In the South of Marrakesh

Permaculture farm and Open Village

We were ready for a work-away again. Fortunately, we found Karine. And with her, a new chapter in our journey. Karine and Ahmed have a permaculture garden and a small olive farm in the south of Marrakesh. The buildings are all out in the open. The living room is a pavilion in the garden, the kitchen too. There are closed rooms, but actually you spend the whole day outside.

Furthermore they have a project, called „Open Village“. About 5 years ago, they travelled around the world with their whole family (so seven people) and visited 12 different villages. Spread over six continents, all the villages had one thing in common: they are very autonomous and the inhabitants live contentedly. The idea was to build a network among them and bring them into exchange with each other. But since the spatial and cultural distance was too great, they adapted the project for Morocco.

Here they work with different, very rural villages and bring them into a common exchange. On the farm itself, Karine has started a small kindergarten for the women in her village. They are playing and learning on the outside all morning, the mothers learn with their children and the youngest are accompanied by their older siblings. Autonomy, self-reliance, solidarity and sharing, the knowledge that everyone can contribute something to the community are the guiding principles here.

Forest kindergarten, but make it moroccan ;)

In the first week we helped quite a bit in the garden, and at the weekend we went into town (something we never do and don't want to do again so soon. Everything was chaotic and loud and we were the only tourists). In the second week we help in the kindergarten, film the activities and make a short portrait film about the "Mandala". We also cooked couscous together with the women.

The little trailer for the kindergarten actually turns into a discreet drama, because the women's husbands turn up on the same day. They are unhappy because we filmed their wives. They don't want their faces to be shown anywhere in public. We knew from the beginning that this could be a problem, which is why we asked for the women's consent. And yet we filmed them as little as possible, or made their faces unrecognisable. The fact that they actually decided themselves that it was OK for them, however, didn't matter afterwards. The men decided against it. In the end, we were able to edit everything so that everyone was happy, or well, at least accepted it. Nevertheless, the experience was very weird and will probably stay with us for a while.

99 Femmes du Maroc

On the second weekend, we were able to accompany Karine and Ahmed to another project, the "99 Femmes du Maroc" project. 99 women from 9 villages tell their story. Partly in Arabic, but also in Amazigh. These stories are sent to other groups of women. Women from the cities. They rewrite the stories. They rewrite the stories into monologues, which are then staged as a play. The play is also performed by women in each of these villages. So for this, 9 festivals are organised by the local women, and their stories are told. They will be heard. And it will be they themselves who can show how much they actually carry and hold together the structures of the villages.

We can film a small teaser which will then be shown at the launch of the project in March in Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh and Essaouira. And we are shooting a short introduction about the Open Villages. The next few days will be correspondingly intense... and actually, we also expect our ferry to leave soon...