We got quite a work out on our tenth day in Morocco, beginning with a visit to Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech where our eyes were wowed by the haute couture fashions of this phenomenal designer. Fashion Design students studied the construction and fabrics while some others in the group dreamed of wearing the gowns. Café au laits and lattes were required after such inspiration so the group gathered in the outdoor café and sipped away while some of us debated about the cultural choices YSL made in designing certain collections, including one inspired by Morocco.
The rest of the day was spent in Amizmiz where our hostess and guide Latifa had quite of schedule of activities planned for us, beginning with lunch in the homes of families living there. My group had lunch in her home and dined on chicken tagine topped with French fries, incorporating into the dish one of her own chickens which, she told me, is something she does only when special groups are visiting. Her neighbor Abdessamad Nadif arrived with another dish of beef, peas, potatoes and artichoke stems cooked by his mother. The hearty meal energized us for what was ahead.
A hike with Latifa and our other new friends Wahib, Raga, Hakim, Tarik and Abdelali Ratoum led us to the home of Fadama and Jamo for a demonstration on how couscous is made. A couple of the students who thought that the sand-size pasta was grown as is were surprised to see the process Fadama and Jamo went through to create it.
“Are there younger women learning how to do this?” asked Amy. Latifa translated for the women saying: “No, because they started studies and their finger nails are too long.” Latifa added, “But we must teach young women to do this to carry on the tradition.” Couscous takes 25 minutes to make 1 kilo so Fadama launched into song to pass the time and soon Jamo joined in. Watch the video below to see and hear the joy we were experiencing.
Next it was time for a hike through the outskirts of Amizmiz for which some decided to retire back at Latifa’s home. For the rest of us, it was a heart-pumping walk atop red dirt which was used to build the walls and homes in this town nestled near the base of the Atlas Mountains. Along the way, we saw men repairing a large retainer wall using this same clay, numerous sheep herds and their shepherds, goats and cactus bearing fruit like we had eaten days before in Fez.
When we all reconvened at Latifa’s she handed out towels, plastic ladles, scrubbing mitts and soap for an experience that was completely new for all of us - public baths known as hammams. The women went their way and I went mine with Wahib, a young medical student who is studying to be a nurse. Wahib kindly showed me how to bathe in the hammam.
There are three rooms, hot, mildly hot and cool. We started in the hot room with two large buckets filled with hot water for each of us. We doused our bodies with the water using the ladles and then soaped up with a brown, gooey blob made of pure natural ingredients. We then doused ourselves with water again and repeated it a third time. Following this, Wahib scrubbed my back with my glove and I, his, with his. Then we each scrubbed the rest of our own bodies totally exfoliating them then moved to the mild room followed by the cool room. This is a social occasion for men and women who wear shorts as going nude is forbidden. Wahib said, “Some go to the clubs for this, we go to the hamman.”
Completely relaxed and with scrubbed skin we gathered at Latifa’s where the students each had a henna tattoos drawn on their hands and wrists by Samira prior to once again dividing into groups for dinner in family homes.
The evening concluded with our hostess and her friends bringing out colorful kaftans and jallavas for the students to wear. What followed was a raucous dance party in which we each danced individually and then as a group while our new Moroccan friends accompanied us on instruments indigenous to this country. Watch the short video below in which Dom and Latifa are dancing to the beat of the drums and voices raised in song.
