The Sewer Cleaners Of Marrakech

Can you moonlight as a sewer cleaner?  In Marrakech, yes.  Well, you can if you are familiar with the labyrinthine sewer system and know where to enter and exit those pipes.  Sewer fixers keep the city clean by clearing the subterranean canals of blockages and obstructions, some of which, frankly would shock you.  Their only tools are a simple iron file, some connecting rods, strength and dexterity.  These urban plumbers unclog the pipes and drain off the waste, thus delivering Marrakech from certain sickening odours.  A small but indispensable trade!

The Street Singers

MARRAKECH has its troubadours and traveling musicians, analogous to the minstrels, bards, and other street performers who entertained courts and commoners alike in the Europe of times past.  Solo or ensemble, on a cafe terrace or before the international crowd at Place Jemma El Fna, they sing their repertoire of popular songs, offering up a full range of Moroccan folklore.

Their interpretations of great classics from the Arab songbook transport enchanted audiences back with beautiful, age-old epics.  Who said, "Everything ends in song?" It is true that, in harmony with the universe, humans have always expressed the joys and pains of living through song.

The Baggage Porters

Only necessity compels people to take up this small trade.  Such hard labour! Whether carrying tourists' suitcases at airports and train stations, or toting farmers heavy crates, sometimes dragging these cumbersome loads on handcarts, porters submit their bodies to what almost amounts to forced labour, all for a meagre sum. They are not Hercules, but their backs are strong and their arms are muscular.

The most fortunate have a donkey or a horse, which makes the job less tiresome.  But the porter must then look after the animal, a beast quickly exhausted by the considerable burdens.  But modernisation is on the march! Motorised tricycles currently cruise the streets of Marrakech, delivering suitcases to the grand hotels, but in Africa we will continue to see, for a long time, men proud of their strength, carrying heavy loads on their backs.

Week 8 - The View!

The close of 2011 saw week eight draw to a dramatic conclusion with the laying of the roof terrace of Riad Romm'an  By Monday 2nd Jan, the concrete had set sufficiently for our project manager Grant Rawlings of Chic Marrakech to get up there and take some photos of our view.  Remember, the original house was much lower than its surroundings as it only had one storey, so it was not possible to see what the view from the new roof terrace would look like.  But we were optimistic that given the location, the view would be of the Atlas mountains. 

We have not been disappointed!

The boys have been working very hard and mixed this massive pile of cement (photo above) to lay the concrete for the roof terrace (photo below).

Also, they are working on the front part of the house, to get it complete and have put in the lintel above the main door.

It won't be long before the front of the house has a lovely new front door, which will be more welcoming than a plank of wood and a number on a stick!