I have planned and lead many field trips over the years. On Sunday I was in a new position as a student and teacher on a field trip. Braheim, Mike, myself and 10 students from the private school LeDefi went on a field trip together to Paradise valley And Tarazought beach.
The valley winds in land from Aourir into the Anti Atlas Mountains. The ride up the valley reminded my of parts of New Mexico and Arizona because the landscape was hilly with scrubby desert bushes. As we got closer to Paradise Valley the road became rough and washed out in places. In December there was major flooding in the area with many houses and roads washed out. Schools were closed for three days due to flooding!
After about an hours drive we unloaded to walk/hike to Paradise Valley. When we were walking down the trail I noticed student foot wear, most were wearing flip flops. Further along the trail I realized we did not really know where we were going just following the flow of the stream. We passed little picnic spots with families setting up for a Sunday afternoon of relaxing. In the canyon area there were boys jumping into plunge pools of iridescent blue water. Families and groups of friends were setting up the Moroccan equivalent of barbecues. They had brought there Tajine and were either using a charcoal stone base or setting up little fires to warm the food.
The students wanted to press on further into the canyon to find the ideal pool to swim in. Eventually we left our bags with Braheim and Mike and I followed the group. Teacher safety and time management kicks in pretty fast in these outdoor situations. We had a good little swim but Mike and I set some time parameters using the lure of surfing at Tarazought to motivate the teenagers to head back to the bus.
We stopped in Aourir for another great lunch of lamb Tajine. With full bellies we headed to the beach at Tarazought for some swimming, boogie boarding, and surfing. A couple of students had bought boogie boards with them so I went straight into the water with one of the girls. The others trekked of in search of rentals and eventually came back with boards and wetsuits in hand. They are interesting group because all 10 of them are in class all the time together and the class only has 11 students so they are all very close. They definitely operate as a group with the occasional one branching of to do there own thing. There are many commonalities in how teenagers here and in America are socially. Also at the beach our fellow American teacher Hina showed up for some sun and surfing for a couple of hours.
Eventually everyone was tired. We headed back to Agadir with a brief stop at Agadir Ouffela then collapsed after a wonderful but long day.