I  currently have access to wifi at Amsa, so am restarting my posts. This one will deal with the family ‘farm’ and life here to date.

The ‘farm’ is actually a smallholding, run on organic principles, but not actually selling anything at all, though a lot is given away.  The exact size is difficult to estimate as the ground slopes up very steeply behind the house, but it probably covers between 10 and 15 acres.

Farm at Amsa

From Tétouan on the Mediterranean coast, the main road (N16) runs eastwards, keeping close to the coast for several hundred miles to the port of Hoceima near the border with Algeria. Although it is an important road it has only one lane in each direction, and does not carry a great deal of traffic. There have been quite a lot of improvements made in recent years, straightening bends, adding new bridges etc, but it is still quite slow to drive.

Tétouan, about 15 miles to the west of Amsa, is at the western end of the Rif mountains, which run eastwards though Morocco and Algeria. Between the mountains and the sea are low foothills and, in some places a small coastal plain. Countless rivers run down to the sea, though many are seasonal, so dry at the moment. At all bar the smallest, the road turns inland to a village, crosses a bridge and returns to the coast. There is farmland alongside all the rivers, whether seasonal or not.

At Amsa the main part of the village is over a mile from the coast, though it straggles all along the road. We are very close to where the road meets the coast again, near the access to the mile long beach. I will return to that in a later post.

In the photo you can see the Rif mountains in the far distance on the left, with the foothills on the far side of the valley forming the rest of the skyline. The foothills are between 750 and, probably, 1500 ft high. The road at bottom right is the N16. This house is the large one to the left of the road, which appears to have the minaret of the mosque emerging from its roof. In fact the mosque is next door, and is one of three in the village of about 10,000 inhabitants.

Circa 1970 the family were camping at the far end of the (then completely undeveloped) beach for their summer holidays. Their father discovered that land was available for a pittance and bought this property. His only regret was that he did not buy more land then. Morocco obtained independence from France in 1956, and the country was starting to slowly develop. As a result marginal agricultural areas like this were losing population to the rapidly growing cities.

He decided to build a house where each of his 12 children would be able to bring their families at the same time. When he bought it the oldest was still a teenager. The main house has 2 floors. On the ground floor there are 2 bedrooms, a large living room, a large kitchen and a shower / toilet. At the back, looking onto the garden of mainly fruit trees is a dining area, open on one side. Several quail peck around in the garden.

Saffia

This is the view from the dining table. Saffia lives with her family in the nearest house higher up the hill, and they still live in a very traditional way. She is wearing the local costume. The colours of the stripes on her apron denote the village, and the actual pattern of the stripes identifies her family. The straw hat is worn by both men and women. She is one of a few older women who still wear their traditional outfit every day. She is holding a gift of a traditional loaf which she had baked in their outside clay oven.

Saffia’s clay oven – the photo of the house was taken from near here

Returning to this house, upstairs there are 4 bedrooms, a large dining area, a small kitchen, a shower / toilet and a large living area which is currently used as a furniture storeroom. Each of the bedrooms has a balcony.

That was not enough to accommodate this large family, so there are two single storey detached wings running beside the house away from the road. Each has three self contained apartments, with their own kitchens and ablutions. I don’t know any more as I haven’t been inside any of them. I am told most need renovation. One is lived in by Najib, the oldest son, now 63 and born when his mother, Fatima, was just 15. Although he has a flat in Rabat, he has lived here most of the time since he retired. He is married, but has been separated from his wife for many years.

Najib dressed for work in the garden

Najib is the only member of the family who smokes. Before he retired he travelled all over Morocco in a transport inspection role. When he dons a suit and picks up a briefcase he looks very smart and important. He does some of the work on the holding, and during lockdown he made lots of jam from the fruit he was unable to give away, but most of the actual work is done by Ba Lahcen.

Ba Lahcen – Ba is an honorific for ‘Father’

Every one calls him Ba Lahcen, though I will call him Lahcen as he is only 62. He lives in one of the other apartments, and gets his meals on a tray, as he does not eat with the family. He thinks nothing of climbing 15 ft up a tree to pick fruit. Why use a ladder?

