Morocco - Kasbah Tamadot - Virgin
Morocco - Kasbah Tamadot - Virgin
Morocco - Kasbah Tamadot - Virgin
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newsletter<br />
V I R G I N U N I T E<br />
GUESTS NEWSLETTER ISSUE 7 AUGUST 2008<br />
Compiled by Eve Branson<br />
V I R G I N U N I T E<br />
<strong>Morocco</strong><br />
N E W S A N D D E V E L O P M E N T S F R O M T H E AT L A S M O U N TA I N S<br />
K A S B A H T A M A D O T • A S N I • A S S E L D A • T I M Z R A • T A N S G H A R T
virgin unite mo<br />
Berber girls learning patchwork<br />
quick update<br />
Further Billy Goat Tales<br />
If you are thinking of sending 30 Cashmere goats from England<br />
to <strong>Morocco</strong> – I’d advise you to think again!<br />
In past issues of this newsletter I’d already mentioned my wish<br />
to bring a herd of white Cashmere goats to the area near<br />
<strong>Kasbah</strong> <strong>Tamadot</strong>. This crazy idea came to me in the middle of<br />
the night and it all seemed so simple and so positive, creating<br />
jobs for the men herding the goats whilst the girls would be<br />
able to spin and knit using the Cashmere wool.<br />
This idea was all falling nicely into place, and when an English<br />
farmer friend said she had a pedigree herd and wanted to retire<br />
from farming, I decided to buy her entire herd of 30 ‘nannies’<br />
(female goats) as well as one male – Billy. Billy is a grand white<br />
male, proud of his large curling horns, that I’ve nicknamed Richard.<br />
Up to the farm I fled, camera and cheque book at the ready,<br />
followed by a quick visit to <strong>Morocco</strong> to consult Brahim, <strong>Kasbah</strong><br />
<strong>Tamadot</strong>’s House Manager, to discuss purchasing some suitable<br />
land near to the craft house in the village of Tansghart<br />
opposite the hotel. The craft house has recently been<br />
completed and we are teaching 40 young Berber girls to<br />
produce embroidery, knitwear and patchwork items, as well as<br />
various crafts which we are selling in the <strong>Virgin</strong> Unite shop<br />
behind <strong>Kasbah</strong> <strong>Tamadot</strong>’s tennis courts. In this way they are<br />
learning a trade that will allow them to earn their own living.<br />
Above the craft workroom are two en-suite bedrooms ready<br />
for any volunteers to stay and teach the girls new craft skills.<br />
Rugs in the making<br />
With the craft house and its two bedrooms finished, Patricia<br />
McLaughlin, who accompanied me on a previous visit, was<br />
able to return and stay in early May 2008. Patricia had a<br />
tremendous impact on the girls on that first visit, teaching<br />
them patchwork skills, and on this trip she was accompanied<br />
by her friend Veronica Ferguson for four full days.<br />
We organised a cook and cleaner during their visit, although as<br />
they were unable to speak each other’s languages there were<br />
some very funny misunderstandings! All should be much<br />
improved in future as the girls are now learning English.<br />
When she first arrived at the workshop, Patricia was thrilled to<br />
find 24 young girls keen and excited who had arrived punctually<br />
at 9.30am.They stayed and worked on patchwork until 5.30pm!<br />
Quarantine Alert<br />
We then fixed a date for the goats, all of which had by now<br />
been thoroughly acquainted with Billy, to be flown out to<br />
<strong>Morocco</strong>. Everything seemed fine until all livestock in England<br />
last summer was suddenly quarantined owing to an outbreak<br />
of two cases of ‘foot and mouth’ disease. My enthusiasm was<br />
dashed; gloom descended as fax after fax was sent to and from<br />
the Ministries of Agriculture both in Rabat and London.<br />
When the quarantine finally lifted and the correct permissions<br />
and forms were almost ready, my excitement was building again<br />
when suddenly – wham! – there was a case of ‘blue tongue’,<br />
another disease affecting livestock that required a further<br />
quarantine. With the goats now pregnant our timeline was<br />
thrown off as it was too late to travel. My dream was fading fast<br />
though the goats were blissfully unaware, peacefully munching<br />
on our English pastures whilst waiting to give birth. We’re<br />
working hard to get around these issues, however, and I’m<br />
confident we will succeed!<br />
Rockin’ The <strong>Kasbah</strong> Once Again<br />
You may recall that in a previous newsletter I talked about a<br />
wonderful star-studded charity event put on last year by some<br />
generous American friends in Los Angeles called ‘Rock the<br />
<strong>Kasbah</strong>’, which raised a fantastic amount of money for the<br />
