Les bêtes sauvages

We are just recovering after having been chased round a field by a cow! Mohammed was showing us his family’s plot of land and well in a walled area behind their house. When he opened one of the sheds to show us the cows, one of them escaped. There was a very scary moment when it was charging straight at us and all I could hear was Mohammed saying “Allez!” Luckily we got out of the way just in time. Phew! It’s been an eventful day with regards to wild animals as we also encountered a snake on the way back from the village this morning! Luckily we haven’t seen any wild boar yet as I doubt we’d be able to outrun them.

This morning we went to the village of Ighalen which we are studying at the moment to conduct an interview with one of the residents about the current agricultural situation. He was a very old man who only spoke Tashleheet (the local Berber language) so Mohammed acted as a translator. It was fascinating finding out about the agriculture and history of the village and the problems they are faced with today. He told us that the main problem is that there are not enough people left in the village to cultivate the land as most of them have moved away to cities in the north. The village has experienced 4 years of drought but he said that even if there was plenty of water people wouldn’t grow more crops as it is now easier to buy them in the local town. It made us realise that a lot of the problems that the villages face in this area are social and that there is no simple engineering solution.

When we’re not surveying in the midday sun or grappling with the French language as we write this report for the National Assembly to get funding for the village, we go walking in the valley with Mohammed. We learn a lot about the valley as he points out the different villages (whose names we forget immediately) and tells us of the traditions of the people who live here, occasionally stopping at his aunt’s house or a friend’s house for mint tea and some lessons in Tashleheet. It’s very interesting talking to a young Morrocan and learning about the country from his point of view. He is studying at the university in Agadir at the moment and tells us often of the problems with the education system. When I asked him what he wants to do when he finishes university, he replied that it’s not so much what you want to do in Morocco but what you can do as employment opportunities are limited in a country where you can buy a degree certificate for a few thousand Dirham. It seems that it is not what you know but how much money you have that will make you successful in Morocco!