Goodbye Amslane

Amslane Day 20

The road out of Amslane

Currently driving back to Marrakech on an unpaved very rocky narrow road- like highway 1 on the NorCal coast but steeper with more cliffs. Quite the way to wake up after a 5am start. Also saw a tasaft tree above the road outside Amslane quite stunted but old since the trunk was so large but the branches and leaves were in such clumped bunches. Ironic since we never got to collect fodder from them during our time there (poor weather conditions and dangerous hiking according to the women and herders so they were reluctant to take me). Although I did hike the mountainsides myself to an extent, but deforestation and over-harvesting pressures and climate change induced drought all mean that the trees are very far from the douar.

Towards the end of our trip the older women keep saying that we need to stay get cows and get married and so I can learn Tachelhit properly- they seemed sad to see us go and I am too. Wish I had a bit more time for data collection and to learn more from them but it’s expensive accommodation and I need to stay within my funding budget and I also need enough time to collect a lot of data before Ramadan in my next site. Something funny Souad told me is the little girls who yell bonjour and tarromyte (foreigner) apparently have been saying where is your mother a lot while we have been here. Since women cannot usually do things alone they are confused what two young girls are doing in a remote town alone, even towards the end of our stay they were still saying it. Despite feeling uncomfortable sometimes, it hasn’t been too much of a problem travelling alone as a young women. Although it took time for people to warm us to us, they were so kind and welcoming, really hope I can return one day to visit again.