Rain glorious rain

It rained yesterday evening for the first time since we arrived in the valley nearly 3 months ago! A slight drizzle which cleared the mugginess and filled the air with a sweet earthy smell. Today it’s like we’re living in a completely different place; no blue sky, no sunshine, the mountains are cloaked in white and everyone is going round wrapped up and complaining about the weather. To us, who are used to the rain, it’s quite refreshing.

We have just over a week left here in Morocco and are starting to wrap up our work. We have been testing the prototype sand filter every day now for a week and it seems to be working pretty well although often we arrive in the morning to find that the kids have helpfully opened the tap and drained it! We held a sand filter workshop for them last week which was a little chaotic but seemed to be a success in getting them involved and interested in our work.

Yesterday we had a day off and walked from Tafraout to the painted rocks; a load of rocks in the middle of nowhere that a Dutch artist with the help of a local team of firemen painted blue and pink in the early ‘80s. You can actually see them on google earth and when we eventually found them (this was our 2nd attempt as they are not clearly signposted!) they were pretty impressive.

Today we showed Wall-e on the projector in the community centre for the children and for the rest of the week we’ll be working on finishing our reports and writing a presentation to give to the village on Saturday before leaving for Tiznit and the start of our long journey home on Sunday.

A weekend of sheep and breathtaking views

We spent all day Sunday walking in the mountains from 6am to 6pm! After an easy walk along the winding road up to Tagdicht we continued on up the mountain to the summit. The views from the top were incredible! We could see the whole of the Ameln Valley and the mountains continuing for miles beyond. I’ve posted some of the photos but they don’t really do it justice.

We were expecting to have to eat a lot of sheep at Mohammed’s family’s house but I think the worst thing I ate was sheep’s lung (at least I think that’s what it was but it was hard to tell!) which wasn’t too bad.

The weather has suddenly turned really cold here (relatively), especially at night and early in the morning. Our house doesn’t have any heating so we’re wearing lots of jumpers (well, I am!) and drinking tea in an effort to keep warm. Seeing as it’s 1st December we’ve been playing xmas songs all day whilst finishing our irrigation report!