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 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 3: Earth moving and foundation building

Just a few photos of the large amount of earth moving onto the site, in order to build up the ground level and work being done to put in the new foundations.