The Dar Chebab

A Dar Chebab is a youth center run by a Mudir (the director.) Mudirs contribute to their Dar Chebab’s to varying degrees. Some Mudirs feel their responsibility is solely to unlock the Dar Chebab at the hour of opening and to lock it up in the evening.  Others feel more inclined to organize activities. Associations in the area take on the responsibility of organizing most activities. If there are no associations collaborating with a D.C. to set up activities, then there aren’t any.  

The Moudira (female Moudir) at our Dar Chebab has been very friendly and forthcoming with information, although it seems inflated with positive characteristics and bled of any negative characteristics that might exist.  That said she has been very cooperative in letting us take charge of the activities we wanted to do in the D.C. in spite of the knowledge that we would only be there for a couple months.

Our main activity so far has been to establish a Friend’s club. Our goal was to create a safe space for both girls and boys to hang out, work on homework, play games, practice English and make friends. For us it was an opportunity to learn Darija, explore the culture of Moroccan youth and to get some experience teaching and interacting in such an environment. 

There have been several diligent students that actively participate and others that just come to play and check out the new Americans.  An average of 20 people come a day, a nice number easily distributed between the 6 of us trainees.  We start with an energizer, some kind of game to “energize” people and get them excited to learn. Recently it has been tossing a ball around and introducing ourselves, or saying our favorite subjects in school. After that we usually break into smaller groups of 5 to 10 and talk about culture or work on homework. At the end of this week we hope to facilitate a discussion about Maps we had the youth draw the first day we were at the D.C. That explanation will follow.