Written by CorpsAfrica/Maroc Volunteer Ms. Ahlam Ben-Taj

As an only child, it was difficult to leave my jammed house and head to a remote area somewhere. It was the last night in MY soft comfortable and accustomed bed, that night I felt the feeling I used to on Eid day (a religious holiday). I felt a sweet-sour cocktail of excitement fear and ambiguity, I wished the morning had come before its time and it really did!

As I got myself ready for the journey, making the last check, my mom made breakfast for me. I ate it with shaking hands my honey-colored cat was invited to eat her favourite food but she stared at me for a long time, hesitating to go to have her breakfast too, like she knew it was time!!!

It’s time to go my mom announced. I stepped out of my home and the journey has begun!

During my first days a fluent Arabic lady asked me, after she knew my hometown, which is 467km far from my site, “Did you really come from far away to help us?” My answer may sound harsh but expressive, “If I had the chance to serve nearby my hometown within a community I belong to I wouldn’t come.” Hopefully she got the intended meaning then she said “We are blessed by your arrival,” immediately inviting me to her house. She’d said later on I have called them my people. The somewhere has already become my town.

I wrote these words under three blankets covering every inch of my body from the coldest weather I ever faced; I hope you’re feeling their warmth.