This is a blog from the site im volunteering in.
The village near El Jadida, and it’s the beginning of April. Inside the café or beside Hanut the guys that are concerned are discussing the latest preparation starting from the truck that would carry the fishing materials, such as the fishing nets, the transportation that would take them to Dakhla city, and many other details. After one week they would start their journey. It’s the season of migration to the south!adnane1
My site is a coastal village near el jadida, so it’s normal that the majority of its population work in fishing. It’s like a small-scale fishery community. Their work is highly related to weather; nice weather means sunny day, calm sea, so let’s go fishing. On the other hand, bad weather means rough sea, no one can ride his boat and enter the sea, and then it’s an open vacation till the sea calm down again. Almost they spend their leisure time in the café playing card, drinking tea, and watching football games. In fact, climate fluctuation during the winter and spring are behind the idea of migrating for two months to Al Dakhla during this time of year in order to work in fishing.
Before they set up the journey, they need to get some things fixed. For example they send their fishing nets and their boats’ engines in a truck, and they get sure that their families have enough money to spend until they come back. The villages’s transporter is the person who is responsible for carrying them to Dakhla city.adanae2
Dakhla is a city that exists in the Moroccan Sahara. The city is famous of sport tourism such as surfing and various beach sports which makes it a destination for amateur surfing tourists. It has a moderate warm weather in the winter which helps fish to spawn. Besides that, its port is classified as one of the important one in Africa in the field of maritime fishing. All these ingredients make it the favorite destination to the fishermen. In other words, getting in there means they would enter the sea, almost, for consecutive days, catching more fish, and thus earning more money.adanane4
However, not everyone can do it unless he is brave and courageous. To head from the village to the heart Sahara you need two-days travelling in a dangerous road. It’s dangerous because of the number of accidents that happen on it. For example, while I’m living in douar, a scary accident on this road (in Boujdour) took the life of five people; two of them are from the douar. Moreover, in Sahara, besides working, they have to deal with housework such as cooking, washing clothes, cleaning, and other stuff.adnane5
Usually, the end of June is the date when most of them return to the village for some reasons. To start with, they prefer to spend Ramadan in the village with their families and celebrate this holly month. Besides that, during the summer, working in fishing in the douar is good as the weather is nice, the fish is diverse, and a lot of tourists pay a visit to this area in order to summer.
The fishermen use the money they bring from working in Dakhla in building or repairing their houses, buying new furniture, buying fishing materials for their boats, etc. one guy from the village told me:”going there for two months gives us a surplus to buy things we can’t buy it through working here only”.
Thank you for reading this blog. I will report more stories from my site; just keep reading.
