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| Showing Us His Irrigation Canals |
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| Visiting in a Home |
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| Gnaoua Musicians |
So far we’ve stayed in a riad in Rabat, had dinner with an Arab family, learned about Gnaoua music, and visited with a nomad family. We have also spoken to shepherds tending their flock by the roadside, a widow in Meknès-Tafilalet who survives by helping at parties and weddings, and a farmer in the desert who created an irrigation system and now grows olives and vegetables. Everywhere we went, we were served delicious, very sweet mint tea. Even the poorest home has at least a couple of dozen tea glasses, a teapot, and a footed serving tray. At the Berber Museum, I saw antique boxes for carrying tea glasses on camel back. A wonderful custom.
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Three Generations of Nomads
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Today we spent several hours with a Berber family near Ouarzazate in western Morocco. After a tour of their home which includes a large special room with banquet setting for at least 40 and the floor covered in carpets, the father led us out to his olive grove where he made us mint tea and served flat bread just cooked in the communal oven. His 7-year-old son and 4 other boys helped, then sang a couple of songs before heading to their afternoon school session. We returned to the house where his wife and her friend served us home-made couscous. Of course all these people are paid by OAT to accommodate us. It seems a more genuine way to help their economy than buying trinkets and souvenirs that I don’t want to add to my life.
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| The Ever-Presented Mint Tea |
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| Making Couscous |
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