Peace and Friendship: Morocco

We will travel to the land of our most trusted allies.  Morocco holds the longest unbroken treaty relationship in U.S. history.  Seeking linguistic as well as professional connections, this project will delve deeper into the ways that we can learn from our closest partners.  We will learn Arabic and Tamazight in a homestay experience, and cooperate with the local community in Morocco to serve their present needs.  Service learning at its finest, this trip will help students understand the immediate realities of people in a Muslim society. 

After arriving in Rabat, and spending 2 days acclimating and taking intensive Arabic/Tamazight language courses with our on the ground partners via the organization Amideast, we will travel to the town of Ait Iktel, located in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.  Once there, students will be placed in homestays, and work with the local women's cooperative to market their distinctive couscous at the Souk in Demnat.

After reflecting upon their impact on the local community, students will retreat to the Cascades D'Ouzoud for an evening.  While there, they will work on providing intitiatives for the groups to come in the following years (future Overlake Project Week groups).  The ultimate goal is to establish a lifelong relationship with the people of Ait Iktel in order to address access to sustainable resources that they identify as necessary, and work with them to overcome their challenges.