Morocco

In October of 2011 my husband and I visited Morocco. Although this was a pleasure trip, we felt there would be opportunities for sharing Peace Shawls and Peace Pals along the way. Indeed, these opportunities did arise. While visiting a small village, we stopped at a preschool for local and nomadic children. The six foot four teacher was delighted to see his charges bond with their Peace Pals immediately! At the same village, we visited the home of a family receiving support from Grand Circle Foundation so that their eldest child, a girl, could complete her high school education. Despite the language barrier, the connection I made with the mother was instant and heartfelt. She put her Peace Shawl on immediately, and we hugged and kissed. I also left a second shawl for her seventeen year old daughter, who was at school at the time. After wearing her shawl for a few minutes, mama carefully folded it and placed it on a shelf that held the family's most precious possessions.

Our third delivery was the most special. While camping in the Sahara we were invited to tea by a Berber family. The tent was large and comfortably cool, and our host family most gracious. All through the questions and answers (our guide was fluent in the Berber language) the matriarch of the family was spinning goat and camel hair, to be used to keep the tent in good repair. I presented a shawl made by a member of my knitting group especially for this trip. She replaced her worn, drab shawl with this new soft one. Her face brightened and she looked 10 years younger! Here was a woman whose fingers were never still, her chores never done, who walked a round trip of 8 miles twice a week so that her youngest son could attend school, looking radiant in her new shawl. I know she felt the love and the intention that was knit into the shawl, and that I also felt as the presenter. Again there were many hugs and kisses.

These experiences are ones I will never forget. Thank you to all the W4W who make this work possible.