Rabat, Morocco

I have made my first visit to Morocco since it became a Projects Abroad destination.

The first thing I’ve just got to mention is the food. Saad Rbiai and his partner are looked after by Saad’s childhood nanny who is the most utterly amazing cook. We started our dinner with chicken and mint pasties, a subtle blend of flavours in perfect puff pastry. The main course was a traditional Moroccan tajine, a kind of excellent beef casserole. The pudding, for which I thought I had no room but somehow had a second helping, was a lemon pie which I will still remember after several years in heaven. STUNNING!

I am pleased that Projects Abroad Morocco is based in Rabat. It is rather an attractive city with lots of walls and castles, including a splendid fortress called Chellah overlooking the river and inhabited by many storks who nest on the turrets and towers of the old castle. I went back to the airport at the end through Casablanca which is really just a huge industrial city and not at all in keeping with its romantic image - Bogarde and Bergman and all that.

I met all our volunteers who work on a variety of Teaching and Care projects, and these all seem to be going well, doing work that’s really needed. I was also able to see a brilliant new care project where we’re soon going to start work, a highly imaginative scheme for street-children from the shanties surrounding Rabat. In this project, kids do ordinary school lessons and get a square meal – and just a few are residential as well – but, impressively, they also have drama classes and learn how to do circus acts. It’s great to see kids in difficulty not just doing the necessary things but also having a great time just for fun, not just kicking a ball around the yard but doing something really special and unusual that will always be a part of their lives.

From Morocco, I headed to Togo. The most important thing there is that we will be able to have human rights projects for French-speakers. These will be at the Organisation for Women in Law and Development, where volunteers will be able to help set up and run educational campaigns and can help to deal with the individual cases of the women who come for help.

Morocco and Togo have in common that they are both French-speaking African countries. We in the English-speaking world tend to forget about French-speaking Afrca – yet there it is – to return to the theme of food – a mix of baguettes and fufu, of Côtes de Rhone and mint tea.

… oh, yes, I forgot the mint tea – we finished off our meal at Saad’s place with mint tea – amazing mint tea – the mintiest, most honeyish, subtlest, spiciest, sweetest …. – get me back to Rabat – get me back to Saad’s nanny – NOW!

Peter Slowe
February 2008

Part of my job here at Projects Abroad is knowing as much background and information as is humanly possible about all the countries we work in, which is basically the perfect job for a self-professed geography geek like myself. I thought I knew a lot about Nepal but I guess I didn’t realize how beautiful it is. Here is a great video of the country by one of our volunteers there. I hope you enjoy it!

Conservation in South Africa and Botswana

Why you should go to Botswana in four sentences by Gerrit Prinsloo (our Conservation director in Botswana and South Africa):

We need to ensure the survival of species and sustaining the environment for future generations to experience. We can only achieve this through the help of other likeminded people and by showing them what could be lost if the rest of the world isn’t made aware of what we still have.

I like to get to know people from all over the world and their different cultures. The best part of my job is to have the opportunity to show people with the same passion how awesome Africa is and get them to experience its humbling effect and absolute wildness.

Gerrit and a Monitor Lizard

What is happening at the Conservation project by Harry Kent

7 months into the project and were still going strong, after completing our first water hole a short walk along the river , we have decided to begin another right in the front of the camp, this will eventually mean the further attraction of wildlife making the Legodimo camp even more of a paradise retreat.

In our last update I commented on the progression of the Elephant hide we were building in the north of the reserve, since this the Elephants sadly destroyed all of our hard work, they were obviously not keen on the design or location, we are now looking at possible new areas for the hide taking into consideration the Elephant tastes.

Brian the Porcupine is still up to his old tricks, he has began bringing his lady friend to the camps kitchen restaurant, all cannot wait for the eventual long line of Brian juniors, he has now become so tame we can even get down to give him a stroke, yet his demanding hunger gets out of hand when no ones home, the state of the cupboards, cooler boxes and anything else for that matter are no sight for sore eyes.

Harry with Brian the Porcupine

A current social activity is dance classes from fellow volunteers. Surely I can’t be the only one who wants to see that. Maybe Gerrit doing jazz or modern dance…priceless!!!

That’s it for this month, let’s hope next time we can share some good news on the dreaded viewing hide.

We at Projects Abroad would like to wish all of our hard working staff members and current and future volunteers in China a happy and prosperous Chinese New year!

Did you do anything special to celebrate the New Year?