building – Well Travelled Lass

July 28, 2014

Morocco – 22nd of June

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Our last day in the village of Marigha. We felt so welcomed and accepted by the people in the village that it made us sad to think we had to leave. I know that we will all miss the children so much. In terms of building work we were back to sand chaining and shovelling. We wrote our names in chalk, along with the footballer names the children had given us, on the walls that we plastered the day before. Just like that it was lunch time.

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There was so much going on after lunch; parachute games, frisbees, skipping, chase and ball games. Just before dinner we had a game of football with the older boys in the village. I think it is safe to say football is not really my game, although I did manage to tackle someone with only minor injuries. Then they put me in goals… bad idea, I prefer to run away from the ball rather than dive in front of it.

After dinner we went to the house next door where they had prepared some cous cous, some people tried their luck at eating it traditionally by making it into a ball and just eating it off your hand. Unfortunately I am allergic to cous cous but it was really old fun to watch everyone trying to through handfuls of it into there mouths.

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We then went back up to our house where the villagers were waiting for us to show us some traditional drums and dancing. It was an amazing experience to be involved in the dancing and some sort of take on the conga in which I ended up piggybacking one of the younger boys because he couldn’t reach my shoulders!

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So this concludes my Moroccan Adventure. It was one of the most amazing experiences and I feel so privileged to have been a part of it. In the speeches that were given that night the village council told us how grateful they were for what we had done for them but I want to just say that I am grateful to everyone involved in making this project happen, to the village for taking us in and trusting us to build such an important feature in their community and to friends I made along the way.

THANK YOU AND THE END

July 28, 2014July 28, 2014

Morocco – 21st of June

Plastering walls in Morocco essentially consists of throwing cement at walls. We spent the day being taught the technique that means the cement actually sticks to the wall; this does not mean that the cement actually stuck to the wall. DSCN0329

The children were waiting outside the house wanting to play after we finished building, so played music on our phones and had a dance off which was hilariously fun. I was attacked by tiny children wanting to play catch (they wanted me to chase them and then tickle them pretty much), by the time I got to tea I was absolutely exhausted from the heat.

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After dinner we all sat in our “Scottish Room” and ate our junk food and chatted for ages; which made it really difficult to get to sleep when everybody left…

TO BE CONTINUED

July 7, 2014

Morocco – 20th of June

I think the villagers were becoming more used to us being there, we had a bigger audience at the build site and even a couple of the local girls came out to see what we were doing. One of the the girls wanted to give us a hand with the building, she must have been about thirteen or fourteen, so she joined our sand chain.

We played outside the house again after lunch and the girls joined in as well, up until then it had only been boys that had wanted to play, but now the girls were playing with the parachute and the football and duck duck goose. I discovered that duck duck goose can actually be a very dangerous game if you play it in the mountains, as I dramatically slid into my spot while being chased by a 7 year old around the circle. My legs (which were already covered in bruises from the buckets) were now cover in scratches from my ankle to my knee.

We met out side out house at four o’clock so that our guides could take us to visit the local salt mines and for a hike around the village. We walked down to the mines and they explained to us how the salt water is taken up from the wells in buckets and put into the reservoir, it is then let into large, shallow, concrete squares on the ground and left to dry out for three days in the sun. Then the salt is bagged and taken to the local markets for sale.

From the mines we walked up behind the village to where the castle was and started our mini hike from there. We walked all along back of the village and up onto the foothills of the mountains above. Some of the older children joined us, they seemed to have no problem with the steep slopes or the heat as they ran ahead of us. The views were incredible. We could see the whole village from the highest point on our walk.

We were so exhausted from our hike and the heat of the day. After tea we went to the local shop and bought a bottle of ice cold Pepsi each which was a perfect way to end our day…

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TO BE CONTINUED

July 4, 2014

Morocco – 19th of June

The site had gained an audience, the children came to watch us build and some even wanted to help. They had also brought a tiny little kitten with them which was just adorable.

We were making more sand chains but because I was on a slight slope I kept managing to batter my legs with the full bucket of sand and ended up with a leg covered in bruises.

We took the parachute out after lunch again for the children to play with because they absolutely loved it. They had the kitten with them again,we soon discovered that they did not think of the kitten as a living thing, I think they just thought of it as a toy. I was really impressed with how quickly they picked up that we didn’t like how they were handled the kitten and started to treat it nicely.

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When got beck to the building site at half four some one had written on the wall outside of the education centre: “Big Build 2014 Marigha, Childreach International, Big Build Morocco, Thank You” and then a drawing of a chef…

June 30, 2014June 30, 2014

Morocco – 15th of June

We started work at around nine in the morning after our breakfast. Unfortunately I had only had a banana and an apple for breakfast because the only other option was not gluten free, so I was still a bit hungry when we got to the site but I decided to try and push through it. The first job I was given was chiseling the wall so that electrics could be fitted into it and the plastered over. Quite a few of us were doing this but some were mixing cement (this meant having a pile of cement and sand on the floor and mixing it into water with spades) and some were helping to build up the interior walls.

^ Me chiselling ^

By around lunch time I was starting to feel like I need a lie down but luckily the president of Childreach’s partner organisation had come to visit us and had brought some lovely gluten free crumpet/bread things. He sat with us at lunch and tried to teach us Berber, all he succeeded with was “shoran” which I’m pretty sure is actually Arabic but it was a step in the right direction.

The girls were moved to a much bigger house which was decorated with the most amazing tiles inside. The only downside was one bathroom between fourteen girls, but on the plus side the site was literally right next door to us so not to far to walk. The house also had a beautiful view of the village from the roof terrace, which the RGU team’s bedroom opened directly out onto!

We stayed up to star gaze that night because I had seen Mars in the sky and Imogen had also spotted Saturn. We watch the International Space Station pass over us from the roof top and then decided to call it a night…

TO BE CONTINUED