Friday, May 28, 2010

English Olympics

I recently held an english olympic competition for my students. The idea is that each volunteer in this region will hold an olympic competition at their respective dar chebabs in order to choose the top five students who will travel to a nearby city next month. There, the students will compete in a Regional English Olympic Competition. This consists of six teams from the surrounding area testing their english skills with games like pictionary, hangman, definitions, and jeopardy. Here are some photos of my students competing in our local competition. Of course, only girls came. What can I say...


Taking notes while my students take a test... I am definitely going to be a professor one day. That was totally awesome.


The start of the spelling bee. It took a while for me to explain this concept, but once we began the students really enjoyed it.

Hard thinking going on, right now.


More spelling bee action!!!!!


The last one standing. Winner!!


My participants and my mudir. Next stop. Sefrou!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

More Pictures

Apparently God only wills photographs to be uploaded in the wee hours of the morning. Here is the Special K morning addition of a photographic journey through morocco.


We begin our journey with the classic shot of a berber woman and a donkey. To be quite honest it took me a while to actually capture this particular shot. I see and hear donkeys all the time, but I rarely carry my camera around with me. I believe the donkey is carrying some fresh spring crops.


The beautiful wild flower fields of my site. There are flowers of all kinds and colors out now. We have your classic whites, sweet yellows, intense purples, warm oranges, and titillating blues.

Moulay Idriss, as viewed from Volubilis. Moulay Idriss is the white town in the background. It is a beautiful village located in the hills outside of Meknes. Part of its charm lies in the fact that it has just recently been opened to non-Muslims. Volubilis, known as Walili in Moroccan Arabic, is a stunning site as well. The ruins here are well preserved and stretch over a large area. Perhaps the most exciting finds for the ancient enthusiast are the numerous mosaics.

The glorious ruins of Volubilis. I had some sweet memories of Greece 2007 when I visited this site. For some reason the song "Yiea Sou Maria" kept repeating in my head.

My fellow adventurers at Volubilis. I can assure you they probably weren't as excited as I was. Granted this might be hard to do.

Chouan. Known for its blue painted houses, it is also a place that up until the 20th century did not know westerners. Unfortunately, now it really only knows tourists. Everywhere you go here you see westerners. However, it is a beautiful little place and offers a nice escape in the mountains. As you wander through the blue-washed narrow streets you feel like you are floating down a river. Much like those turtles I mentioned in an earlier post.

Chouan from above. We took a hike up a gorge and we able to experience a beautiful view of the city. A pearl in the green mountains.

Some Photos

It took a short jump from winter to summer here in Ribat El Kheir. We practically skipped over the entire thing that we call spring in America. Just a couple weeks ago it was cold and now its 95 degrees. However, we did have a little spring. And damn, was it beautiful. Here is my site mate Lynn and our friend in front of a beautiful green field.

Here is a view of my site. Its pretty when everything is green. Unfortunately, its only like this for a couple weeks out of the year.

A waterfall I stumbled upon after a 15 kilometer hike. This was actually my goal for the hike, but upon my return I realized I could have taken a 2 kilometer route... oops.

The river that lead me to the magnificent waterfall mentioned above. This river was awesome. There were turtles in it that we just floating down stream, not a care in the world, surfing it! Sometimes I wish I was a turtle. I guess I forgot my inner tube on this hike. I won't let that happen again.

Hmm. More to come, if God wills.