I have a crush on every boy!*

*Line from a Strongbad comic, not mine.

I roll six deep at the Dar Chebab. My posse consists of me and six teenage boys. We hung out every day this week and I think we bonded. I got major bonus points for letting them borrow my soccer ball (although its not a real soccer ball and definitely not a substitute basketball as I learned when I suggested a game of pig. Just because it bounces, does not mean they will play with it.) I'm not sure who is more surprised by this friendship, them or me?

Already, I'm starting to have insecure thoughts like, what if they get bored of me and stop coming to Dar Chebab? But, I doubt that will happen. They seem to genuinely like hanging out with me and gobble up any activity I suggest. We made volcanoes, started a comic club, had English class, and played ping pong. Phew, what a week! Also, its so cute, but they walk me home to my house at night and aren't embarrassed at all to be seen with me. They are at that perfect age for Moroccan boys. Still young, but old enough to be fun to hang out with. But, not yet corrupted and moody. It seems as soon as boys hit puberty here, they get moody. As for girls, they hit puberty and get married shortly after.

Tonight we had Youth Cafe and started the comic club. I printed out some pictures from the internet of different drawings and they got to work right away, trying to copy them. Wow, some of them are really talented! Then, we watched The Chronicles of Narnia with Arabic subtitles. We had planned this movie night a week ago, but we didn't get started on time because my moudir showed up almost two hours late. As I predicted, we had a little technical difficulty hooking up my laptop to the projector. So, in the end, the boys and I watched the movie on my tiny laptop screen. As time passed, more and more boys showed up until it was me and fifteen boys crammed around this tiny laptop.

At that moment, I had the thought, I love my job! I get to hang out with these boys who are sweet enough to indulge me in my hope to "develop youth." Development work is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. The thing most crucial to accomplish first before you can ever even begin to scheme up dreams of projects is gaining the trust of a group of people.

Trust. I knew that before coming here, but actually achieving that trust is an entirely different thing. Being a first-time volunteer doesn't make this any easier, either. My first year was completely dedicated to getting familiar with the community and getting the community familiar to the idea of having an American living amongst them. Also, knowing who to trust, who is serious about developing projects, who is just another bureaucratic phony, and who doesn't have ulterior motives. And I suppose while I was feeling them all out, they were doing the same to me.

These boys are young and excited and serious about working with me on projects and just the fact that I found them, or they found me, is a major accomplishment. But, for the first time since getting to my site, I feel like I may have a shot at starting up a sustainable project for youth. And that's pretty cool.