Today is the day when 6 million sheep (and many million more in the rest of the Muslim world) are simultaneously slaughtered across Morocco for the religious festival of Eid-al Adha. Every family sacrifices their best animal to commemorate Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son for Allah. Hoping to avoid this spectacle we are walking to Mohammed’s family’s house today to spend the weekend there. It’s a 3 hour walk but now that the weather has cooled down a bit it should be a pleasant stroll. On Sunday we are getting up early to walk to a small village called Tagdicht which is perched high up in the mountains. Then Monday we’ll walk back to Imin’Tizeght to carry on our work.
I know the blog entries are becoming few and far between but we are really busy trying to complete all our work and achieve what we set out to do with only 3 weeks left in the country. Yesterday we finished building the prototype sand filter with the ‘help’ of some of the village children. It’s great to see them taking an interest and getting involved. Next week we’re hoping to run a sand filter workshop for them to explain how it works. It was great to actually build something rather than researching and writing reports. We got completely covered in dust from head to toe but are very excited about testing the filter now!
Saturday, 28 November 2009
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Scorchio, scorchio
We’ve just got back from a weekend in Madrid and are feeling revitalised and ready to solve all of Morocco’s problems in the remaining 5 weeks we have here. We popped across to Espagne as it is easier than trying to get our visa extended. After 2 and a half months in Morocco, Madrid seemed like unbelievable luxury and for the first afternoon we just wandered round in awe marvelling at the Museum of Ham, drinking thick hot chocolate and enjoying the glorious anonymity of a European city.
So now that we’re back we have a lot to do in 5 weeks. We’re hoping to build and test a prototype sand filter so see if it can effectively remove detergent from water. Hassan has bought us a 200l plastic barrel and we think we finally managed to explain to him that we need 3 different sized sieves to prepare the sand so we’re hoping they will have got these sorted by the time we get back to the village. As a bit of a side project we’re hoping to run sand filter workshops with the children as something to entertain them and to teach them a bit about what we’re doing in the hope that the information will get back to their parents. EWB already have workshops set up that they run in schools in the UK so we’ll just adapt them a bit for Morocco.
As well as sand filters we’re looking at other options for reusing or recycling the water from the wash area. The simplest, low cost option would be to use the untreated water on plants and trees that are more resistant to high salt levels. To avoid human contact with the grey water it would be best to apply the water directly to tree roots but finding a suitable area of well-established trees may be tricky so we’re looking at creating crop fields which can be rotated to reduce the build up of salts in the soil.
Another option for water purification which we’ve been looking at recently is constructed wetlands. We hadn’t really considered this option in depth as we thought the rate of evaporation would be a problem but then came across some research done by a professor at a university in Marrakech in which she tested reed beds and found them to be very effective even in an arid climate. We just found her contact details today so have e-mailed her for some more info.
This afternoon we’re going into the DPA office to discuss our ideas with Hassan and then back to the village tomorrow hopefully. Next weekend we have the festival of Eid Mqqurn to look forward to during which every family slaughters a ram. We’re really hoping we don’t get invited to watch this spectacle!
So now that we’re back we have a lot to do in 5 weeks. We’re hoping to build and test a prototype sand filter so see if it can effectively remove detergent from water. Hassan has bought us a 200l plastic barrel and we think we finally managed to explain to him that we need 3 different sized sieves to prepare the sand so we’re hoping they will have got these sorted by the time we get back to the village. As a bit of a side project we’re hoping to run sand filter workshops with the children as something to entertain them and to teach them a bit about what we’re doing in the hope that the information will get back to their parents. EWB already have workshops set up that they run in schools in the UK so we’ll just adapt them a bit for Morocco.
As well as sand filters we’re looking at other options for reusing or recycling the water from the wash area. The simplest, low cost option would be to use the untreated water on plants and trees that are more resistant to high salt levels. To avoid human contact with the grey water it would be best to apply the water directly to tree roots but finding a suitable area of well-established trees may be tricky so we’re looking at creating crop fields which can be rotated to reduce the build up of salts in the soil.
Another option for water purification which we’ve been looking at recently is constructed wetlands. We hadn’t really considered this option in depth as we thought the rate of evaporation would be a problem but then came across some research done by a professor at a university in Marrakech in which she tested reed beds and found them to be very effective even in an arid climate. We just found her contact details today so have e-mailed her for some more info.
This afternoon we’re going into the DPA office to discuss our ideas with Hassan and then back to the village tomorrow hopefully. Next weekend we have the festival of Eid Mqqurn to look forward to during which every family slaughters a ram. We’re really hoping we don’t get invited to watch this spectacle!
