Bill in Carpet School

This month I decided it was time to learn how to make a Beni Qurain carpet.  These are world renown carpets and are available in medium and large sizes.  The colors vary with white and sometimes brown field color and brown, black and blue accents.  We make these with live wool that gives the carpet a sheen.  All the colors are natural dyes made from different roots and bushes.  The carpets can start at more than 3,000.00 in Europe and the US.  Many sell for multiples of that, 6K  to 12K, depending on size design and pile.  Weight and loops per inch are a good indicator of value.

The process starts with a loom being prepped with what seems like a mile of wool thread.  This carpet is being made on a commercial metal loom which produces a superior dimensional carpet.  Wood looms tend to produce a less square product and smaller in size. 

As the carpets are made the rollers top and bottom feed onto the bottom roller.  You cannot see the entire carpet until it is done and taken off the roller.  The carpet bottom starts with a weave that ties the knots in the end so everything does not unravel.  If you do not have tassels on the end of the carpet many do not consider it an authentic Beni Qurain carpet.  I have heard some comments from tourists that they do not like the tassel ends, but they do not know the significance and cannot appreciate the product.  Machine made carpets usually do not have the tassels. It is easy to get misled in Morocco and sold something cheap for a lot on money if you do not know what you are looking at.  Just knowing a carpet is made with live vs dead wool is a huge difference.  Being able to tell the difference can make the difference between buying a treasure and buying a knock off worth much less that you paid for it. 

The pictures show the back side of the carpet.  There are six women working on the other side of the carpet.  It is quite the social event. Lala Fatoum is the teacher for the class and watched what I was doing.  She was great and very patient.  This weave pattern has three horizontal white threads then a row of brown loops which is what I was working on in the photo.

This is a Tshka which is used to pack down the rows of thread to make the carpet tight.  It is a dangerous looking thing.  Do not put this in your carry on luggage when you fly.
The crew is great to work with and patient.  I can get done a 1/5 of what most of the other ladies do.  They seem to like working with me and i started singing a carpet rap song which they thouroughly enjoyed.  It was also discussed that I could marry all the single women (6) and move with them to the states to make carpet.  Great idea, then I have a job when I get home.  Everyone had a good laugh with that.

We sherb atay (drink tea) every day and today we had a corn bread treat that Norhuda made and brought in.  I may make some cookies or cupcakes this weekend and bring in for break.  The crew consists of Lala Fatoum, Nadia, Layla, Sarah, Fatima, Zubida and Norhuda.  It will take about a month to make the carpet we are working on.  There are three carpets being made in the room.  Different women work on each carpet, but several jump from carpet to carpet depending who needs help. 

Making carpets is a group affair and is very much a social get together for friends.  I will be working with my new friends for a couple more weeks before I move on to basket making.  We are certainly having fun, even though with my limited language skills it is not clear what is being said.  I am use to not understanding and slowly I am learning more.  The ladies are helping me practice my Darija.  I just hope I do not end up saying the wrong thing and find myself at my own wedding with six new brides.  lol

King's Center Artisan Showroom

We have been working on getting a new building outfitted with artisan products for the past few months.  My counterpart was approached by people with the Mohammed V Foundation about managing the Artisan side of of a new building being built at the edge of town to promote tourism.  the artisan side includes a showroom that displays artisan products from around Morocco, primarily from the Midelt region.  The center includes 5 schools to teach local people stone carving, Clothing making, embroidery, rug weaving and reed/basket making.

Three looms were set up in the rug weaving class and trainees went to work creating original design loop carpet with natural wool and dyes.  These products will eventually be displayed for sale in the showroom. 
The last week of November the King came to Midelt to open the Center.  He met all of the principles and students working in the center.  The king shook hands with many of the principles including my counterpart who had a talk about Midelt and the products it has to offer.  The ceremony was recorded and shown on Morocco television.  It was an honor for all the people involved.
Unfortunatly, I was not cleared through security so I did not get to meet the King , nor was I allowed to be in the building.  No Problem.  I could use the day off.
The Center is up and running.  I now go by almost every day and work on projects to get the programs set up and running.  There is a lot to do and with the help of our local team we will ger r done.

All of the products are produced by coops.  Each coop is a member of the local Association.  If everything goes well in the future, the Association will promote craft fairs in other locations around Midelt at local festivals and events.  Hopefully this will provide a market for all the products produced in the Center and by the individual coops.
Midelt is known for its mineral history and a big part of the Center is devoted to mineral products.  This includes gypsum carved stone, fossil products (amonites and autosairs) and natural minerals.  Mineral exports in this form are an export market worth millions of dollars.  There are some beautiful stuff from platters to slabs, geods and crystals.

Embroidery is one of the products that  I have been working with since i got here.  One of the counterparts I work with is now teaching at the Center.  I would like to see some new design and color workshops for these people to create a larger variety of product.  Unfortunatly the SBD Small Business Development program has been discontinued.  My group is the last business group in country.

Next project,  Boumia Carpet School.

