Argbala - Day 138

Date: January 3rd, 2010
Distance: None
Country: Morocco
Song of the Day: The Marquee and the Moon - Sloan

Allen and I headed out to another little village outside of town. He is looking at working on an irrigation/erosion project out there. The hike out was quite pleasant. The terrain really reminded me of the southwest. Red and gold mesa lightly dusted with scrub brush. Even the huts reminded me of adobe buildings.

When we arrived in the village we were met by Bassu, the local association coordinator. He showed us the work that had been done, and the work that was required. About 1km of the town's irrigation ditch had been built out of concrete. A kilometer on each end still needed the same treatment. There were also several spots where rain would erode the hillside and clog the canal. So it needed some work. But that is the point of doing projects.

After the viewing the canal we were invited to lunch. In the culture, any new arrivals should be invited to lunch. We did get a bit more than we bargained for because it seemed like the whole town was there. According to Bassu, it was a wedding feast. So I guess I have now crashed a Berber wedding reception. We went into a mud walled house, took off our shoes and sat down on some carpets in the main room. There were only men in the room though. The women were somewhere else.

They did serve up a pretty hearty meal. It started off with tea. This is probably the most popular hot drink in the country. They serve it sweet and hot. I prefer the former over the latter. Then came out the soup course. I think it is traditional to server soup before the main meal. They had a tomato base with lots of rice. The main meal was tagine, what else. This one had sheep meat in it. So that is another first for me. It was tasty, but hard to eat. There were so many little bones in the meat. It really interupts the enjoyment when you chomp down on a bone and have to spit it out. After the tagine we had another round of tea. After that we took the opportunity to leave. Allen and I had to get back.

We were pretty tired after that. So we just had some sandwiches and watched a movie before going to bed.

-Dravis