Yella! Yella!

New Darija word of the week: Yella!  It is to be said with enthusiasm and accompanied by an electric cow prod. "Yella" means "Let's Go," and it is burned into my memory by the experience that Brianna and I had at Project Soar on Sunday.

Project Soar is a non-profit organization focused on empowering Moroccan girls to continue their education by providing academic support, life skills, and leadership training. They also offer a range non-academic activities aimed at empowering girls. If you want to check them out online, visit www.projectsoarmarrakesh.org, or check out the CNN documentary that aired last week in the U.S. titled, "We Will Rise" (http://edition.cnn.com/shows/cnn-films-we-will-rise).  It stars girls from Project Soar that we met this weekend.

I had been looking to bring the spirit of "Girls on the Run" to Morocco in an effort to shamelessly give myself an excuse to run as part of my job and to help empower Moroccan girls through exercise. When I discovered Project Soar, based in a village about 30 minutes outside of Marrakesh,  I decided to see if we could join in on the fun. I figured Brianna would be the perfect candidate to lead a running group given her stellar Girls on the Run history from third and fourth grade. Her participation, at that time, was reluctant, at best, and obstinate, at worst. She dreaded the weekly lap running routine and was a ring-leader in the corner-cutting club. She whined and complained with the best of them as she shuffled along with her exasperated attitude. She, like most of the girls, dreaded the official 5K that loomed at the end of the season. On race day, though, all of the whining and attitude disintegrated into a flurry of face paint, ribbons, and water bottles. She moved on to the cross country team in fifth grade, where she prided herself on walking in every race. As soon as the season ended, she announced that her running career was over. Seven years removed from the trauma, I figured there was no better way to resuscitate her interest in running than to join forces with her in a hot Moroccan desert and put her on the other side of the cow prod. Empowerment at its best I'd say!

Brianna rose to the occasion and loved it. We both showed up at Project Soar in the 90+ degree temps clad in the recommended modest running wear - leggings covered with shorts and t-shirts covered with sweaters. We met the founders of Project Soar, the Peace Corps Volunteer who works with them full-time as the Field Manager, some other staff members, and 50 energetic girls. They arrived early and shot baskets, jumped on a trampoline, skate-boarded, and roller-bladed in gigantic roller blades. When we gathered together to get started at 10:00 a.m., one of the girls who had just returned from a dream trip to Washington D.C. for the premier of CNN's documentary shared the details of her adventure with her friends. Then, we were off and running.

The group split in two, and Brianna and I gathered our first running group together. We tried our best to introduce ourselves in Darija and asked each of the girls to do the same in English. Then we got down to business. Brianna took over as Cattle Prod Queen and tried her hand at motivating teenage girls to run (fully covered) in the hot, dry sand. I loved every minute of it. It was a return to the days of Girls on the Run with walkers, flip-flop wearers, sprinters, and shufflers. There were smiles and high fives all around. In the universal language of running (and motivating runners) all you really need is one big cattle prod and one magical word of Darija. "Yella!"