It was nothing of what I expected! I had the privilege to stay with an amazing caring helpful warm welcoming host family, with 4 beautiful children. I worked at an amazing school with talented refugees who need as much support as possible! It was a truly life changing experience!!!!!! Incredible food!!!!! Beautiful city especially for Europeans. I loved every single day! And I had the opportunity to share the whole experience with another extraordinary volunteer from New Zealand.

Travelling with fellow volunteers was wonderful but I wanted to go somewhere on my own for a different experience. I met the most friendly people on the train who gave me suggestions on what to do and not miss. I had randomly chosen a riad hotel from the internet. I loved where I was living but I was ready for a short stay in a hotel with a western style bathroom! The trip to the coast was lovely and the town so charming. My riad hotel was located inside the medina. Thanks to Google Maps, I found the place very easily, conside ring few of the strees have noticeable signage. When the hotel owners answered the door, I met the most lovely couple from Switzerland originally. They had bought a ruin and made it into a small hotel. My room was so representative of Morocco,with beautiful lights, fabrics and tiles. Then I noticed the bathroom which had lovely tile, completely modern and rose petals on the edge of the tub. More rose petals on my bed, the breakfast terrace with an ocean front and it just couldn't have gotten better considering it wasn't extravagently priced. The visit there was even better after befriending a young woman working at the Argon Oil coop store. She helped me pick my gifts for friends and then asked me to stop and visit when I'd be walking past her during my stay.

Overall, I had a great experience. The staff was very supportive and responsive, and the placement I was at helped me have a meaningful experience. Our host family was very accommodating and generous. However, I would like to have more organized outings for volunteers, as well as some information as to how our work was contributing to an overall goal. I would have also appreciated some accountability system for volunteers. I observed that some volunteers would spend just one or two hours at their placement. I felt that this could damage the image of IVHQ, and that it was a bit dishonest on the part of other volunteers to be coming for a volunteer program, but not staying true to their commitment. I understand that volunteers are mostly accountable for their own actions, but it made me somewhat question the long term impact of the IVHQ volunteer programs if there is little oversight or communication with the in country non-profit organizations as to how volunteers are contributing to the placements. I really did appreciate that we could call the staff there at any time, and they took the time to check in with us. I would encourage IVHQ to do that even more, in order to provide an even more supportive environment for volunteers.

Going to Morocco through IVHQ was an incredibly enriching and important experience in my life.

From the moment I got to Morocco there were never any doubts in my mind that I had made the right choice. My host family was incredibly warm, welcoming, and helpful as well as the staff of IVHQ's partner organisation in Rabat.

I spent most of my days teaching English and French in a youth center and a woman's rights organisation. My students were incredibly grateful and it was great (and humbling) to see how much they really enjoyed having me there.

On the weekends I had free time to travel all around Morocco and do lots of fun things like go to music festivals, visit the Sahara desert, and all sorts of other fun and exciting things.

The whole experience couldn't have been better. Bravo to IVHQ for running a class act.