Ait M'hamed Day 18
Very briefly helped Fatima bring water for heating to prepare the hammam. She was using the branches from the conifer tree (leaves stripped and pushing them into the cavity under the hammam- as fuel for the fire that they will light there later. The hammam is about 6 feet tall and really only sized for one person to use at a time. I haven’t gotten to try yet, but it’s like a bath/sauna room from how Malika has described where she spends 1-3 hours sitting and scrubbing her skin, so cleaning. Hoping to try it when I’m back in Marrakech where they have bigger bath houses if I don’t have a chance here. The conifer wood seems to be used for a lot of things there, fires, small structures, digestive medicine (maybe sometimes respiratory), fodder when other plants are scarce, and most apparent in the douars- as fencing to keep herds by the houses. Usually for this the branches are charred and laid on top of each other in thick walls often mixed with other woody branches from Quercus and Salicaceae species of the dried milky plants.
Went on a 4 hour hike since Abdellatif could not get transit here. Despite the cold cloudy weather it was a beautiful explore the rolling hills covered in spring wildflower blooms. Still amazed by the number and abundance of wildflowers in the high atlas, even in the crop fields. Herbicides are not part of farming practice here it seems- the animals serve that purpose. I also found numerous aromatic plants, one that looks just like zatar but has pink flowers and smells like a cross between rosemary and lavender. Definitely a lamiaceae, smelled so amazing I picked some to bring back will try drying some to take on the plane. I’m so intrigued by all the medical plants and the knowledge of medicinal plants of the people here, especially the women. The zatar with also grew in Amslane is used to flavour tea, but is also used as a digestive medicine. I’ve been having it at iftar for the past few days and its helped.
Passed the time climbing up the colourful sedimentary rocks unearthed by the river- creating jutting lines on the hillsides and taking pictures of the fodder flora and landscape. It was fun to get lost a little, thankfully no run-ins with dogs. Got a good view of the town from a different higher angle. Walked by the stone building and ruins- relics of a French military colonial outpost-near the school, and discovered that there are some people living there as evident by the chickens plants and tv satellite dish.
Feeding animals seems to also be a way of reinforcing social support networks. People without fields often seem to receive touga or can collect it sometimes from other’s fields as supplemental feed. But with diminishing grazing plants and touga in the fields, it seems that there is risk of these kinds of exchanges eroding as people have fewer animals and buy more feed from the souk.
Later in the evening I met Touda and we waited for Soufiane who has been working in Bernet today- no idea he was here but it was nice to see him for about 5 minutes before he rush off in transit to Marrakech via Azilal. After Touda and I had a rather hilarious time using broken French, Tamazirht, and English to identify plants on my computer I had photographed for classification. So far I have been able to get the vernacular/Tamazight names and families, but the botanical species level is proving tricky. It fun seeing how many very similar to species in California which also has a Mediterranean climate (maybe some intentional introduction there as well).