Continuing to need urgent access to facilities after eating anything, including my multivitamins, I skipped breakfast again. I am also still fighting this unfortunate head cold and sound like a cross between Kathleen Turner and Kermit the Frog. I can't believe I have been out-healthed by this group of 70 year olds! We started our day with a visit to the local weekly livestock market that just happened to coincide with our trip to Tinghir. Hundreds of county folk pay a $.50 tax to show their livestock and buyers come in to browse and buy. It was wild to see sheep getting put up on top of trucks and stuffed into trunks of cars after a successful purchase and the chaos that the Moroccan system looks like from the outside. Aziz nearly got in a fight when one farmer attempted to kick us out of the market and yelled at people taking pictures. From there we drove over a river bridge and saw women washing their clothes against the rocks. We took about a 40 minute walk along the small levees that separate family lots in the communal farm land that is a large stash of green land - otherwise it is an orange adobe city. Though the plots are all individually owned or rented, there is a communal system of irrigation that we were not able to see in action. After the 45 minutes of walking, I was done in and when we got back to the cars I climbed into the very back seat and gave my mother my camera since the group walked a short way through the Todra Gorge.
Carpet store experience here ........
I slept by the pool at our lunch restaurant rather than risking more than a piece of bread for lunch. I stayed awake long enough after lunch to experience a somewhat hair-raising attempt to drive through the gorge on a single lane road overhanging a dry river basin that was half wash out from the base up. The road finally became impassible so Yossef, our driver, made an impressive 3 point turn and our 4 cars headed back to town.
I decided to be dropped off at the hotel to rest while the group continued on to the OAT Foundation's Morocco project - a residential facility for secondary school age students who come from villages that don't have secondary schools. A facility for young women had been built about 2 years before, so that is good news. After that they went to a local Berber woman to have their hands henna'd.
I actually attempted a small dinner of yogurt and bread, but somewhat paid for it when I gave Tinghir a "full moon" when I had an urgent stop on the side of the road as Mom and I walked down to the internet. At least it had begun to get dark.
We fell asleep watching an Italian television station that was broadcasting their version of "Deal or No Deal." This station was very educational for us since Mom had never seen that show and I had never seen "Dancing With the Stars," and they also broadcast an Italian version of that earlier in the evening. They featured some American actor doing a tango cameo - need to look up a chap named Ronn Moss.
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