New Roof, New Shop

As part of the market improvements the old rattan roof over the passageway by Moha's "Afrika Arts" shop in the Arab Souk has been replaced. There is a general consensus that this is not an improvement. The new roof is of corrugated metal. It is rivetted to the old supports using a rivet gun. It does not allow light to filter through nor breezes. It heats up in the sun. When it rains there is the most dreadfull noise as the drops rattle on the metal and then form rivulets down the chanelss and all spill out at then same place. The scarf seller next door in particular has had to rehang his goods to avoid their soaking. There is also a consensus that it was not possible to fix the metal sufficiently and that as it is resistant to air rather than letting it pass through that it will blow off in the first high wind.
Anyway either because of or despite this Moha decided to refit his shop. When we left in March it was a hive of industry. New lights had been added it was painted an irridescent blue and pink material stapled above the display cabinets which where relined and the jewelllry rehung. Itook some pictures but was told not to blog it because it was unfinished and was to have stencils over all the paint work and indeed this was started. It would be wonderful when we retuned. We returned at the end of April and it was as we had left it. We leave again now and there is no furthe progress. Moha looks shamedfaced and says "We worked really hard for a week and then gave up." I like it as it is but obviouly cannot compare it with the original concept. 

Where have the barrow boys gone?

A really striking change this May is the complete abscence of barrow boys. Usually they are ouside the mosque and on the corner of Place Asserag selling the most perishable and seasonable crops.; strawberries, avocados, pears, quince. Also there have always been stalls by Bab Taghout selling kitchen equipment, tajines and diffusers. Hawkers sold mint and herbs at the gate and ouside were banan stalls and also pavement sellers of the very poor selling just a few bananas or aubergines. They are all gone, even though there is a new raised semicircle of paving which would be a good place for them. We discuss their abscence with Moha. I think that the city has had a clearout to protect its market and clamped down on them. Moha blames the international financial situation but then adds evidence for my theory by telling us of one fruit seller going from shop to shop in the Souk and the market manager came up to him accompanied by a soldier with a gun!!! and told him to move on and he could not sell. A clampdown seems much more likely to me because the short-term effect of a market failure would be that as one supplier went out of business the others would pick up their trade and there would be a gradual decrease rather than a total and sudden stop.
 Meanwhile I am bereft.We have to go much further to get mint and herbs and I have no idea whre to go to get fruit. Fortunately it is the melon season and greengrocers are carrying them as they are not too perishable but they generally don't carry perishable produce like strawberries and pears or the nectarines and peaches which should be available now and are in other towns but not here. Will we have to go to the Sunday Souk? I hope the authorites change their minds before they are next in season because if only shops selling to the affluent have them that is the far side of town to us.
The worst effects are in the square at the centre of the Arab Souk. This has always been full of vegetable sellers from blankets and baskets on the ground interspersed with the ware of the secondhand furniture sellers spred down the centre of the square. They are all gone. what is also gone particularly there but as you walk round the town is the vibrancy, colour and interest which accompanied them our visitors always enjoyed that and I think they have taken away a lot of the charm and attraction of the town. 

The square in the arab souk which is usually a market now only has bikes parked.



The mosque without stalls outside



View into town from top of bab Taghout showing some of the stalls 15.10.11.

 


 

That area today with new pavement but no hawkers.

A barrowless Place Assareg





North South divide and we Discover a Mooroccan Spring

There has been a heat wave here with temperatures in the 40sC in the shade. We took off on a little holiday to Meknes and the middle Atlas where it was only in the high 30s.
It was an eventful escape because the car broke down in Meknes, the fan giving out and overheating. We got it fixed but it broke again on Monday when we were nearly at Ouzoud. I could have been quite cross with the hire company but Mustapha had two of his associates drive overnight to deliver us a new car.
Anyway we had never be to the north before and we were surprised by the contrast with the south. By the time you get to Rabat the scenery is entirely different, the main crop wheat and you could be anywhere in Northern Europe. Except that the wheat harvest is in May.there was no rape, and no enclosure Act field system, so you felt that perhaps you weren't in England but there were no bouganvillea, cacti or argan trees so you certainly weren't in the Sousse.
There were other differences though, more like a reverse of Britain's North South Divide. Certainly if prosperity is measured b the ratio of cars to mule carts; private cars to taxis and tractors to Camel bike pickups the North is much more prosperous than the South.I had thought there was a lot of building and public works here in Taroudant but it is eclipsed by the north where all the towns appear to have brand new centres and public buildings and mile after mile of red and white no parking markings.
The people appear more Arab and less Chleuh, fewer turbans, more western clothes and the women wear exclusively Arab or western clothes. However the most noticable differenceis in their time keeping. The northerners definately observe clock time rather than sun time so they are an hour ahead of their southern counterparts and the northerners definately have the weekend on Saturday and Sunday rather than Thursday evening through Friday. This means that their children are on the same time as them , unlike the south.
This year the other difference is that after dry January, February and March, The north had rain in April. This meant that there is an explosion of flowers and a real spring-just like a sunny May at home.

