Almost Forgot!

I forgot to mention that during our time in Tinghir, I slipped off to Hdida for a a couple days.

While in Hdida, Marisa and I hiked into the mountains to visit a family of nomads as she had heard they were living in caves, above her village. I wish I could have taken pictures, but they were very shy and not used to visitors and so I didn't want to impose any more than we already were. The men of the family were out at the time, but the women and children were home. From what I could tell, there seemed to be two main caves. We sat in the first, which contained bags of clothes and blankets and a home made loom, which the mother weaved on the whole time we were there. There were three small girls who didn't take their eyes off of us throughout the entire visit, too.

We drank mint tea and watched the mother weave, while making small talk for an hour or so. Afterwards, we moved into the next cave, which was the kitchen. It had an open fire stove, with a cauldron hanging over it, which must have contained dinner. Chickens ran freely in and out of the cave, across the walls of the stove, and sometimes hopping up in and out of a small window! We sat with two women and ate fresh warm flat bread with olive oil and drank more mint tea. The caves were not very big (I couldn't stand up in either of them) and it was crazy to think that about ten people slept in the one cave, especially in the heat of summer. There were dogs surrounding the premises, which were good at their job of scaring people off, we had to keep rocks in our hands as we approached and left the area.

I can't tell you how amazing it was to see their way of life. When I went to Spain last August, I got to crawl through an entire community of caves from when the Muslims were being forced out of Spain. It was amazing to me then to think that people used to live in the caves, but to actually see people living in these caves, words just can't describe.

The main reason I went back to Hdida, was for Marisa's host sisters' wedding. Some of Marisa's neighbors loaned us some very fancy Kaftan's to wear for the occasion, which was fun. Gifts consisted of heaps and heaps of blankets, which you can see in the pictures below. They were stacked so high the bride couldn't see over the table in front of her. In the picture below, the bride is hidden under silk scarves, which is the tradition in southern Morocco.

I attended what can be compared to the bridal shower, only it took place the day before the wedding. As you can tell from the pictures, it was women only, aside from small children and very close male family members. Everyone gathered on the roof of Marisa's host family's place and after a couple hours of aheydus (traditional berber drumming and singing/chanting, with some yelping mixed in), we all gathered around low tables to eat.

The first course was sheria, which is basically chopped up angel hair pasta topped with powdered sugar, raisins and nuts. Very sweet and strange. The main course was large platters of meat and olives with bread. Dessert was a variety of fresh fruit in baskets. The bride remained under the silk scarves and after all the guests finished eating she and her mom and grandmother ate. The food was slipped under the scarves though, so not even a glimpse of her was seen.

While in Hdida, I also helped to paint Marisa's Cooperative building. Marisa was put in contact with a 'trek/adventure' tour company based in London, which had a group of 15, sixteen-year old girls who were signed up to come to Morocco for a week. Before they came, they met regularly in East London to learn about camping/survival techniques and all the other stuff adventure camps teach you. The tour included a community outreach project, followed by a three day trek through the Dades Gorges. Marisa and Stacey developed their project, which consisted of painting the inside of the Cooperative building and building display cases for their products.

The girls were all really lovely, but it was entertaining to hear their side talk about not being able to shower and all the differences from their lives in London. I felt like I was in London with all the accents! It made me think back to when I first came into country, all most a year ago, and all the comparing and contrasting I did then. I can't believe that in two weeks, I will have been here a year!

Miriam x