The far end of the garden is bounded by a range of outhouses. 10 goats live in one (when not in the field outside), and another with a mesh cage is home to 9 peacocks. As the latter do not get to roam, I haven’t, as yet, got a good photo of any of them. They do make their presence felt with their calls though. There is also an old clay oven, though it is now covered with a tarpaulin.

On leaving the far end of the garden at the right, one enters about 2 acres of terraces surrounded by walls and hedges (of prickly pear and vines mainly) where there are fruit trees (figs, pomegranates, plums, loquats, sweet chestnuts, pears, quince etc) and crops such as aubergines, peppers, lettuce, cardoons, leeks, mint, coriander, beetroot etc.

Beetroot bed.

Note the whitewash on the lower trunks of the trees in the background to deter parasites.

There are some large poultry cages, with hens in one and pigeons (for eating) in the other two. In this area there is also a well, to complement the 2 wells near the outhouses in the actual garden. Nowadays an electric pump is used, and the water is safe to drink.

Side access to the well among the terraces

Leaving the garden on the left at the far end, one is immediately in a large flat growing area. On two sides it is bounded by young banana palms, and on the others by wire netting.

A hand of growing bananas is just visible in the centre of the photo

This area is used to grow sweetcorn, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers etc, and looks as though potatoes were grown here earlier in the year.

Tomatoes just scramble among their supports

Turning away from the road from this part of the holding there is a very large sloping field with a haystack, where the goats often graze. The holding then rises very steeply up to an old, semi ruined house. This is easier to reach by a path from the top of the terraced area.

View uphill to the disused house – only the goats use this bit of land

Since we have been here, the number in the house and at meals has varied between 7 and 19.  Our usual number is 12 (including Lahcen) of whom 3 are children. When it was 15, 5 were children. Normally only 2 of the women do all the cooking, though there were 3 cooking when we had 12 people. Here is the size of pot you need to cook couscous for 15.

That is just for the actual couscous; there is still the meat and vegetables to go with it.

They cook every meal from scratch, including all the bread, so they really need this industrial scale oven, which is in the hall in the middle of the ground floor.

Not sure about its location next to the toilet though! 

Not an ideal location for one of the many freezers either.

Because of the way the house is built, it is far less noisy than Assia’s house in Rabat, though there is almost constant sound of traffic from the main road, to say nothing of the background hum of the cicadas.

Tangiers has suffered more from Covid19 than the rest of Morocco. It was eventually allowed out of lockdown, but that only lasted for a week as a fresh outbreak occurred. During that week one lady from Tétouan visited family in Tangiers and managed to catch the virus. The first case in this province for a long time. So the authorities are taking no chances and disinfecting everywhere. This chap arrived yesterday 5 minutes after Lahcen received a phone call, and sprayed every hard surface in the house with disinfectant.

He has just filled the sprayer with water from the well to the top left

My problem here is the insect population. I have always attracted most insects where ever I go. I remember in about 1992 going to Glen Etive (near Glen Coe) one Sunday in June with three friends to climb Ben Starav. As it was glorious weather, we were all wearing T-shirts and shorts. Whilst putting on our boots the horseflies, for which Glen Etive is notorious, delivered eleven bites, and I collected nine of them!

I have been bitten all over here, but then remembered that I have a mosquito net, so now I sleep under that. Sometimes I don my Scottish Midge Head Net which I originally bought as a joke, but decided to put in my case at the last moment. I now wear it when using my laptop at the dining table, though its dark green colour makes seeing through it a little difficult..

As you can see, Moroccan cooking and lack of exercise during lockdown has had an expansive effect on my waistline.

The next post is likely to be about the village and seaside resorts, before we are invaded by more of the family to celebrate Big Eid. As Little Eid at the end of Ramadan occurred during lockdown, so families could not get together, they are likely to go over the top on Big Eid.

Najib has today taken Abderrahmen to the sheep sale / fair about 25 miles away – possibly to choose our sheep to have its throat cut in accordance with one of Mohammed’s instructions.

Keep safe