samedi 5 décembre 2009

Berbers

When I visited the Berber villages in the high atlas near Mount Toubkal, I discovered many interesting information. Once, instead of hiking on the mountains, we rode on mules and this experience taught me that riding mules is a very hard daily chores for both young and old males. Not only must they be coordinated and trained well to ride them, they must raise the mules. While I lived among the Berbers for 4 days I have experienced both very hot and cold temperatures so to live in a Berber village, you must be adapted to different temperatures. Both the young and old have very little leisure time because they must work 24/7 to earn the money to live. While the girls stay home and do their daily chores for the family, the boys go out and do the labor work such as farming, helping the irrigation system and selling.

The origins of the Berbers are unknown till this day but there are many theories of where they may have come from. They currently live in mountains situated in the Maghreb and are separated from the city civilization. They are mostly Muslims and not that rich, some Berbers migrate to the big cities to find a job and raise money to give back to their families. There are different seasons in berber farms such as the one we arrived in which was walnut season.