My thank you party

On my last day of volunteering with Moroccan children's trust the staff threw a thank you party(hefla) for me and a welcome to some new moroccan voluteers from Taroudannt university....

mmmm- yummy cake!

Zachary carrying in the really delicious
Pastilla

Zayna and Lazara spent all day cleaning and setting up the volunteer house
and preparing the meal

Youssef(my arabic culture teacher) and Meryam (one of the MCT social workers)

Abdellah Lamine playing the oud

trekking into the high Atlas mountains

On our last day in Taroudannt, Shane & I went trekking into the high Atlas mountains with a lovely guide called Said. We drove up through Berber villages into the mountains, left the car and hiked up a stoney path to a ridge that looked down one side onto the plains of the Souss massa valley and beyond to Taroudant; on the other the peaks with a dusting of snow...

the rocky road back down! 

Said preparing a fire for our BBQ picnic

looking over the peaks

Shane holding on to an argan tree

view from the ridge back towards Taroudant

hob-nobbing with the moroccan royal family!

we shared a delicious lunch at the  volunteer house

One Saturday we had a visit from one of the trustees of MCT  who happens to be related to
the king of Morocco! She is sitting second from the left.