Day 15
Had an earlier start with Abdellatif and managed to get some population statistics from the office before meeting with Touda to walk to douar Lehabab- the only one I haven’t visited yet. We first stopped at the weaving association Malika is head of to see the workshop space and what they make. 13 women and a little girl were all sitting around a central table, most crocheting. Traditional wooden looms with little rugs that the girls were learning to weave on lined the walls and one large metal loom was in the back. There were also a number of old sewing machines (maybe a little more modern than my grandma’s singer and with decorations by the walls. In the back of the workshops rugs and ahendir were piled high, really nice simple traditional designs. There were also some bed throws and pillows with sequins hanging on the walls. So lovely to see a space were traditional artisan techniques are being supported and taught by the community with help from the government. The association and cooperative workshop were established in 2013 and the women are able to make a living selling traditionally woven rugs with wool from Ait M’hamed and other crafts using different materials. Its also an education space since they can teach the young girls and provide reading and writing lessons to the women whom are illiterate.
After we hiked up the hill to the houses at the top of the douar- it started to get very cold and wet as we were walking through clouds- one of my ears became so full of water. We proceeded to conduct interview surveys with 4 households, most out in the cold. Since its Ramadan, and social rules about men entering households we end up doing quite a lot of interviews outside since Abdellatif though young is still a man. We also did a plant walk with Touda to get more local names. We saw a collection of beehives for market honey and the broken ground for a new high school since the number of students is growing as more douars send their children to school in the centre. Upon walking down the hill Touda greeted a man gathering Touga in one of the small fields by the river and main bridge. After interviewing him and observing his methods for harvesting I got to do a brief participant observation and help cut and gather some touga as well. His method for making small handful bundles and tying them was not too hard, but I am still bad at tying the bundles with the longer plants, mine just looked misshapen. Although they were not terrible according to Abdellatif since when he dropped one it did not fall apart- that is the test to see if you tied it correctly. As long as it holds doesn’t need to be neat or pretty. There was quite an interesting mix of plants comprising the touga- clovers, plantain, various poaceae and asters, haven’t seen as much clover growing in touga fields- but perhaps since this one is more moist by the river it has more.
After we said goodbye to Touda, we went to the carpenter and watched him build a quadrat frame for me. Went for a short hike, the after a phone meeting and some typing, I helped Malika clean and then break beans into smaller pieces and make a vegetable tagine. The method is layering; first a little oil at the base with chopped onions, next peppers (usually the large long green kind) with courgette (sometimes carrots), then potatoes over and tomato and parsley to garnish. Then spices are mixed with water and salt including turmeric, paprika, ginger, fenugreek, this is then poured on after a drizzling of oil.