tafraout and work on some project with my friend Zaana in her site.  She put on an awesome day of English activities and competition for the high schools in her area.  The kids loved it.  They got to compete in English games that were 'outside the box' like taboo and jeopardy.  I also was able to help with the district spelling bee in Agadir.  A volunteer set up an amazing project where school held spelling bees, and the winners moved on to district, regional, and finally a national spelling bee will be held.  The kids were awesome and happy to have the opportunity to show off their English skills and compete in something they loved.  

I finally returned to site feeling refreshed and ready to work.  Things have gotten busy here in Tafraout and I feel like I'm always running around trying to get everything accomplished.  between classes and planning for our upcoming event, I'm constantly in meetings, classes, and trying to find people in town (it's not as easy to locate officials here).  

Last week was International Women's Day.  To celebrate we had a party in the Dar Taliba (boarding house for girls).  We baked cookies and brownies, did hair, nails, and henna.  It was an awesome day, and ended in us going to the almond festival, with live music and tons of people.  The girls there are some of my favorite people in Tafraout and I've been lucky to have them in class and as friends.  

Before I left for Agadir there were rumors of a fashion show going around the association I work for.  Though I figured it wouldn't be a big deal and people would most likely forget about it.  So, much to my surprise, I got a phone call telling me that when I returned I'd need to attend fashion show practice.  I as not very happy or excited about the prospect of this and was curing Sarah for ever saying we wanted to be involved.  After a few practice walks, and my technique being criticized I thought I finally had it down.  Until the day of the show when everything was changed.  We spent 10 hours practicing different walks and pairings, until 6:30 then the show was supposed to start.  I don't think we actually started walking until about 8:30, but it was actually a lot of fun.  After getting over my fear of falling and looking like an idiot, I got my makeup done, and dressed and was ready to go.  It was one of my longest days in Morocco but it was a lot of fun and I made some good friends. 

My first outfit, the thing on my head was huge and heavy and they stuffed it full of fake flowers

Model face!

New Years

Christmas in Tafraout was actually a lot more fun than expected, surrounded by friends, good food, and drinks we celebrated the only way we could.  On Christmas eve we went hiking out to the painted rocks.

Then we went back and made a feast of chili and guacamole.  Later that night we made about 5 dozen sugar cookies, but with only knives to work with our cookies were a little, let's say, creative.

Christmas day we went out shopping for our feast, we cooked (not me) all day and by the evening we had a great spread of food to devour.  Though it was very unorthodox it was a Christmas to remember.  The next morning everyone left except the people going to Germany.  We stayed around and went for another hike.  We went up to this amazing ledge that looked over a small village next to Tafraout.  We even got to do some rock climbing at the top.  It was amazing.

 
Thursday morning started our BIG trip.  We made it about 2 hours down the mountain when I freaked out about forgetting my passports and had to rip through my bags on the bus, oops.  They were there the whole time and we continued on to Agadir.  We spent the night there and the next morning took the 'cheaper' rout to Marrakesh, which included a rickety old bus that could barley make it up a hill that took about 2 hours longer than needed.  We bargained for a 'taxi' to the airport only to get in a decrepit van thing that took us almost the whole way there but kicked us to the curb saying he wasn't allowed in the airport parking lot.  Oh well we made it on time.  The second we crossed out of Morocco we high-fived, we made it!
When we landed in Berlin we all looked at each other, we had no idea where our hostel was.  Oops, we had to pay a few euros to use the internet in the airport and google the hostel.  We finally made it there and found food.  The next day we set out to explore the city.  We ended up at a Christmas market and found mulled wine, it wasn't delicious, but it did warmed us up nicely.

That night we ate some of the most delicious mexican food I've ever had, after our first dinner of street sausages.
On our second day we were determined to see some of the history of Berlin and made it to the Berlin wall, and the Holocaust museum that is there.

There was so much to see there, that's all we could accomplish.  It was quite an amazing museum that left us all a little despondent.  We called it an early night after some delicious burgers and headed back to the hostel for some baileys and hot coco and sleep.
The next day was New Years Eve, we got an 'early' start and headed to the DDR museum.  It was all about the Berlin Wall and what life was like on the Socialism side of the wall.  It was a really interesting museum and I learned a lot about the wall, Berlin's history, and life in socialism.  Then we walked around an area called museum island.  We didn't go into any of the museums there but the buildings were beautiful.

On our way back from there we walked through everyone setting up for New Years.  It was crazy and it was only 3.
New years was a blast.  We went to some local's house where we met a ton of people from all over.  They took us to a park with a hill that overlooks the city.  We climbed the hill and watched the fireworks go off at midnight from there.  It was incredible.  It was pretty surreal to see all the fireworks over Berlin.  We all made it back to the hostel in one piece, though I'm not sure how and passed out.
The next day, not so ready to face the world, we made the trek to the train station where we caught a train to Prague.  We arrived pretty late and went straight out to a late night dinner of crappy but delicious chinese food.
The next day we were off to explore the city.  After getting more turned around than we thought possible we took a taxi to the old city.  Everything there was beautiful.  All the buildings and architecture were fascinating and we walked around all day, over the Charles Bridge and up to a castle and cathedral.

Prague was extremely cold and a little rainy so we headed back early.  The hostel in Prague had a ton of people from all over and we stayed there talking to people from Sweden, Australia, Finland, and more for a long time.
The next day was our last full day of vacation.  We were all pretty tired and spent a good portion of the morning eating subway and already missing not having it in Morocco.  We took a late bus back to Berlin and stumbled back to the hostel dead on our feet.
After a leisurely morning we quickly realized we may miss our flight and had to run from the subway stop to the check in counter.  Somehow after a small miscommunication I ended up in the wrong area of security and had to wait over 40 minutes for security.  I ended up running through the airport (again) to the flight showing up only 2 minutes after the gate closed, they were luckily still checking passports and I slipped in.  It can never just be easy.
The transition back to Morocco has been interesting.  It has a lot less excitement landing when you've already been here for 9 months.  It's easy to forget what being under constant observation is like but I'm readjusting quickly.  And remembering that I need to wash my clothes in a bucket, dress in many layers to go to bed, and heat my water on the stove for a bath.
Next stop, London in June.