April Khori
Hi
My name is April Koury and I am a Peace Corps volunteer currently working in Ulad Larabiya, a small village in Skoura. I was born in America and grew up mostly in the humid, semi-tropical city of Houston in the state of Texas. At the University of Texas I graduated with degrees in international business, Germanic studies, and Middle Eastern studies; and because of my degrees, Peace Corps placed me within their Small Business Development sector. My basic job as a volunteer is threefold: first, to pass on technical skills to the people I work with; second, to educate Moroccans about American life and culture; third, to educate Americans about Moroccan life and culture. Peace Corps assigned me to Ulad Larabiya this past December after I completed 3 months of language and cultural training in Azrou. Thus I’ve been in Skoura for about 5 months, and I much prefer my warm, dry village to cold and rainy Azrou (although I’ve been told I’ll miss the cold north when summer rolls around). For my first two months in Skoura I lived with an amazing host family who took me in and treated me as if I was their own blood. I’ve met so many wonderful, generous people in my village and I now have a new huge Moroccan family to introduce to my American parents. In Ulad I am working with both the potters and a small women’s association. The potters produce mainly bread ovens while the women’s handcrafts range from carpets, to crocheted items, to traditional embroidery. I hope to be able to educate both the men and women about basic business skills and help improve their livelihoods while they in turn teach me their traditional arts and how to cook a proper tajine. So far my cousin has taught me carpet weaving, I’ve just begun to learn traditional embroidery from my sister, and I hope to pick up crocheting next. I have a total of two years to spend here and I already know that Morocco and its people through their openness and hospitality have changed me for the better and given experiences I’ll never forget. I only hope that I can return the favour in some small way.
