No rain in Ouled Mgatel, and a promise

Time passes very slowly in Morocco, december is almost here, and the sun still shines in Ouled Mgatel, and it still hasn't rained.




That's a big relief for us, -we had plenty of time to fix the house - but a bad sign for all our neighbors.

Last year, at this time, we were in the mud and the rain, and we were living in a crappy hotel in Fez.

Now we have a comfortable life here in our apartment in Fez, but we still don't go very often to our mudbrick house (even though we just spent a week-end there with French friends who live in a yurt in France and who thought that our house was a palace).

We'll be back.



(and this is, hopefully, the last picture of our house in that shape... not proud).

Life in Ouled Mgatel: 4 mariages and a convalescent

We waited the end of the heatwave to go back to Ouled Mgatel. There, we found our house very clean (thank you Fouad). We haven't begun the work yet; all the mudbricks are waiting for us in the garden. It's little weird to be there, in our mudbrick home, after all those months of living in the city. The beauty of the place is always a good surprise, but the empty shelves, the mould on our books and the kitchen, that haven't been used in 8 months now - except for the mint tea Bachir and Fouad drink everyday -, all of this makes me a little sad.






We were there on the day after Turia's wedding. Turia is one of Mohammed's daughters. This year, 4 of Mohammed's children get married. That's a little strange, given that it costs a lot of money - for the party (it lasts 2 days) and for the dowries. And it was a little strange, this day after the big party, when the bride is still in her family - and hasn't been in a room alone with her husband . On that night, she was going to her new home. For the first time, she was going to spend the night in a strange house. She was leaving to live forever with her new family - and a husband that, of course, her father chose for her.


But Turia seemed OK. She was dressed like a city girl - a light veil on her hair, pants matching her t-shirt, and heels. In one of the rooms of the house, there was everything she owned - the gifts, and what her father bought for her with the dowry: a bed, "farash" (Moroccan couches), a mirror, glasses and dishes, a blender, and lots, lots of tablecloths and blankets. There was also her luggage, full of clothes I had never seen her wear.

Her four sisters, the one that is already married, the one that is getting married in a month, the one that is getting married in a few years, and the one that will never get married, were inspecting the gifts and packing the luggage. Dunya, who will be married in one month, and who is much younger than Turia, was very chic too. She'll become soon a city girl, since her soon-to-be husband is living in Fès. Huria, the youngest of the 5 sisters, loses 2 sisters at the same time, but she gains two sisters-in-lawn, next month.

Abdelali seemed to be doing perfectly well. Life's smiling at him right now: the politics, a new tractor, and the land. And at the end of Ramadan, he's getting married with a girl from Fez - a striking symbol of his success, since usually the girls that grew up in the city don't marry guys from the country.



And what about our convalescent? It's Bachir, of course. He just had some tests done in Rabat - hmm, quite superficial I'm afraid - but apparently everything's fine. He still can't work, but he's getting better and better.






If somebody knows the name of that tree, which grew up very very fast, and is apparently in love with the earth of Ouled Mgatel - hmm, the same cannot be said of the other trees we planted - , I'm interested. Fred put a few seeds in a small container with some wet cotton, but somehow I doubt it's going to work...

A mudbrick house in Morocco and its gardien angel

Without its gardian angel, would our mudbrick house have walls that white?
Would it be that clean ?
Would the plants be in such good health, despite the summer ?
And would the grass be that green ?

Thank you, merci, shukran, Fouad.

Like in a mudbrick house in Morocco: Ouled Mgatel, 3 years ago

A mudbrick house in Morocco: waiting for the summer

Here are a few more pictures of our Moroccan mudbrick house, that Fred took the last time he was there.
Where you'll see that we have a lot of mud bricks (the boys have been working very hard).

And we'got thousands of ideas for a new and improved house.

We've realized that we just can't live in the house full time. We need more power, for the computers, and a good internet connexion -we have a secret plan to make the electric company come to us, but I have no idea when (and if) it will happen. As a result of the flood, that destroyed the two dirt roads leading to Ouled Mgatel, we haven't spent a single night in the house since October (I think). And right now that it won't rain for a few months, spending the night there would mean to go camping in the house (no water - the pump broke, a dirty and collapsing bathroom). After the long months of sleeping in a crappy hotel, I don't to live in those conditions - Fred might try, but I'm sure he would give up too...
Bachir and Fouad took care of the house, sleeping there every night.

