Morocco stories

We stopped at a pottery cooperative in Tarradant. The guy at the potter's wheel took us through the kasbah where the approximately 200 people in the co op live. The bottom floor of the mud and brick structure is where the families gather to hang out, eat and try to stay cool because being on the bottom floor, it is the coolest place. In some of these type places they also keep their animals on the first floor. As you wind up the stairs and dark passages there are another set of rooms where they paint the pottery. Mostly women do the painting and the men throw the pots. The top floor is where the Fatimas cook. The kitchens are usually on the top because they are going to be cooking and the smoke and heat will rise out of the building better.

I have a new monitor (thanks Charlie) so I can see more clearly the pictures to go with the story. I have decided not to get too hung up on chronology because actually there isn't much sense in that. the whole trip was a rolling adventure that I feel I can take pieces and put in other places and it will not add or take away from the experience. Stepping into such a foreign place allowed me to forget about the time and structure of our vacation.

I took so many pictures from the car, Toyota landcruiser. This car could go anywhere thanks to the excellent driving of Hamadi, seen here. Even with his 'malady' he kept us on the road and on time.

Hamadi had a bad cough that had been hanging on for quite some time due to the springtime weather we were told. To me it appeared it was moving towards pneumonia and we were worried about his well being. Finally one morning in Tarradant the boys showed up with Hamadi's Dad who lived near by and told us Hamadi was going to the hospital and would be back in 1/2 hour. Riiiight, we thought. I suggested Gary, Ibrim and I take a walk around the city while we waited. After we had walked about 15 minutes Ibrim sat down and said we should head back. Fine, I don't know what fun waiting in the hotel salon will be but Ok. As we walked up the road to the hotel, lo and behold Hamadi and Dad drive up! He has been to the hospital, seen a doctor, got a chest xray which he had with him and had his perscription for meds. Needless to say we were quite amazed at the speedy service. Hamadi's Dad was a wonderful guy who spoke only Berber so was able to give Hamadi the dad lecture to take care of himself and do as the Dr said. He translated the perscriptions for him and we dropped him off downtown and we were on our way.