AFTER TWO YEARS OF HARD WORK AND FUN ART RELATED WORK, THE ART RESOURCE MANUAL THAT WE LOVINGLY CALL, A.R.M. IS DONE!
It is a 153 page art manual for all Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco to use to help them with anything from art club/class lesson plans, local suppliers, museums, galleries, to how to say "yarn," or certain materials in Daija, FusHa, and Tam that are not given in our PC Darija/Tam language manual. I am very proud of this manual and it could not of been done with out the help of my good friend and fellow artist, Lisa Payne. Lisa, you are amazing! Thanks for listening to my crazy idea for A.R.M. and helping me make this crazy idea come alive and become an actual manual.
This manual makes my experience as a Peace Corps the "cheery on top" of my service. A.R.M. reminded me how much I love art, miss it, how much I am looking forward to the next step in my life after Peace Corps, which is, Inch Allah, interning, working, or volunteering at a museum or historical society to start my dream of one day working in collections/archives. I am ready for the next step and this manual is an example of my dedication to art and how important it is to have art in my life along with the rest of the world, or at least Peace Corps world. Now after Living in Morocco for 2 years, I have come to realize the lack of creativity the students I work with have in this country. It is all academic, nothing to do with the arts, and I am happy that for the two years I have been here in Morocco, I can leave knowing that the students I worked with and helped got a creative injection of the arts. If it was from doing 50 English drawing flash cards, family trees, paper doll races to art battles, life drawing, mural painting, etc. I know that they are looking at life differently now or at least can draw a darn good tree, remember the English vocabulary I taught them (visual learning is powerful tool), and can paint like a pro now :)
It has been officially two years today since I left the USA and came to this country, and even through the ups and downs I have had, good and bad, when I think of my time here I spent as a volunteer, friend, and family member, it warms my heart to know that I made an impression upon my students, community, family and friends. I would not of had such fond memories with out them in my life while in Morocco, and it will be a very sad day on November 13th when I officially leave Morocco to start my Close Of Service Adventure to Egypt and Turkey because I will be leaving good friends, new life long family, and a country that always welcomed me with open arms. I know that I will return to Morocco. I promise that.
2 comments:
i am so proud of you and all of your accomplishments my dear friend. thank you for sharing the joy of art with those children, I'm sure you have left an enduring impression on them.
that's great! I look forward to using A.R.M. it sounds like an amazing resource, thanks!
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