Be Creative in Morocco

This morning I did my first "Be Creative in Morocco" program for the Gillett Public Library! This is one of 7 I will be doing for area libraries this summer on my experiences in Morocco. We had close to 80 people (the room was packed!) and it was TONS of fun! More pictures are available on our flickr page!

We talked about some Morocco basics: size, language, population, etc. Then I passed around some souvenirs that I purchased there, as well as did some demos on wearing a hijab and how people say hello (the kiss-kiss...which I did on my niece, so it was ok!) Here I taught them some basic words in Arabic (hello, yes, no, please, etc).

I had some children volunteer to take around the green tea and spices for people to smell. I also showed pictures of food we ate and had the kids try to guess what they were - some were obvious, and some were not. They also learned how to sing "Happy Birthday" in Arabic.

At the end I showed them pictures of some things we did (rode camels, went fishing, saw goats in trees), but I think what impacted them the most was learning how some people have to travel a LONG ways to get water for their families. They were also surprised that books could not be checked out of the libraries. Hopefully it will make them realize how fortunate we are for abundant water, as well as libraries with FREE programs, FREE internet and FREE materials to be checked out!

At the end, Cindy served raspberry tea and cookies, and some kids came up and asked me questions. A few of them even liked the music I was playing (Moroccan), so that made me glad.

Overall, it was just an amazing experience! My parents brought my niece and nephew, because they only live about 10 minutes from this library. I was so glad that I got to share some information about Morocco, provide a fun, free program at an area library, give their staff a break and do something good for our system (work place).

If even ONE person walked out of that room with a different perspective on Morocco or experiencing a Muslim country, then it was well worth my time. :)