I am spending the next five months pushing past my cultural, culinary and comfort confines to travel solo through Europe and Northern Africa. I will be stationed for three of these months in Morocco's capital city of Rabat, where I will be volunteering in a mental health clinic, serving Morocco's large population of disadvantaged youth. 

 

After graduating with a BA in psychology from Whitman College, I speant two years in  Walla Walla, Washington, working for a non-profit school-based health clinic called The Health Center. It is there that I saw, first-hand, the effects of trauma on adolescent development. When children experience toxic stressors such as neglect, extreme poverty, family violece, substance abuse and parental mental health problems on a daily basis, they not only face barriers to learning, but are at risk for a multitude of health problems ranging from anxiety disorders, cardiovascular disease, asthma, autoimmune disease and depression. However, even in the most extreme cases of adversity, well-timed changes to children's enviroments can improve children's lives. I hope that my time in Morocco can positively effect small change for the youth I serve and open my eyes to new cultural systems of belief. 

 

This travel journal will feature the unexpected and picturesque opportunities I encounter in both my professional and personal journey abroad. For the happy wanderers who may be planning a France or Moroccan journey, I also intend to include tips and tricks I experience on the road.