Week 2: Food, Leadership, Casablanca, Darija, and more food!

Week two has been full of surprises and fun, and it's almost over! Thursday was especially interesting as we learned so many new things and visited Casablanca!

With Madiha, our Center director, and our site visitors, we made our classroom cozy with carpets, pillows, mint tea, Moroccan cookies, and dried fruits. We learned more about Islam, the religion of our host country, and the beliefs and practices of Muslims from a personal perspective. Afterward, we had a lovely group lunch with our site visitors. We enjoyed both chicken and seafood Bastilla. The eternal Moroccan debate of which is better remains unresolved, as both were delicious.

After dessert, our students took on their leadership roles, guiding our site visitors around and introducing them to the Mohammedia Leadership & Service in Youth Development program. Before heading to the Hassan II Mosque, everyone changed into traditional Moroccan clothes. The whole group then traveled to Casablanca to visit the Hassan II Mosque, the largest mosque in Morocco and the second largest functioning mosque in Africa. This stunning building, partially built over the ocean, offers breathtaking views of the Atlantic. We appreciated the beauty of the mosque and its significance during a tour that highlighted its history.

Today (Friday, July 19), we successfully completed another day of service, focused on environmental needs and practices. Our energy and enthusiasm were infectious as we painted pots and planted trees in a public school in Ain Harrouda alongside service youth. We even started a singing/karaoke session with the kids, working hard while having tons of fun. 

As per Friday tradition, we enjoyed a lunch of couscous. Later, we learned useful phrases for bargaining in Darija with teacher Zaineb and practiced numbers to prepare for our upcoming trip to Marrakesh. We're very excited and can't wait to tell you all about it when we return!