Thursday 30 October 2008

No road leads to my dream house

My house… you should know it by now...

A dream house if you ask me. Olive trees and beautiful landscape.

Everything white.

Everything made by us, and by our friends.

A house that took us 2 years of our life, but not so much money.

A house that IS our life.

And then  the stupid flood happened.

Our house was damaged, but we fixed it.

The road, though… was partly destroyed.

And I should tell you about the road- it’s not really a road. It’s just made of sand and rocks.

It’s been covered in mud, and the tractors didn’t help. They made big holes in the road. And we can no longer go to our house with our car when it rains.

So what can we do?

Build another road?

 

For 4 weeks now, it’s been raining in Morocco like it hasn’t in 30 years. In the south and in the north of the country, dozens of people have died, drowned or struck by lightning.
Here in Ouled Jamaa, by the Oued Sebbou, numerous houses have been flooded.
And worse – according to the meteorologists, more heavy rains are expected in the next weeks.

Saturday 18 October 2008

Too far away from Ouled Mgatel

I haven’t been feeling like blogging lately… Too much work, too much time spent far from the house, and too much rain. Among other things. Please, bear with me. I’ll give you more news soon, I promise.

Meanwhile, in Ouled Mgatel, it’s time for the olives to be gathered…



Sunday 5 October 2008

Renewal



That’s what happens here when it rains after months of hot summer… beautiful grass for the hungry sheep.

Saturday 4 October 2008

After the flood - pictures

When we got back from Fez last Saturday, the thunderstorm came with us…

And look how my feet were when we arrived home. We’d left the car at a neighbor’s, because the dirt road leading to our house is no longer a road when it rains.

I honestly thought at this time that the week end couldn’t get worse.

But it did. By raining, raining, raining, thundering, etc.

The day after, the landscape had changed…

The house too...

The torrent that was born had already died.

The roads had partly disappeared...

But of course, the dog Lisa, that follows us everywhere (but is not so fast that she can go to Fez with us), was happy, as always.

Wednesday 1 October 2008

After the flood

Strange morning in Ouled Emgatel… Three violent thunderstorms flooded the countryside. Something crazy, especially at this time of year. A raging torrent appeared by our house. No harm done though.

The house suffered a little.

Water began to come through the walls (ok, here you’re supposed to fix your house every year, in august, but we haven’t done it yet…), and I freaked out. I was already picturing the collapse of our house.

And if it wasn’t enough, the ceiling became jealous of the oozing wall, and began to leak.

We didn’t sleep well.

When we opened the door Monday morning, the devastation was visible. Our house had changed a lot during this night.

Not so white anymore. 

I took pictures  of course, but since I forgot the cable of my camero at home (and since we are waiting for the mud to dry to go home), I don’t have any pictures to show you for now. 

But you can try to picture it. It’s not that difficult. Remember, the key word  here is : MUD.