Bags packed…check! Plane tickets
printed…check! Ready for an amazing summer…check! So what am I doing this summer?
Well, first off what I’m not going to
be doing is sitting in a bikini by the pool sipping a Budweiser and eating
Dominos ham and pineapple pizza. What I will
be doing is working at a beautiful national park in the mountains of Morocco
where I will be helping create an environmental education program and restoring
a garden. I look forward to immersing myself in a fascinating and unique
culture while doing meaningful work.
My name is Jenny Lee, and I
recently graduated Washington College with an environmental studies degree. My
hometown is Wilmington, DE (about 3 hours south of New York City). This summer
I will be working at the Parc National D’Ifrane which covers 500 km2
in the Moyan Atlas Mountains in Central Morocco (near Fes). My job will be to make the
environmental education projects more interactive. Also I will be helping
revitalize a garden in need of restoration. I'll be living at the Al Akhawayn University and taking Arabic classes there.
During my senior year I was
searching for some type of meaningful work after college. I love to travel so I
wanted something that would allow me to see more of the world and to be
immersed in another culture as more than just a tourist. America’s Unofficial Ambassadors
seems like the perfect fit…I have a chance to live and work in Morocco, learn
Arabic, eat authentic Moroccan food, interact with a Moroccan roommate, haggle
for items in the marketplace and truly understand and appreciate the culture. I
speak some French, and I look forward to practicing that more as well as
learning Arabic. The people I will meet, and experiences I will have will
hopefully expand my view of the world.
Throughout my six weeks in Morocco I hope to make a
lasting impression at the park by helping create an interactive education
program and displays in the visitors center that can be carried on easily after
I have left. Also I hope to improve the garden and make it a place that will
farther enrich the experience of a national park visitor. It will not be an
easy task; many things I take for advantage doing work in the US will not be
the same, such as everyone I interact with speaking the same language. My time
in Morocco should be both challenging and fun. Although I am slightly nervous,
I cannot wait for my trip to begin.
Before I start my job, I'm going to take a chance to see Casablanca. So many people I asked if I have seen the movie Casablanca (if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it, even though it has very little about the actual city in it), so that is how this blog and the first post got their name.
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