Working Woman

I feel like a working woman today! Well no, not really I’m not being paid and it was only for 3 hours 😅 so I guess that makes me a visiting volunteer! Still good. I walked with my roommate out of the Medina (within the old city walls) to her placement then continued on to mine. In all it was about a 35 minute walk. I got a little turned around because when I visited yesterday I’m pretty sure we came from the other direction. Regardless, Google Maps to the rescue — we (me and Maps) figured it out. 

The kids, as usual were so forgiving! We did alphabet, numbers, days of the week, months of of the year and shapes  “en anglais et en francais — no arabe”. As I understand it, French being the 2nd National language, is still the language of secondary and higher education here. And English of course is still useful for business and international communication. 

I was with 8 older students about 5 years of age. (The 3-year-olds too would have been too much to handle.) I introduced vocabulary with some cards then we played a matching game a few times, which they loved as they learned the words. Then we played catch with some small beach balls. I used the mini emoji beach balls I brought to describe the emotions they’d already been learning and then we proceeded to play catch in the neighboring room, which was a hit. After about 40 minutes with the beach balls, I gathered everyone in a circle a book to settle them down. But it was a struggle because I was given a book “en Español” (neither, French, English nor Arabic lol). Nevertheless we worked it out and they were super engaged even as some fought for the prime spot to point and touch pictures in the book.  By noon, it was lunchtime and these kids were proper eating and out of quality Tupperware with compartments. No peanut butter and jelly to be found— I mean it was lentil stew, potato stews, veggie medleys, rice, pizza, and I even had some cut up fruit for a snack!  

By the end of lunch, I was heading out and the chorus of kids bellowed “au revoir” almost in unison a few times as they prepared for naps. I felt so welcomed by both teachers and students despite language barriers. I even got invited to have couscous with the teachers on Friday. 

For part two of my day I had language classes in more of a “downtown” area called Agdal de France. It had lots of stores with ready-to-wear trendy clothes and known brands like Chloe (glasses), Starbucks and McDonalds. So you know I couldn’t resist. Plus a girl had to heat! I got a McTasty meal with Fanta.

Favorite part as always was the fries. 

Then I indulged in an iced latte at Starbucks and almost interacted with the cashier exclusively in French! 

Speaking of languages, my Darija lesson went really well. And now that I’m back home after taking the tram and getting a bit turned around in the Medina, I have homework… conjugation of verbs mostly. So until tomorrow, demain (French), gh’da (Darija)! 👋🏾