That Time of Year Again - L'Eid

It is L'Eid Kabir again.  Every year it moves up about two weeks as it is based on the Muslim Calander.  Over the years Eid will be in every month same as Ramadan.
This morning the chanting, singing and praying began in the morning.  I think they recite the Koran.  At about 9:00 the mosque let out and people began the ritual sheep slaughter.  I drank coffee on my room and was able to witness four sheep in the street and two on the rooftops of neighboring houses.  This guy was BBAAAAAing in the morning to other sheep round the neighborhood.

You could get your sheep this past weekend at the Eid sheep market.  It was like shopping for a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.  There were lots of people last minute shopping.  The streets last night were filled with shoppers getting cookies, and fixings for the feast today.

People visit all their family today and everyone who can afford it kills two sheep, one for the family and one for the poor.  That is a lot of meat to eat in the next couple days.

Everyone watches the sacrifice women, children, men, friends.  It is a happy time and the biggest holiday of the year.  Gifts are not exchanged.
 
This is my second one and I will be here for the one next year also which will be the end of October.
Time to eat. 

It has been raining for a few days and snowing in the mountains.  Time to hunker down for the winter and start up my Buta gas heater.  I would hibernate if I could.

Halloween in Morocco

Morocco does not celebrate Halloween, no carved pumpkins, no pumpkin pie, no trick or treaters, no free candy for the kids. 
The after school youth facility (dar chabab) where two of the Peace Corps youth Development volunteers works put on a Halloween party for the youth ages +10-16.  They have been doing this for 4 years so the children kind of know what to expect. 
This year numerous PC volunteers from the surrounding towns came to help put on the event in conjunction with the Moroccan staff at the dar chabab.  There were games, events, a play and finally a haunted house after the sun went down, about 6:00 PM.
I worked on the apple bobbing station then in the haunted house.  About 40 students came and seemed to enjoy everything except maybe getting scared in the haunted house. 

The facility was decorated with carved pumpkins, a cemetery, paper pumpkins-witches and assorted decorations.  Not sure what the kids thought about the concept, but they sure laughed a lot.
In the Apple Bobbing there were some real go getters that almost submerged their whole head to get the apple.  Everyone got a piece of candy for participating. 

After getting their heads dried off it was off to the bobbing for candy in a plate of powdered sugar.
The girl (witch) in charge of this station was the volunteer from Japan.  These volunteers also serve two years, like the Peace Corps.  Her costume was great.

Off to the bean bag toss and the balloon stomp.  The kids trying to break the others balloon by stepping on them was like watching some chickens dance.  The participants had a great time and the spectators cheered and laughed.

The Haunter House - outside one of the adults told a scary story, then the children crawled under a table with a blanket over it, into the room, with a PCV banging on the table from above.  As they emerged they saw a sheet where someone jumped out and scarred then.  They would jump back and meet the headless corpse laying on the floor in a sleeping bag who sat up and growled (that would be me).  Moving on PCV would jump out of a box, growl from underneath tables and flash a light on their face.  In the dark room lit by candle light it could be quite scary.  Many of the kids did not make it past the headless corpse before screaming, crying and crawling back out of the room.  Great fun, but may have been a little much for some of the little ones. 

The nights last event was the costume contest.  the kids would clap for the costume they liked the most.  The winner had a store bought mast, but I liked the hand made ones better.  The next day I saw a couple kids still wearing there masks.

Afterwards there was cookies and lemonade for everyone and the scary part was quickly forgotten.
There was a dinner for the people that put on the show at the Japanese volunteers house.  The fried rice was awesome.  We had spaghetti, cookies, cream of chicken soup, spring rolls and green tea.  A good ending to the event.  Guess I will be back to do it again next year. 

Flelw Trip

Exploring around Midelt requires some effort.  My friend Ismael and I took a bike trip through town and into the hills to a reservoir that supplies power and water to the area.  After grabbing some apples, cheese, cranberries from home, water and crackers we set off.  I have not done too much biking lately so it was a little bit of an effort but Ismael was patient and I made it slowly but surely.

 

The land around here is pretty barren without water.  Sheep and goat grazing over the centuries has left game trails throughout the region.  I have seen families walking across the ground apparently looking for fossils to sell in town.  

After we got to the top of the hill the view was great and showed the extent of farming available with irrigation.  There were fruit orchards, wheat fields, vegetable farms and corn.  We talked about the importance of water to the region and how farmers downstream are constantly in conflict with the farmers above allowing water to come down to their fields.  The situation is similar the out West with the established water rights that go back 100 years.  Here they do not have a written water rights program but rely on historic customs to determine who gets what.  Sounded confusing to me.  Sometimes you get water and sometimes you do not.

You can swim in the canal and the water is cool, but when we were there the water was not looking good enough to swim in so I passed.  There were about 8 women washing wool in the outlet from the canal.  They hauled the wool up from the valley below with a donkey parked near by.

We were up on the top of the butte where the radio tower is visible.  We rode down and biked a short distance up the stream.  Behind the dam you used to be able to go swimming in a pool which has since filled up with gravel.  At times the river must become torrential as there are signs of extensive erosion.  We did not see any fish as the river may dry up at times.  The area reminded me of Southern Utah.

On the way back to town we rode through several mud villages.  

An interesting trip.  Look forward to the next one.