One of the highlights of this week has been having the opportunity to see a little bit more into the life of people in the house, in Asni and in Morocco in general. The most poignant story so far has been that of Amina, one of the girls here who has so impressed me by her keenness to learn and determination to get on, and it was only on a bike ride with her that I really began to understand the reason for this. Her father died when she was two, leaving three s...

It seems a long time since I wrote the last blog of my 'Atlas Adventure', but it is just so good to be back again that I feel that I ought to write a little about the latest adventure. I was so excited to be coming back yet at the back of my mind lurked a tiny doubt that this trip might somehow not quite live up to the last one which I had SO enjoyed. But I needn't have worried: from the moment of my first lovely welcome from Khadija and the girls who were wait...

I really meant to write this in Marrakech airport on my way home, or at least as soon as I arrived back but events seem to have overtaken me. In fact I am not entirely sure if one can write a travel blog when sitting at your own desk at home but too bad and here goes! I had a few lovely classes during my last week but I think that my main contribution as a volunteer was in the garden. As I was breaking up the solid red sub-soil of the beds with the claw end ...

Well I have to say that life here is always full of contrasts and I think that the main one here has been the weather. We seem to have gone from warm summer to freezing winter overnight! I had a lovely sunny walk up onto a ridge which I had not previously explored with another French volunteer which was a lot of fun. It was also quite an eye opener to look down on Richard Branson's luxury Kasbah, (which is where Virginie works for the Eve Branson foundation)...

Blog 8 I realise that there is not a single link between these two topics, in addition to which Christmas Shopping is hardly a subject worth blogging about but as I think I will probably never again have such a wonderful time Christmas Shopping I perhaps ought just to give it a brief mention! Instead of boots, coat and gloves, I put on my seriously summer clothes and was very glad I had as it must have been around 25 degrees in Marrakech which was complete bl...