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Published: October 20th 2008
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Today we went to the Hanaboo Kasbah which is 13km away from Erfoud. We were welcomed in by the ladies, who seemed to be a little shy in the beginning, but it didn't take them long to warm up to us. The children only had a moment to be skeptical of us and then I think that their curiosity of us two white women took over. The woman who we saw today look to be early to mid twenties and it is too hard to even guess how old some of them are. The woman are very grateful and happy for this opportunity that they have been given. They were eager to show us all that they have been making and we are impressed with their creativity. They are all trying so hard and powerful desire to learn.
We arrived to find the woman at their sewing machines ready and rarring to go. Too bad mom had never seen a sewing machine that sits in a vat of oil. Instead of using an eye-dropper to oil the machines, they use a liter that sits in a canister just under the machine and they change it every six months. I find
it almost laughable that mom came all this way to teach them how to use their sewing machines and they ended up teaching her. It was funny to watch her let out a yelp as she discovered that the machines "sew a million stiches a minute!" (only a slight exhaggeration). The woman all laughed when I mimed out mom sewing over her own fingers and rapidly passed it on to the woman standing too far away to see. She was able to teach them about a few different features of the machines and why small stiching is so important to the quality and strength of their work.
Mom brought a bunch of patterns to try and they happened to choose one that mom has never done. Amature. She then proceded to try to show them how to use the razor sharp rotorary cutter while about several woman and varying ages of children crowded around a small table. That led to several cutting errors; apparently she forgot Dad's montra of "measure twice, cut once." Only she kept repeating that very same line outloud in English... as if the more she said it a miracle would occur and all of the
woman would understand. I am sure that all of this would have been much less stressful had I not stolen Aziz our trusted friend and interpreter. It is all very entertaining to me as mom speaks no French and even less Arabic. In all honestly I think she accomplished much more after we left.
Meanwhile outside:
Aziz was picking me fresh pomogranates right out of the tree, and Hadisha's (the president of the association) father was picking me fresh dates. They were feeding me all this fresh fruit, showing me around and giving me the royal treatment straight up.
The woman were teaching me how to weave sturdy mats out of reeds and I think that they were please with how quickly I caught on. When the kids got out of school they had asked if I had tried it yet, and were surprised when they couldn't tell the difference between where I had been working and where their mothers had been working. I attribute this to superb teachers. The only would let me weave for about ten minutes before the said "thats enough" in French, communicating mostly with hand gestures I gathered that they did not want
me to hurt my fingers. They were convinced that my fingers were not nearly calloused enough for the task.
Hadisha is kind and gentle, you can tell that not only does she have amazing talent, but she is generous and patient while teaching. Her and mom are quickly becoming kindred spirits and it is not hard to see why. It is incredible to watch what they can accomplish with a common goal in mind, even though they each only know a few words in each other's languages. As Hadisha says, we will learn Arabic and she will learn English.
Wadid (Hadisha's daughter) and I are also quickly becoming friends. She won't let me go anywhere without literally holding my hand. We do mostly an adapted sign language and use fragments of English and French to communicate, she always gives me a questioning look when I let go of her hand to take more pictures. Collectively as a group we have grown fond of trying to communicate with out Aziz, however we have all recognized that at times we really need him and as a whole yell out "AZIZ!"
We are having a great time, but I am
still having a tough time eating the meat Tagines with all of the bones. Without me knowing, Aziz told his brother Mohammed that I didn't like meat and he went into the kitchen and cooked us spagetti for supper. What a man! We will be forever grateful! I do enjoy the Tagines, but I am afraid that the site of bones would have my already shaky stomach in upheaval (literally).
We are off for more of the same tomorrow! We will continue to fill everyone in on our progress.
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Karyn Guy
non-member comment
Caftans
Wow...you ladies are melding into the culture and starting to look like Moroccan women. The caftans are lovely! It sounds like the language barrier was challenging but that you managed to overcome it. Again, the pictures are awesome!!!