                                      

Our rescuers who brought the new car

Spring, time and flowers

The garden here does not really show the seasons. The roses are out and the hibiscus flowering, although each flower only seems to last a day. One of the new draecena is in flower and I'm hoping that that is not an indication it's about to die. Generally the terrace plants seem to be doing well and the curly succulent seems to be producing lots of babies. The plumbago that was dying on the terrace appears to be thriving on the patio.
Sadly the hibiscus has aphids and the roses are infected with white spiders. We decided we weren't organic about pests and went for the spray. That has proved complicated. Eventually we found the right shop in the souk for insecticide and were shocked by the price. We needed different ones for aphids and spiders and had not taken sufficient funds to buy both the same day. Each one was more than a weeks fruit, bread and vegetables. When I got to grips with the french instuction I realised why. Firstly I had to google "hl" to find it was a hectolitre = 100l (not an SI unit). we then found we had dilute only 25cl into the 100l. Clearly this was designed for horticulture on an industrial scale. Not  having a field we only needed 30cl to put in our spray. We had to do a double dilution and now have empty bleach bottles and the original small pot with enough pesticide to spray half the Souss valley.
Meanwhile we have no way of explaining a british spring to friends here. When we left everything was blooming at once; daffodils, tulips, primroses, cherry blossom, appleblossom. The only thing here which shows any equivalence is the Jacaranda which is in full bloom. Wonderful blue blossom almost like wisteria. There is a wonderful avenue of it in Agadir but beloved would not stop for pictures; we do have some coming into town here.
The other confusion is summer time. For the last few years Morroco has used summertime. As they are further south and the diurnal difference is less it only started on april 29, later than Britain. They always finish it early for Ramadan too, only with Ramadan moving forward each year  and being mid-july to mid-august, I have heard rumours that this year they intend to stop it, and then start it again after ramadan. It is of course absolutely crucial to know what the clock time is if you are to catch a plane, train or bus, and it affects banks and schooltimes, but everybody else just ignores it and continues the course of their day based wholly on the muezzin. Except for the birds which ignore the 5.15 dawn call and have their own chorus at 6.30.




Jacaranda in bloom




Draeceana flower



Plumbago recovers

An Exotic Visitor

We have a visitor who joined us yesterday to watch the  FA Cup Final. He's still here despite our best efforts to get him to leave. He comes in and is quite happy in the living room and our proximity does not faze him at all. last night we got him, with some difficulty, into the patio area and shut the door. This lunchtime he was still there, sitting on the table  looking very hard done by. Now he's back in the living room looking much perkier although somewhat resentful that he's not been fed. We obviously don't want to encourage him in anyway as we are away so much. We can't tell whether he's escaped from the pet shop or a neighbours.Either way he needs toget himself up to terrace level and home but he seems to have little interest in doing so. Meanwhile he has turn-ins with the flock that roosts in our tree and sulks at the other end of the patio. At least when he's not admiring himself in the mirrored windows.

A Manifestation of International Solidarity

It has been quiet in town over the weekend. Marjane had signs up  explaining they would be open today but the general feeling was of a build up not to a festival but to a holiday from work. We asked Moha what was happening and he said it was the holiday on Tuesday. We asked what hoiliday and he said with incomprehension "International Labour Day".
We explained that in England the holiday was always held on a Monday whatever the date and he said with great disappointment "It's not really International then?" I didn't have the heart to explain that the States and Canada inexplicably have Labour Day in September.
I remember the 70s when May Day first became a holiday organising leftwing festivals. These days its just become another commercial holiday although Bruv did facebook me the London Organising Committee of the TUC's march details which do actually happen on Mayday.
Here it is treated much more seriously and great value is placed on the shared internationalism of the holiday.
A march was held but it was much more dignified than the average march/demo I've been on at home. There were no bands to encourage and lighten the mood but people conformed to the marshall's requests and lined up with great dignity 5 abreast walking, not marching in ranks. The men first behind their banners and then the women behind theirs and then the latecomers somewhat more straggly.
Away from the march the town was quieter than it has been since just after last Eid with most businesses and the local workshops closed as was the Souk. Generally the holiday seems to be of more import than the Mouled or the anniversary of the Green March.




Marshalling 2012 Mayday March Taroudant

                                                                                                              

Mayday March 2012, Taroudant

Mayday March 2012, Taroudant





Mayday March 2012, Taroudant



Mayday March 2012, Taroudant



Mayday March 2012, Taroudant



Mayday March 2012, Taroudant



Mayday March 2012, Taroudant

Any Arabic speakers care to comment and translate the slogans?

Thinking about International Labour Day; how come they chose May1? This was traditionally Beltane the pre-christian festival and lasted with various May Eve beliefs as to maidens who gathered flowers or slept out overnight would dream of the man they were to marry which persisted through the church and into the reformation. (Our evangelical Anglican church had a "May Queen" as part of its Whit walks in the 50s and 60s.)