wonderful wwoofing in Morocco

 

During our last 10 days in Morocco we wwoofed at great place near Rabat, in the north.  It was our favorite farm yet. 

Our hosts were hardworking retired people.  He was a doctor turned farmer and she was a neuro-biology professor turned educational non-profit worker.  The were both fluent in both Moroccan Arabic (which is quite different from classical Arabic) and French, though they more often spoke French to each other and watched TV almost exclusively in French.  This was great for me – I think I spoke more French than in France – and didn’t bother Jack too much.  They were wonderful people.

On the farm, we pruned lemon trees, hauled around firewood (from the pruning), fed the chickens and sheep, planted grape vines, staked up grape vines and olive trees and picked avocados.

We also enjoyed our first travel pets since early October!

Their house was lovely and enormous, with the only catch being that they had only solar electricity and hot water because the neighbors wouldn’t let them cross their land to connect to the power grid. This meant no internet access in the winter time and bucket showers (with cold water on the occasional cloudy day). The absence of the internet was actually pretty nice, though we didn’t know about it in advance.

We had Sundays off and on the first one, our hosts went out for the day with some friends and invited us to tag along.  We went walking at a bird and nature refuge called la Reserve de Sidi Bou Ghaba (did you know that flamingos migrate from Europe to southern Africa, breeding in North Africa on the way?) and then at an old castle/site that was occupied by the Phonetions, then the Carthagians, then the Romans, the a variety of pirates, and then became a Moroccan royal palace about 500 years ago.  It was even taken by the United States in WWII.  It was at the mouth of a river in a clearly strategic location.  I need to figure out what it was called and where exactly it was. 

They also brought us to the nearby souk, just for the experience.  On the second Sunday we walked in the cork tree forest just outside their property, bringing with us a few stout sticks and the fiercest of their dogs (because there are so many other dogs in the forest).

Last but far from least, the food was incredible.  In all seriousness, it was the best 10 days of food I’ve ever experienced and we were lucky enough to be getting lots of exercise to work up a good appetite.  We had avocado salads every day, lots of cilantro and lemon and all sorts of scrumptious Moroccan dishes.  Yum.