Apart from hearing from others and reading on the internet about about Morocco, I was also blessed to come very close to the two Moroccan CorpsAfrica Volunteers (Abdellah and Soukaina) who served in Malawi and I happened host them in my village before we went for our Pre-Service Training at Chongoni. That relationship enlightened me with new knowledge about Morocco, but not everything, because I still wanted to visit and prove everything I had been hearing. Finally I did in the month of October (though we did not have enough time for travelling around).
The All Country Conference in Morocco was for two weeks, from the 4th to the 15th of October, 2016. All Volunteers and Staff from Malawi, Senegal, Morocco and those from the Headquarters, such as the CorpsAfrica Founder and Director Ms. Liz Fanning, one of the Board of Directors Mr. Marc Douglas, the Development and Communications Officer Ms. Hiba Tazi and our Human-Centered Design Trainer Mr. Garett Mason were there at the conference. The CorpsAfrica/Malawi group arrived to the conference in a bit later but it was so exciting to meet fellow Volunteers and all Staff who welcomed us very well. Everyone was happy that the Malawi group finally made to the conference in Casablanca where the sessions took place.
The Malawi group joined the rest of the team during a session that Mr. Mason was facilitating and what most fascinated me was that this session room was full of different languages from all the three countries. The Malawi group was speaking English, Senegal group French and the Morocco group was speaking Arabic, French and English. All sessions and activities were being translated mainly in English and French languages because some could not understand English like the Senegalese and some Moroccans and Malawians could not understand French. That was the hardest part of it because in a session room we had a translator but when we were in our sleeping rooms and the surroundings it was hard for some of us to communicate properly.
Regarding food, most of the meals we were eating during lunch and dinner were Moroccan traditional foods, such as couscous and different types of Tagines. Couscous, according to Moroccan culture, is mainly eaten on Fridays. Bread is also used when eating the Tagine, and most of the places we visited we could find different types of Tagines but mostly taste similar.
Our main aim was to talk to the different people of this village such as chiefs, mothers, teachers, students and different stakeholders of this project and ask about the project's impact and sustainability. I personally came to conclude that the pre-school project was good for this community after hearing all the stories about the illiteracy levels, and having a pre-knowledge for children about school before starting primary school is always the best way to motivate children to go to school.