Festival at Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa (aka Tazerwalt)

Now, I don’t know too much about blogging etiquette, but I must warn you that my next few posts will be out of order. Tara came to visit a month ago, and I will post that after I post this, which occurred before Ramadan began.  Sorry for any confusion. 

 

Last week was al-muggar (saint festival) at Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa, aka Tazerwalt.  Tazerwalt is a town 12km from Meredith’s site, and each year they host a huge festival in honor of Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa……a saint from a long long time ago.  He was a good person.  Allah blesses him.  And that is all I know.  I tried to get specifics on this guy to no avail. 

 

Anyway, Tazerwalt has a shrine to the saint, and each year thousands and thousands of people come from all over Morocco to visit the shrine and enjoy the festival.  Two years ago, there was a volunteer in Tazerwalt, and she set up a health booth at the festival to disseminate basic health information to the thousands of visitors.  This year, Meredith decided to do the same. 

 

Meredith spent the week leading up to the festival in communication with the local government of Tazerwalt as well as their health staff.  We were fortunate to receive support from both entities, which made setting up a booth much easier. 

 

Over a three-day period, we had 11 volunteers working at our health booth.  We spent our afternoons and evenings talking about dental health, sanitation, hygiene, and washing kid’s hands for candy.  Generally we had a good time and felt like we were getting our point across.  We also enjoyed walking around the festival after dark, eating camel tagine and sugar-coated chickpeas.  Delicious! 

 

11 volunteers working the health booth meant 11 volunteers staying at Meredith’s house.  It was quite the experience.  When we cooked I felt like I was in the movie Yours, Mine, and Ours, making food for that many people!  And sleeping…there were volunteers sleeping everywhere!  On the ponjs, on the bed, on the floor, on the roof.  It was also ridiculously hot, so I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I returned to my much more temperate mountain on Thursday.  But it was a great week, and we all loved having a chance to get some work done in summer!    

 

 

Pictures to come!!