Amslane Day 11 &12 - Grinding Grain, Walnut leaves and Weaving
Day 11- The grain mill
When were walking by the mosque we were invited inside the tiny stone building sitting over a stream by the main road- opposite the mosque. A women with her children was grinding corn into flour/cornmeal with the stone mill- it uses the stream flow for power, really neat. Apparently everyone brings their grains there to grind into flour, although people also buy a lot of flour as well since the women make so much bread everyday as it’s a part of every meal.
Also found out that the rabbit who (Yousef’s pet) lives in the firewood and ‘taket’ tanort oven room is pregnant! Wonder if she’ll give birth while we’re here.
It’s amazing how much sound there is here even away from the houses. The loud bubbling river is complimented but the fields are a buzz with crickets and locust. The soil is also so alive too- ants, beetles, ladybugs, crickets and locust everywhere, especially a lot of ladybugs. Though remote and mostly free of motor vehicles, it’s amazing how much noise there is in the douar (village)- constant waves of rooster, dog, cow, and donkey cries permeate the air- even at night. (roosters here apparently think it is always dawn). Especially when hiking and doing surveys above the houses the noise travels and echoes making an intense soundscape for such a small concentration of people.
Day 12- Walnut leaves and weaving
Something wonderful I discovered with Souad is the amazing smell of young walnut tree leaves. Whole or broken they have this amazing aroma- something that I could imagine a designer candle company adding to their formula haha. Smelled some leaves on my walk alone while surveying the land, and stopped to sketch a beautiful old walnut tree that had fallen over with its roots protruding from the soil over a trickling stream. Walked further towards the snowy southern peaks on the road this morning for some ecological surveys.
Souad and I set out on our household interview surveys- managed four in the space of a few hours, people were very willing today! Oddly it was the men who helped most (not typical since the women usually feel more comfortable with us) encouraging their wives let us ask questions and giving helpful input. We were also served popcorn and a cornmeal dish, like polenta, but cooked in a tagine style ceramic dish- the first time we have tasted corn grown here. In fact it was the same cornmeal that we saw being ground yesterday in the stone watermill next to the mosque. One of the families we surveyed was building a new house and showed us how they make the tanort clay oven. Apparently it takes about 3 hours to form the clay and another 3 day to harden before it can be used.
After a brief interview with nice older man he brought us to see a group of women in the village weaving a rug. The room they were working in had a huge wooden loom apparatus hanging from strips of fabric off the ceiling, the multi-coloured strings running vertically on it looked made it look like a huge harp. They were using alternating stripes of dark and light wool sheared from the village sheep and thinner stripes of red and green yarn from the souq. The process involved a lot of beating down of the wool with metal scrapers between the strings (not sure which one are warp and wefts- forgetting my textile terms). Women tend to start rugs closer to Ramadan since there is more free time since it’s too difficult to work in the fields for as long, so crafts inside and naps take president. But it still seems like intensive work. Usually it takes the women several days to finish if they are consistent and have several hours free.