Amslane- Day 2
First morning in Amslane- awoke at 6.00 am from the sunlight peeking through the window. Something confusing is that people use ‘old time’ so they operate an hour behind the rest of Morocco. So Souad and I will have to subtract hours whenever we look at our phones, hopefully won’t make meetings and mealtimes too confusing here. At 8 am I went to say hello to the family as they got ready for the day- this is the typical wake-up time for everyone since women have to make breakfast for the children before they leave for school or class at the mosque.
I didn’t see men this morning, not sure yet if its typically the women who are active, but given that mornings are when domestic duties need to start it would make sense. The morning activities today were carrying firewood and cooking/preparing fires, and feeding the cows in their pens. Its very peaceful here; rooster and cow cries echoing through the valley with an occasional punctuation from donkeys and fire adds a nice aroma to the fresh mountain air. The river or maybe canal is very loud as well as I could hear it even from the house much higher up the mountainside a distance from the water (water is powerful in many ways).
After a short hike alone, Souad and I set out walking into the valley. When she was ready we set out to get initial observations of fodder collection and farming. The goal for the first few days is to observe and participate in activities that will allow me to understand which fodder plants are most significant and to refine interview and survey questions to administer later on in our stay. We saw and spoke with several women collecting fodder plants in different places- two in an apple orchard and the other by the river in touga field (word for fodder plants). They informed us women in the douar (small village) go out to collect touga twice per day typically in spring and summer- once in the morning and once in the early evening. This takes up a significant portion of their working days. We also observed quite a few people shepherding. We haven't seen any men in the fields, although since its spring crops are still flowering so the fruits and grains still have a ways to develop post-pollination before they can be harvested, still a strange absence.