Legfaf Souq
Abdelghani is still there in the morning when we wake up. This is a brand new fuel station and he’s probably lucky to be working here. But it’s hard: 24 hours on, 24hours off, earning 50 dh per shift. That’s not even £5! To connect it with local prices though, a kilo of potatoes is about 4dh, a loaf of bread one or two dirham – I don’t know what it costs to rent a house here.
We bundle his motorbike into the van and together we go to the souq. This is another large scale, full-throttle souq and this time we have the privilege of a guide. With so many animals all in a relatively small space, I am always amazed just how well behaved they are. Sheep for example are often not even hobbled, let along tethered, and yet, they follow their owner close to heel, right through the crowd – like well trained dogs.
People have a very close connection to their animals here, Abdelghani says and it is indeed impressive just how little force they use, they don’t even lift their voices to shout at the animals, let alone physically subjugate them, like one can see in some European countries. The noise in a souq comes from the vendours shouting out their wares, or car horns bleating, or the odd animal calling out. Abdelghani takes us to various stalls where he makes us taste freshly cooked chickpeas and beans as he hunts for Ammlou on our behalf, although without success. He also invites us for lunch to his house some twelve km from here, but we are keen to move on northwards…by the time we say good-bye, it feels once more like we are leaving a friend behind. Abdelghani joins the list of ‘guardians’ – people we have met who subsequently stay in touch via messages to see how we are. In the weeks to come, we receive many messages from him, enquiries as to our whereabouts and our health, plus music clips etc. It seems to be a hospitality thing – once they’ve become our hosts, they continue to be so for a while after we have left. It’s a great way of improving my arabic, I have to say.
for more photos of this chapter, click here
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