So this cannot go on. So we decided to build another room or two, so that the boys can have their privacy, put their stuff, and, last but not least, have some private time away from their families (they don't have a room for themselves in their houses - they sleep with their brothers and their dads).

Here we are. Waiting for July. A lot of plans, but not very much money or very much time to make them happen right now.

Just a lot, a lot of mud bricks.

Floods in Morocco: a House in Pain

Every time we go back to Ouled Mgatel, I remember the flood, and the night when we slept in the office, because we were afraid that the walls of our bedrooms would collapse because of the torrential rain.

What happened these last few months can be read on the walls of our house.

That’s a sad story…           

                             

A painful story…

The story of what we build, that we will have to rebuild.

The story of a house that has changed so much.

Between raindrops

Every time we go to Ouled Mgatel, I realize that everything is still very beautiful.

That, if the mudbrick house is still suffering, the boys have done a good job making it more safe.

That something new is here, a very small stream, by our house. It’s so great to see this in such a – well, usually – arid place.

That, if we’ve go t holes in our roof, well, we also have flowers in our garden.

Not so bad after all.

No road leads to my dream house

My house… you should know it by now...

A dream house if you ask me. Olive trees and beautiful landscape.

Everything white.

Everything made by us, and by our friends.

A house that took us 2 years of our life, but not so much money.

A house that IS our life.

And then  the stupid flood happened.

Our house was damaged, but we fixed it.

The road, though… was partly destroyed.

And I should tell you about the road- it’s not really a road. It’s just made of sand and rocks.

It’s been covered in mud, and the tractors didn’t help. They made big holes in the road. And we can no longer go to our house with our car when it rains.

So what can we do?

Build another road?

 

For 4 weeks now, it’s been raining in Morocco like it hasn’t in 30 years. In the south and in the north of the country, dozens of people have died, drowned or struck by lightning.
Here in Ouled Jamaa, by the Oued Sebbou, numerous houses have been flooded.
And worse – according to the meteorologists, more heavy rains are expected in the next weeks.

Photos of the House 08/01/08

I finally overcame my vertigo and climbed on the rooftop of our house. It was worth it ! And, hum, it wasn’t that high after all.

When we whitewashed the house in April we didn’t paint the second floor… I guess you noticed ?

Ten things that would make our life in Ouled Mgatel easier

I love my house, and I love to live here. I'm amazed that we managed to build it, and to actually live in it, since all seemed at first a crazy adventure. We made it, with very little money, without an architect, a plumber or an electrician. And it works.

There are a few things though that would make our house a better place.

1. A bigger solar panel. And maybe a small wind turbine. Because we’d like to say that our house is completely green, but this is not the case. We cheat. Every two days or so, we have to bring our battery to the neighbors’ house, where we recharge it – their farm is connected to the power lines.

2. A well. Because, again, we cheat. I explained why in this post. The water we have in our tank is not enough, especially at this time of year. So we plan to dig a well, an operation that is not so expensive, and that would change our lives.

3. And since I’m talking about water… Rainwater tanks, to collect the precious rain. This we absolutely have to build before winter, with a system of gutters. Because, even if a lot of people believe Morocco to be mostly a desert (sorry, this is not the case), it rains a lot during the winter and the spring.

4. A few years. Time to wait for the trees we’ve planted in this wheat field that is now our garden to grow. To get more shade in the courtyard. And hopefully olives and lemons, figs and apricots.

5. A new car. Since it is impossible for us, with our jobs, to live in Ouled Mgatel without a car. We tried – we had no choice – for a while, and it was not fun. Moroccan customs have very strict rules for bringing cars from abroad, and we can’t keep ours. We’ve brought it back to France, and we’re looking for a new one in Morocco. A challenge, given our tight budget –second hand cars are very expensive here.

6. Colors. Everything is just so white in our house. Sure, it’s beautiful, but boring. We still haven’t tried to put colors on the walls. Decoration is not really our thing, but we’ll have to do it. For a few years, pigments we’ve bought in Chefchouen have been sitting in a box, just waiting to be mixed with whitewash and put on our walls.

