Dear friends/family,
This summer I will be traveling to Morocco, Africa where I will be participating in several community service projects. The exact nature of all the projects is not yet known to me, but I can give you a sense of the kind of work I will be doing. First, my group and I will be traveling to Fez, one of the last remaining functioning medieval cities in the world. There we will learn about Moroccan culture while learning how to weave, tasting foods, watching artisans create their goods to sell and learn how to communicate in Moroccan Arabic. We will then travel on to a village in the Mid-Atlas Mountains to stay with a local host family and construct a community center or classroom to help the villagers provide a future for the younger generations. When I am not working on this primary project, I will have the opportunity to get involved in the community in many different ways such as teaching English, coaching sports and painting a world map. At the end of this homestay Ramadan will begin. We will help them cook their traditional meal for the occasion. The last few days of this trip will be spent traveling by foot and by camel to the Sahara desert, and it will end in Marrakesh, a city famous for its marketplace busy with merchants. As you can see, a lot of exciting and challenging adventures lie ahead for me. I am very excited about working on these projects and am already starting to prepare.
This is a rare opportunity and to make it happen, I need to raise $5900. This will go towards tuition, airfare and the service project we do with the host village. With all this in mind, I am asking you to help by making a donation. There will be several opportunities to support my effort, including direct contributions, photos to purchase, fundraising dinners and other venues. I have set up a blog to track my activities leading up to the trip (www.mymoroccantrip.blogspot.com). All my fundraising activities will be posted on this site. As a supporter, you will see the results of your gifts through my pictures and letters. If you would like to contribute, please visit my blog or send a check to me at 3 Spruce St Exeter, NH, 03833. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Kelsey McDermott
