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).

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.

Life in a Mudbrick House : a World Tour

Sometimes I wonder why we build a mudbrick house in Morocco.

During the rains of this winter, I was dreaming of a big appartement, in Fez, white and clean, far from the mud.

It seemed so much more reasonnable than a mudbrick house in the middle of the Moroccan countryside.

When you think about it, it’s just a pile of earth. We’ve learned that we have to be careful with that. That it could be complicated.

But when I’m having doubts, I think about the people all over the world who live in mudbrick houses.

 

In Mali.

 

Photo : blaseur 

In Lybia.

 Photo : h Savill

In Iran.

 

Photo  :HORIZON

In the US - ok, nobody's been living in that house for a while.

 

 Photo : im pastor rick

In Turkey.

 

Photo : Hakatani Tenfu

In India.

 

Photo a n j a

And in Morocco, of course.

And I’m not afraid any more.