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Dancing, weddings and irrigation systems
This weekend was one packed full of Moroccan culture. On Saturday night Hassan knocked on our door at 9pm to tell us that there was a dance in the neighbouring village from 11pm to 3am! So we headed down there in the dark and found a place to sit amongst the women. I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned it before but the women in this region of Morocco wear a black robe called a hemelheff (not sure its spelt like that – might also be called an amelheff not sure) which covers them from head to toe and which they pull across their face so that only their eyes are showing when they see a stranger. All the women had dressed up in amazing brightly coloured sparkly robes but with their black hemelheff over the top so that you couldn’t see any of the splendour! The men and women sit separately at these events and watch a group of men singing and dancing non-stop for 4 hours. There seem to be two parts to the show; firstly the men sing/chant to a drum beat and kind of jiggle round in a circle, then they stop dancing, line up in a row and two men sing/wail at each other and people go up and stick bits of foliage in their collars to show their appreciation for the performance. The women show their appreciation by making a very high pitched (almost beyond the human hearing range) warbling kind of sound. They repeat this many times for 4 hours. Stacey describes it as ‘a marathon for the ears.’ Anyway we managed to escape at 2am as we were pretty cold and tired.
Sunday we decided to have a day off and walked along the valley to visit a traditional Berber house museum in a neighbouring village called Oumsnet. We came across a herd of goats on the way but they were too busy being herded along to climb trees for us to take photos of. Oh well, next time! The guide who showed us around the house spoke very good English and after the tour we sat down to drink mint tea and got talking about our work. We explained the work we were doing looking at the pollution from the communal washing area in Imin’Tizeght and he explained that Oumsnet had the same problem and that he was looking at ways to solve it. After tea he showed us the village’s washing area and the work that is currently being done to line the earth irrigation channels with concrete. He said that unlike Imin’Tizeght the villagers of Oumsnet are very happy that the work is being done on their irrigation system because it means that there is a lot more water available for irrigation. After the disastrous meetings we had with the women (there was another one on thurs with a government minister which descended into chaos – we’re glad its not just our meetings!) it was refreshing and inspiring to see a village where improvements really are being made. We took the guys e-mail address and promised we’d keep him posted on our work. We’re thinking about extending our work to fins a solution that would suit Oumsnet also. The idea is that we’ll produce a report with different options for solving the problem which can be used in any village in the valley.
Got back late to find that we were supposed to be at a wedding but noone had told us! Berber weddings are very different to English weddings. The whole village is invited and the men and women sit in different rooms and celebrate completely separately. We were sat on the roof with all the women and luckily Maggie was there to tell us what was going on. The night kicked off at 8pm with singing and dancing. Then around about 11.30pm we sat down to eat. The first course was cous cous (very hard to eat with your fingers) covered with amlou which is a kind of syrup made from almonds made locally. Next we were presented with 2 whole roast chickens, then there was another course of beef with prunes and finally a massive plate of fruit. Usually at a Berber wedding it is the tradition for the bride and groom to go off and consummate the marriage and then show the freshly soiled marital sheets to everyone to show that the bride was a virgin. Unusually and luckily for us for some reason this didn’t happen at this wedding! Then everyone headed outside for another session of watching the same group of men sing and dance for 4 hours. It’s amazing to be amidst so much rich Berber culture and tradition but sometimes a little confusing and tiring.
Sunday we decided to have a day off and walked along the valley to visit a traditional Berber house museum in a neighbouring village called Oumsnet. We came across a herd of goats on the way but they were too busy being herded along to climb trees for us to take photos of. Oh well, next time! The guide who showed us around the house spoke very good English and after the tour we sat down to drink mint tea and got talking about our work. We explained the work we were doing looking at the pollution from the communal washing area in Imin’Tizeght and he explained that Oumsnet had the same problem and that he was looking at ways to solve it. After tea he showed us the village’s washing area and the work that is currently being done to line the earth irrigation channels with concrete. He said that unlike Imin’Tizeght the villagers of Oumsnet are very happy that the work is being done on their irrigation system because it means that there is a lot more water available for irrigation. After the disastrous meetings we had with the women (there was another one on thurs with a government minister which descended into chaos – we’re glad its not just our meetings!) it was refreshing and inspiring to see a village where improvements really are being made. We took the guys e-mail address and promised we’d keep him posted on our work. We’re thinking about extending our work to fins a solution that would suit Oumsnet also. The idea is that we’ll produce a report with different options for solving the problem which can be used in any village in the valley.
Got back late to find that we were supposed to be at a wedding but noone had told us! Berber weddings are very different to English weddings. The whole village is invited and the men and women sit in different rooms and celebrate completely separately. We were sat on the roof with all the women and luckily Maggie was there to tell us what was going on. The night kicked off at 8pm with singing and dancing. Then around about 11.30pm we sat down to eat. The first course was cous cous (very hard to eat with your fingers) covered with amlou which is a kind of syrup made from almonds made locally. Next we were presented with 2 whole roast chickens, then there was another course of beef with prunes and finally a massive plate of fruit. Usually at a Berber wedding it is the tradition for the bride and groom to go off and consummate the marriage and then show the freshly soiled marital sheets to everyone to show that the bride was a virgin. Unusually and luckily for us for some reason this didn’t happen at this wedding! Then everyone headed outside for another session of watching the same group of men sing and dance for 4 hours. It’s amazing to be amidst so much rich Berber culture and tradition but sometimes a little confusing and tiring.
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