7. Plastic mats to put on the floors. Not very green, I agree, but necessary. That’s what everybody puts on the floors here, since the earth tends to make a lot of dust. At the beginning, we decided we wouldn’t put plastic mats (plastic !) in the house, and chose beautiful Moroccan rugs instead, but had to accept the fact that there is simple to much dust. We’ll put the rugs on the mats, and hopefully, no more dust under our feet.

8. Real stairs. Because some day I’ll trip on my slippers when climbing the ladder leading to our bedroom. We have the wood, the nails, everything to build the stairs. Just waiting for Fred to have the time !

9. Speaking fluent Moroccan Arabic. This is for me, not for Fred, since he’s already fluent in Arabic. I’ve been living in Morocco for 5 years, but haven’t really bothered to learn the language during my first 3 years, except for a few basic words/expressions. I almost never used verbs, since I didn’t know how to conjugate them. It might sound strange, but it’s very common here for French people, who are accustomed to find French speaking Moroccans… So now I’m progressing, but still struggling with the language.

10. A DSL connection. Ok, this one is pure fantasy, it will never happen, unless some day the outskirts of Fez reach Ouled Mgatel…

Photo of the house 04/28/08

The terrace

... and unfortunately the birdsong isn't pictured.

A House that Breathes

I live in a house made of mud. There is straw in the walls, earth under my feet, reeds above my head.

But I’m very lucky. The house is as beautiful as the landscape in which it was born.

And my kitchen window opens in the middle of a wheat field.

I have to keep an open mind though. Strange things happen. Wheat grows on the roof. Birds make their nests under the beams. In fact, the whole house is a big nest, and the song of the birds wakes us every day, which is very nice. Earthworms, yes it happens, make holes in the soil of the bathroom. Well, it happened once, and it’s happening again, because the floor is too wet. It rained a lot this winter, and it seems that certain parts of the house just can’t get over it. I guess the Moroccan summer should definitely solve the problem of earthworms.

The house has a lot of inhabitants, besides me and Fred, I mean. Lots of insects. It was a little scary at first – although the spiders here aren’t too big don’t worry. But now when I see some strange insect that don’t exist in Europe, I just run and get my camera.

Some animals are not welcomed at all. Mice of course. They make their home in the roofs and in the walls and love the pasta we bought from the supermarket in Fez The walls are made of mud bricks, remember, and it can become a maze for the mice. We told Bachir about that and he said it was mushkil (a problem, you guessed). We asked him what to do. Get a cat of course. So we got two of them. Mice should relocate very soon, we hope.

An adobe house, it’s alive. It moves a little. It gets older and changes every day. And that’s good, because here you can’t get bored. Noticing the smallest changes, new animals, new plants. When you’ve spent your life in houses made of concrete, - like most of us – it’s an endless amazement. And when there are problems –the above mentioned mice, a leak in the roof, something that collapses a little, it’s so easy to fix. No need for any carpenter, or mason. The kids of our neighbors know how to do it. In fact, everybody here know how to build a house, because everybody does it all the time. That how life goes here. A fourteen-year-old can build his own house.

We moved here to feel more alive. I guess it’s working !

Photo of the house 04/19/08

From that point of view our house looks like a strange fortress, or a boat - with a clothes line as a sail.

Photo of the house 04/12/08

The house and its dog

A rainy day in Ouled Mgatel

The big gray clouds were threatening Ouled Mgatel.


And then it was pouring with rain. Don't worry, a house made of adobe doesn't melt that easily.


Soon animals found refuge under the covered terrace.


As for the dog Lisa, she didn't like this at all.

Photo of the house 04/06/08

The house and the water-treatment tanks

It looks like Kentucky, doesn't it?

Well, according to Fred at least...
And actually, we have no idea, we've never been there. But that's the impression the wheat fields give us at this time of year.

The wheat grows along the walls of our house, and sometimes the clouds seem to touch the ground.

Photo of the house 3/12/08

After the whitewash... or the snow?

Photo of the house 02/12/2008

Our house, as seen from Mohammed's farm, is in the background

Photo of the house 02/08/08

in the shade of the olive trees