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