Written by CorpsAfrica/Maroc Volunteer Ms. Hafsaa Ait Tabamoute
The 10th of April was the day I moved to my site Tiwichi in M’Zouda commune, 75km from Marrakech city. After meeting with the authorities of the commune, I went with the treasurer of ‘’Al Farah’’ association, whose name is Mohamed Ait Hamou, who hosted me in his house for the first night. He presented me to his wife and his daughter. They are now my host family.
The people of Tiwichi village work in the fields, the men sow and the women help them in the period of harvesting. Some women and men, who get paid, work on the farms that market olives, wheat, watermelon, beans, pumpkin, and other vegetables. The only farm that exports its products is the farm of orange.
This year, people don’t go to their own fields, because there wasn’t much rain, so what they sow doesn’t produce much, except for the big farms that get water from their own wells that they dug.
What surprised me the most in my site, unlike in the other villages in M’Zouda commune, the girls here can hang out in the village, go out for a picnic, visit each other, spend the night in each other houses… So in the first weeks when I arrived I was always going out with them, talking to them about the problems they have, getting to know their traditions and culture which are somehow different from mine… Even if I am a Tamazight as them, there are so many differences between us in term of dialect and traditions.
‘’Akhamal’’ is a special skirt the girls and the women must wear whenever and wherever they go out. Even for weddings, they wear the traditional dress, but with ‘’Akhamal’’ on the top of it. After spending a week with them, I also started wearing even in the meeting I am having with the teacher at school and with the association members. I actually liked that skirt.
What I love the most about my site is the so beautiful sunset they have. I just cannot keep taking enough pictures of it when I am out with the girls for a walk around the site.
Well, pictures will definitely better explain what I am talking about 🙂
