Today was our first day back in the United States, ending our Moroccan adventure. Although we all were excited to get back in our cozy beds and eat chicken fingers, many tears were shed as we flew away from the beautiful Agadir and parted ways with our new friends. All of us began this trip as nervous strangers and ended it as one big family. We went out of our comfort zones, pushed limits, and made memories and friendships to last a lifetime.

We headed into Ighil to start our new year on the right foot! January 1st we woke up and planted trees for the villagers. That soon lead to the village kids “kidnapping” us and “forcing” us to play soccer with them. Even our varsity athletes couldn’t keep up with the little kids skills. The children set up a museum of their special tools, pots, and how they make argon oil. Everyone was dressed in traditional clothing and made us feel right at home. We then accomplished a 7 mile hike down the mountain to Tildi. Tildi welcomed us with a beautiful sunset over the beach in our hillside bungalow. We got to see how Volunteer Morocco made an impact on the village, flipping the rough dirt into fields of green crops in just 6 months. Visiting these villages were quite a culture shock, but a humbling experience for everyone.

After settling in Agadir for 2 days upon our arrival, we embarked on our journey to the mountains making our first stop in Tiznit village. There we participated in a small rural health clinic testing blood glucose levels and taking blood pressure measurements with students from the EMAA Business school. After lunch that day we began setting up supplies for the big rural health clinic that we would had the following day where hundreds of people lined up to see various doctors like Urologists, Dentists, Nephrologists, Optometrists, and Radiologists. Majority of Moroccan patients we saw had conditions of high blood pressure, cataracts, poor oral health, and urology issues which was very eye opening for our group. We got to interact with the kids by taking pictures of them and saw many smiles from elderly and adult individuals which melted all of our hearts in knowing that we were touching lives!

We ventured off into the largest market in Africa, The Souk! We broke up into smaller groups with some of the local volunteers and shopped for all kinds of things. They taught us how bargain for prices and how to find the best products. It was interesting to see all the diversity in the market and how inexpensive some of the high end products were!

After a long and exhausting traveling day , we have finally arrived in Agadir, Morocco! The weather was perfect and despite everyone being restless, we were all excited to see what everyday life was like here in MAR. Upon arriving to the airport, we were greeted by our Volunteer Morocco staff and escorted to our transportation van. We then got checked into our hotel and went to the Volunteer Morocco welcoming house which provided us a savory lunch of tangine, rice with seafood, fruits, and natural orange juice alongside with tea and cookies. We got a chance to get a few hours of sleep after lunch and met back up with Aziz and his staff to do some icebreaker games and have dinner. Our last event was a long stroll to Marina Bay in Agadir near the beach where we got to sight-see Morocco’s culture, the nightlife, and enjoy the cool weather.

Our Journey begins! After meeting up in Boston we headed to JFK airport in New York. Here is the group waiting to board our flight to Casablanca! We’re all a little nervous but very excited for what lies ahead.