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When Every Summer Day is a Celebration Day…

12/9/2016

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Written by Hafssa Ait Tabamoute, CorpsAfrica/Maroc Volunteer

​People in my site “Tiouchi” had a very busy and outstanding summer time. It was a very special part of the year for locals to celebrate their weddings and for guests to get out of work stress. People living in big cities come to the village to spend their holidays by visiting their families, enjoy the nature as well as share weddings’ happiness with their families.

Directly after the Eid of Al Adha, the first wedding in the town started to finish in mid-October as the 15th one. What is special about these celebrations is that people who are preparing their marriage ceremonies agree on the dates of each wedding which make every summer day a celebration. The other reason is to organize the wedding schedule of the village. So many considerations, habits and preparations are taken into account to get ready for the big day.  A week before the wedding ceremony, all the family members are gathered to give a hand in the preparations by cleaning the house, inviting the neighbors, buying the gifts for the bride and the groom.

The wedding celebrations in Tiouchi take three days. In the first day, family members and neighbors come to witness the slaughter of the cow. After lunch, the girls, women, and men take the gifts composed of clothes, henna, ring, etc. to the bride’s house walking and singing along the way until getting to her house. This tradition is called in this town dialect "Tirial" meaning "the gift". At the bride’s house, another tradition called ‘’Asghat’’ takes place, where they put henna on the bride while other women sing a very special song to this ritual.
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Coming back to the groom’s house, and at night of the first day, the girls and women go the roof, but only four girls are assigned to do the next ritual called ‘’Takhmirt’’ in which the four girls start to make a dough with only flour and water. When they finish they put dates and a silver bracelet of one of them on the uncooked dough they made. Later on, they start singing while touring around to finish by pouring the water with which they made the dough from the roof.
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In the morning of the second day, the girls who are not engaged yet eat the dates to bring them luck, while for the unbaked dough is given to chickens to eat.
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In the same morning, two girls take the clothes that the bride is going to wear for the celebration. She comes with the girls and women who bring her from her parents’ house to the groom’s house to celebrate. In the evening, the guests start to come.

The first thing to do when everybody is here is a tradition named ‘’Aroko’’ where the family members, neighbors, and guest collect money. They make a circle and those who want to give money provide the amount they can give. This operation is meant to help the family financially to organize the wedding and it takes from one hour to three hours depending on how many people are invited. After ‘’Aroko’’ the real celebration begins with singing and dancing.
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The next morning, which is the third day, the bride sets in a room with the family members and some other guests who are still there. The bride greets all of those who are in the house at that moment by kissing their heads to get their blessings. This day continues with other traditions and rituals that make her an official family member.
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What I learned about carpets in my site!

6/28/2016

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Written by Hafssa Ait Tabamoute - CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Morocco

During the first two days after moving to my site, "Tiwichi," I participated in putting the last touches on a carpet one my host family’s neighbor was making. Since then, I knew that I just love the way these women and girls are collaborating and helping each other to weave a very beautiful carpet, with such beautiful patterns, and in a very intelligent way with very simple, yet, important tools.
           
The thing about carpet weaving, is that two or three girls can sit in front of the equipment to design the pattern they agreed on, but the most interesting thing is that two or three more girls can make it from behind the equipment, which makes them finish it in a very little time.

It has been a week now that my host sister decided that she wants to make a carpet. I, unfortunately, wasn’t there from the first day to see how they organized and put together the carpet’s equipment, but I was there to hear all these traditions, beliefs, and bride-related stories about making carpets.
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I learned to make it from both sides, but for my host sister’s carpet I was sitting from behind the carpet in order to be able to count the number of knots of the flower pattern I was designing at the left of the carpet and trying to do the same flower with the same number of knots and colors. The flower was made by green, red, white, and blue colors, so I was counting how many knots for each color and trying to do the same thing.
 
It might seem easy, but believe me, it is not, because you need to stay really concentrated to avoid mixing colors or losing the pattern’s shape.
 
We were in the third line making knots of the flower when one of the girls working from the front of the carpet asked me to give her some water. I handed her the glass between where the carpet ends in the right and the wooden pole that holds the carpet yarns, and I was surprised when she said: ‘’no, don’t pass it in between it will bring me bad luck at my wedding.’’
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​I have been talking with the girls about some others traditions or stories related to the carpet weaving, and Soukaina, my host sister, told me that when a girl gets married she is not allowed to touch or to make any carpet until making ‘’a7erchich oumlil.’’ "A7erchich oumlil’’ is also made with the carpet materials, but with only white yarn. Only after that can she participate in helping the other girls or women weave or she can start making one for herself.

Moreover, when someone comes while the girls are working and he or she wants to shake their hands saying ‘’hi’’ from the top of the carpet material, the girls who are not married refuse. They think that if they do it they would get married to one of the douars (little villages) that are situated near to the mountains. Actually, girls do not prefer to get married to those places.

I used to watch women and girls, back in the village of my father when I was a little girl, how they made the carpet, but I never paid attention to the materials it is made with, which shows how our grandparents used such smart methods and techniques to create simple, yet beautiful daily life items.
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Move to Site!

6/10/2016

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Written by Hafssa Ait Tabamoute - CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Morocco

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 in 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 :)

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