summer camp in El Jadida
For six weeks this summer I got to work at the English Language Summer Camp in El Jadida. It is sponsored by the Moroccan Ministry of Youth and Sports, Peace Corps, and the US State Department. Each two week session had around 100 campers from 13-18 years old. About a third of the campers came on scholarship funded by the State Department - each volunteer chose three students to send to camp. Most of the other campers were city kids from Rabat and Casablanca - a good and interesting mix! We worked with the Moroccan staff from the Ministry as well as Japanese volunteers (JICA).
Us volunteers lived in the library which was called the fishbowl since it has large semi-circular glass windows through which we were watched. We taught English classes in the morning and led English clubs in the afternoon. There were also lots of other activities, excursions, and games throughout. It was quite an intense and fun time.
One of my favorite parts of camp was co-leading and leading the GGLOW club. GGLOW stands for Guys and Girls Leading Our World and is especially focused on promoting the role of women. The themes of GGLOW are Leadership, Trust, Working Together, Self-Awareness, and Gender Roles. The club is a fun and interesting way for girls and guys to express themselves, build self-esteem, work together, learn about themselves, debate ideas, and become leaders.
Before camp I knew about GGLOW, but had never really done it. I was glad to be able to work with and learn from a second year volunteer during the first session and lead the club the next and work with another volunteer who hadn't done it before. A really cool thing that happened was when two of our students wanted to stay in GGLOW for the second week of clubs. They helped us lead the club and did a great job.
One of the activities is blind dodgeball in which there are two teams standing in the middle of a field. One person from each team is blindfolded and two dodgeballs (handkerchiefs tied together) are placed at random parts of the field. Each team has to help their blind person find the dodgeball and hit the other blind person without moving from the center line. Usually everyone will shout commands at the same time and the blind person will be confused and frustrated. But if they work together and communicate well with a leader they are much better at it.
The students in GGLOW tend to be very motivated and interested in the subjects. We had a lot of excellent English speakers who were eager to learn. It was a lot of fun to work with them.
An awesome part of camp was being on the Atlantic coast and going to the beach every day! I miss swimming in the ocean....
Games were very popular throughout camp. Big winners were Uno, Monopoly, and Scrabble.
This was the first time playing frisbee for a lot of campers. She's technically not a camper but the daughter of one of the kitchen staff and was known for terrorizing us all summer.
Doing origami with some of the Japanese volunteers.
Girls decorating their hands with traditional Moroccan henna.
Science club!
And science club goes to the beach to build their baking soda and vinegar volcano.
On AIDS education day we each worked with a Moroccan staff member to teach about what HIV/AIDS is, symptoms, transmission, prevention, treatment, and stigmatization. We did this with an interactive presentation and discussions/debates.
Our US Ambassador to Morocco came to visit one day and brought an American rock band with him. They played a lot of classic songs and also had us come to their show downtown that night. Moroccan TV news came to film us for several days. I'm proud to have been on national television for two seconds - the first second I was eating and in my second appearance I was dancing like an idiot.
We took a trip to the old medina of El Jadida to visit the Portuguese Cistern. It is a really cool and beautiful place. Scenes from Orson Welles' Othello were filmed here. We got our feet nice and wet.
On the ramparts!
On our trip to Casablanca we visited the Hassan II Mosque - the third largest in the world.
The costume party was always one of the most fun nights of camp. Just try to guess what I'm supposed to be.
Volunteers in the fishbowl.
With some of the campers as they are about to leave for home.
The last full day of camp was the Spectacle! Lots of dancing, singing, and theater. The end!
Us volunteers lived in the library which was called the fishbowl since it has large semi-circular glass windows through which we were watched. We taught English classes in the morning and led English clubs in the afternoon. There were also lots of other activities, excursions, and games throughout. It was quite an intense and fun time.
One of my favorite parts of camp was co-leading and leading the GGLOW club. GGLOW stands for Guys and Girls Leading Our World and is especially focused on promoting the role of women. The themes of GGLOW are Leadership, Trust, Working Together, Self-Awareness, and Gender Roles. The club is a fun and interesting way for girls and guys to express themselves, build self-esteem, work together, learn about themselves, debate ideas, and become leaders.
Before camp I knew about GGLOW, but had never really done it. I was glad to be able to work with and learn from a second year volunteer during the first session and lead the club the next and work with another volunteer who hadn't done it before. A really cool thing that happened was when two of our students wanted to stay in GGLOW for the second week of clubs. They helped us lead the club and did a great job.
One of the activities is blind dodgeball in which there are two teams standing in the middle of a field. One person from each team is blindfolded and two dodgeballs (handkerchiefs tied together) are placed at random parts of the field. Each team has to help their blind person find the dodgeball and hit the other blind person without moving from the center line. Usually everyone will shout commands at the same time and the blind person will be confused and frustrated. But if they work together and communicate well with a leader they are much better at it.
The students in GGLOW tend to be very motivated and interested in the subjects. We had a lot of excellent English speakers who were eager to learn. It was a lot of fun to work with them.
An awesome part of camp was being on the Atlantic coast and going to the beach every day! I miss swimming in the ocean....
Games were very popular throughout camp. Big winners were Uno, Monopoly, and Scrabble.
This was the first time playing frisbee for a lot of campers. She's technically not a camper but the daughter of one of the kitchen staff and was known for terrorizing us all summer.
Doing origami with some of the Japanese volunteers.
Girls decorating their hands with traditional Moroccan henna.
Science club!
And science club goes to the beach to build their baking soda and vinegar volcano.
On AIDS education day we each worked with a Moroccan staff member to teach about what HIV/AIDS is, symptoms, transmission, prevention, treatment, and stigmatization. We did this with an interactive presentation and discussions/debates.
Our US Ambassador to Morocco came to visit one day and brought an American rock band with him. They played a lot of classic songs and also had us come to their show downtown that night. Moroccan TV news came to film us for several days. I'm proud to have been on national television for two seconds - the first second I was eating and in my second appearance I was dancing like an idiot.
We took a trip to the old medina of El Jadida to visit the Portuguese Cistern. It is a really cool and beautiful place. Scenes from Orson Welles' Othello were filmed here. We got our feet nice and wet.
On the ramparts!
On our trip to Casablanca we visited the Hassan II Mosque - the third largest in the world.
The costume party was always one of the most fun nights of camp. Just try to guess what I'm supposed to be.
Volunteers in the fishbowl.
With some of the campers as they are about to leave for home.
The last full day of camp was the Spectacle! Lots of dancing, singing, and theater. The end!
posted by Marc at 1:28 AM
1 Comments:
It's nice to get a summer update.
Camp looks like a great experience!
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