A volunteer’s view of Morocco in the early years

When I set up this blog, I hoped that many other returned Peace Corps volunteers from the Peace Corps’s first 10 years in Morocco would contribute. Tonight I received a photo show from Don Brown, a volunteer in Morocco I.

Don’s Peace Corps service as a volunteer ended in 1963, but Don returned to the Peace Corps to work as a trainer for Morocco X, my program, and then as an administrator in Morocco, when we became good friends.

Don enjoyed photography and took many great photos. He had a good eye for composition and a sense of the dramatic lighting that characterizes Morocco. He took the photos in his presentation with an old twin lens reflex. Film was expensive back in the sixties, and one didn’t get many slides on a roll. Those of the cellphone generation may not realize how difficult and expensive photography was in those days.

Don served in Oujda, on the Algerian border. Relatively few volunteers ever visited the city. Volunteers in the early years were forbidden to cross the border. Oujda was a long train ride across the somewhat desolate scrublands of the lower Moulouya River and the city and its region could not compete with the attractions of other areas of the country. Seeing his slides, therefore, was a special pleasure.

Thanks for the memories, Don