What is community-based training (CBT) you may ask? For my Staj (aka volunteer group) it was an intensive 9-week language and culture training that was conducted in small groups of 5 volunteers and 1  Moroccan Language and Cultural Facilitator (LCF). We were all placed within the Beni Melal region but still close enough to gather at the 3 HUBs that occurred during that time. The HUBs were either a few days or a week that we all gathered for more training and admin stuff with PC staff.

During CBT we would get together in the mornings for language lessons and practice, return to our host families for lunch, go back to our LCF’s house for a culture session and then go work at the Dar Chabab (DC) usually until 6:30 pm. We taught either an English lesson or ran a recreational activity as a group. Some days we would also teach at the Netti Neswi (like a women’s association).

As part of CBT each volunteer had to plan and teach an English lesson on their own as well as a recreational or cultural activity. This was to help us practice for when we would be official volunteers and working at the DC on our own.

I saw my moment and I took it. I decided to make my recreational activity focused on a cultural exchange for my favorite American holiday.. Halloween! It also worked out very well due to it being October. For cross culture sharing we discussed that elements of American Halloween most closely resemble the Moroccan holiday of Ashura. This holiday is celebrated in Morocco with children knocking on neighbors’ doors for treats, bonfires, and in some regions dressing up in certain costumes. Here is a little more information about Ashura.

Using creativity and low resources I decided on Halloween musical chairs with the winner of each round getting to grab candy out of the bag. My activity happened on the same day another in my group did their English lesson. For some reason that day there was an excessive number of kids that showed up at the DC. Usually, we would get 15-20 kids, however. today it was near 50 kids eagerly awaiting the PCVs. I led the musical chairs but could not have gotten through it without the help of my teammates with crowd control.

The last week of our CBT also coincided with the week of October 31^st and so for our last recreational activity we put on a telling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Trimming the story down and using basic English words (again always putting an element of learning there) we created a PowerPoint with the basic English sentence and lots of pictures. The outline was to tell the story once in English, then we had just the volunteers take on specific roles and we told the story once again but with them acting it out, then we had the kids come and act out the story together. Admittedly I was the story creator and narrator (I love a good Halloween story). Not even a massive sore throat could stop me from this. We even added props and used well timed lighting to add ambiance. At the end one of the young girls I had helped throughout the time there gave me a cute appreciation note in English (the first of many others to come). I left really feeling the appreciation of our effort and purpose of our presence here. Overall, it was one of the best times with the group.