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Most hard work is being done by women: field work, carrying straw for animals, cooking, cleaning/washing etc…. Men are doing ploughing, building houses and going to the weekly markets to sell or buy. Kids are often drawing and carrying water from the village fountains or the wells.

I was told Berber men are very stingy especially with their wives. They are the one doing the shopping…not much brought back to women!

Arab mint tea or Berber hospitality:

In any village in those mountains, if you spend time chatting with locals, they will very quickly invite you to drink mint tea. You will enter their house bear-footed; inside is very different from outside: outside blends with the hills; inside, walls are all white and very thick with small windows letting sun comes through moucharabieh in nice shapes of rays, very high ceilings, bright carpets covering the floor, and one small low round table for tea. Not one piece of furniture. In a separate small room is the kitchen with one cupboard and some china.

No running water in many of those houses but tanks of water coming from the village (very cold water as it is coming straight from the mountains!)

Mint tea is served very sweet and hot (the sugar cone is broken in pieces with a hammer) and served with amber honey, fresh butter, warm bread and olive oil. Everything is delicious (except the olive oil which is very thick and almost green, quite bitter…but it may be me accustomed to smooth French olive oil!)

 

Berber souks:

Once a week, men come down from their villages to buy/sell and do the family shopping. A long ribbon of people spreads across the paths, walking or riding on donkeys/mules. Few cars, mainly old French Peugeot bringing 8 to 12 people to the markets (very tight!). All go slowly to these very animated places!

When you are there, it is a different world: activities are numerous and dense, loads of animals, people, products… People sell, buy, weight, chat, get the donkeys in order, sit for a coffee at the “bar des amis”, eat “tagine”. Spices, fruits and vegetables bring bright colors; donkeys and mules bray noisily… butchers hang their animals in their shop-windows/frontages; other merchants place small pieces of meat on tables  shelted from the sun but not the dust/sand/flies….Others grill chicken and sheep on small hand-made barbecues: it smells good and nice twirls of smoke rise up. Greeting, kissing, walking arm in arm, discussing, chatting, defecating in corners that are not very isolated …A real cacophony of smells, colors, noises, movements and dust!

   

   

 

 

 

From the terrace where they have been “parked”, donkeys and mules bray noisily with no reason, kick with no reason, fight with no reason and couple with no reason! Attached to a very short rope, they cannot move, so they bite and fight. Some have their 2 front legs attached together and cannot move so they jump: a real circus!

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