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Amslane Day 15- Learning about gender dynamics and harvesting in the apple fields

Heading to collect touga

I helped Halti Hadija make the arsis arrom (the stove top bread- a little like pita mixed with an English muffin). Would be fun to try and make for my family- and is a more traditional Amazigh bread according to Souad since they make it in other areas, whereas the tanort bread seems to be more just the people in the High Atlas. Household interview surveys were slower today since all the women wanted to tell stories and would take so long to answer questions, but it’s so nice to hear more about their lives. We also got to see another taket being formed with cement and clay, made me nostalgic for making ceramics.

clay taket bread oven being formed

Also we found out that many of the boys who don’t leave for school in other towns (school ends at grade 6 here) end up studying at the timezguida (mosque) and if they finish studying the Qur’an they are sent to study at a famous religious school in Agadir- so that’s what’s keeping some of them here longer. Most of the young girls who are past grade 6 here are studying Qur’an by themselves at home and doing housework/helping their mothers until they find a husband. Since many have smartphones they meet boys and exchange numbers or find friends through whatsapp and facebook who are prospective suitors- but dating is not allowed in the rural areas, so its mostly text/messaging relationships (from what we have been told and observed with the young girls). 15-18 is the marrying age, once a women passes that she is out of her prime and the chances of getting married after 20 are low apparently- seems so young and so unfair that young women have such limited prospects compared to boys. Even watching them play and what the boys get away with- ideas of male dominance and superiority seem fostered from a young age. The girls have to do more work helping their mothers all the time.

Did a participant observation in the apple field with Yemena her sister Kibera, and another woman while Souad and Halti Hadija watched. Fatim was a very helpful aid- tying some of my bundles of lefst. There were so many other plants growing with the lefst under the young apple trees, but nobody seemed to know what the names were just calling everything lefst or ejaretan (the weeds, and it was all harvested- only the apple trees and irises were left to grow. After cutting down a large handful of lefst and ejaretan we would take the longer strands and wrap them around to tie the bundle closed. They typically leave them for a few days to dry out a little more before bringing them to the house or animal pens for feeding or drying out. As we were finishing Fatim came back and brought us some young almonds to try- wasn’t nearly ripe but had a nice mild flavour. Also ate a few of the baby alfalfa sprouts at Souad’s recommendation

I carried one of the large bags with bundles from the other day and this evening on my head. Not the best idea- think it tweaked my neck a little so I had to switch to holding it on my back half way back (about a 20 minute hike up the hills and road. Right when we got back and I dropped the lefst bag, Halti Hadija asked some neighbours to show us the bull. Was so sad to look into his eyes, he did look a lot more filled out than the cows- probably because he is fed by all the women in the village, but he like the other cows must be lonely- once in a while they bring a cow to stay with him for a night to impregnate her, basically to keep her milk cycling going since they sell the calves after several months typically.