My CBT Village

For safety and security reasons, PC asked us not to publish the names of our actual sites, but I can tell you that we are in a village a couple miles outside of K'laa Mgouna, which is northwest of Ouarzazate. I don't know the population of our village, but it is fairly small. I have a five minute walk to class and that is probably a 1/3 of the way across town. There is one hotel in the village, and they host small tour groups heading either into the mountains or out into the desert. They must bus people right to the hotel and then leave early in the morning because I haven't seen any of the visitors around town.

The village is on a small cliff above a river valley. The river is pretty small, but it looks like it gets much larger seasonally, perhaps when the snow melts in the mountains. The village has extensive fields in the valley, growing alfalfa, wheat, almonds and some other fruit trees – we've heard apple, pomegranate, and apricot. Each family has their own fields, which have been passed down over the generations.

The village recently received help from the government to install a water chateaus to treat the river water and then deliver it to the homes via indoor plumbing. Before that, women would have gathered water at the river and carried it home. The village also has an irrigation system that diverts water from the river to the fields and delivers the water using gravity. Both were installed in the past 5 years, which has changed the daily lives of our villagers. Pictures to follow, as soon as I can get them uploaded.