This fall, I had the opportunity to go to Morocco with my uncle and help set up two computer labs along with changing the software of one other existing lab. I, being the youngest volunteer in the group at only 15 yrs old, did not get to help quite as much with creating or installing the software but still felt like I was a good factor of the project because I was able to connect with some of the kids closer to my age. We ended up staying nine days in Morocco, we had four days of setting up computer labs, we had three days for tourism, and we had one day of preparation. When we put in the software, some of the kids knew exactly what to do with no questions asked, while others didn’t even know how to use the mouse. Being able to give the kids the extra help that they needed was incredible and life changing for me and for them.
The way that we were able to connect to all three of the schools was by Peace Corps volunteers. Without the Peace Corps volunteers we would not have been able to communicate with the students very easily at all. Everybody that we worked with knew both Arabic and English so they translated what we had to teach to all of the students. All of the Peace Corps volunteers were very kind and were huge parts of the “Kids on Computers” project. This whole trip has inspired me to attempting to bond with people of other cultures and hopefully travel the world some day. If I were to pick a favorite part, it would be everything other than touring. Being able to connect to the people, learn the culture, and help the community was amazing beyond belief.