benefit of all the villages around <strong>Kasbah</strong> <strong>Tamadot</strong>.At that event<br />
I gave a PowerPoint presentation showing pictures and<br />
explaining our aims.<br />
The Americans are generously repeating the ball later this<br />
summer, so surely a filmed documentary this year would be<br />
more explicit than my somewhat amateurish PowerPoint<br />
presentation?! We managed to organise a camera crew to do<br />
some filming of the Cashmere goats, so up to the farm I sped<br />
once more. On arrival I couldn’t understand why one of the<br />
American crew members was so excited as she was putting on<br />
her newly bought gum (Wellington) boots. “Gee honey,” she<br />
explained as she discarded her high heels, “we don’t have gum<br />
boots in New York!”<br />
A trip to an English farm was certainly an experience for the crew,<br />
but what was even more exciting as we ventured through the<br />
old barns and out to a buttercup field was spotting the 30 newlyborn<br />
white, fluffy kids – their 30 proud mothers never far behind.<br />
In the centre of the field was their play area of planks of wood,<br />
shoots and seesaws. We managed to entice all 60 goats with<br />
juicy branches (as well as proud father Billy) to gather round,<br />
giving the camera crew plenty of shots. I felt utterly content<br />
cradling the newly born white baby kid in my arms!<br />
I’ll be sure to update you on the goat saga in future newsletters!
occo<br />
An Unforgettable Welcome<br />
Now my priority was the<br />
older girls at the craft house<br />
in Tansghart, where all 40<br />
are still turning up every day.<br />
We’ve divided them into 20 in<br />
the morning and 20 after<br />
lunch, but there is a snag –I<br />
can’t understand Arabic or the<br />
Berber language. After a quick<br />
word with Brahim,he found an<br />
Discussions on finding an English teacher<br />
English teacher to come every<br />
Sunday. So in future instead of<br />
just smiles, we’ll be able to communicate and I’ll be able to report<br />
on what they’re really thinking – for better or for worse!<br />
On my last visit to <strong>Kasbah</strong> <strong>Tamadot</strong> in July 2008 I was able to<br />
bring along the same documentary team that filmed on the<br />
farm in England. The footage they obtained here will be added<br />
to the shots of the goats and presented at the next ‘Rock the<br />
<strong>Kasbah</strong>’ event later this year. But before I set off to meet the<br />
crew, there was time for a swim and a quick breakfast watching<br />
the sun breaking through the tall cypress trees that line the<br />
infinity pool with the dramatic mountains beyond.<br />
of the 40 girls separately on<br />
my last visit they were proud<br />
today to be able to pin their<br />
names in English on their shirts<br />
– thus I can now call them by<br />
their own names!<br />
The girls’ Berber craft teacher<br />
Amena proudly showed us all<br />
the embroidery and patchwork<br />
they were making whilst the<br />
Amena and Eve in the craft house<br />
team was busy photographing<br />
and interviewing the girls.<br />
When it was time to leave the<br />
girls were proudly calling in<br />
English “Bye Madam”, “Thank<br />
you Madam, come back!”<br />
Outside Amena was waving<br />
from her motorbike which<br />
we’ve just bought her, wide<br />
smiles behind her scarf and<br />
crash helmet, her white Amena waves us off from her new motorbike<br />
Djellaba flowing around the<br />
wheels.<br />
I would like to think the team have ample film footage and<br />
great memories from the visit. I, for my part, had thanks enough<br />
when Amena arrived late on my last night with ten exquisitely<br />
hand embroidered napkins and a blue embroidered table cloth,<br />
a present from the girls – what more thanks could you possibly<br />
want?!<br />
Reflections…And Plans For The Future<br />
Eve and the shopkeeper showing off the patchwork<br />
Shopkeeper in the village craft shop<br />
First we showed the film crew the craft shop where we sell any<br />
goods the girls have made in the nearby village: carpets, bags,<br />
aprons and various knitted garments. The shopkeeper, a tall,<br />
elegant, dignified Berber with a greying moustache, always dressed<br />
in a bright, colourful, flowing Djellaba, was only too happy to<br />
answer their questions (with the help of an interpreter of course).<br />
We then drove the team over to Tansghart, my favourite<br />
village across the valley from <strong>Kasbah</strong> <strong>Tamadot</strong>.We dropped the<br />
team off in advance so they could set up and film the girls’<br />
reaction to my arrival (I started with only three girls, six months<br />
ago sitting on a mud floor and now there are 40).The crew was<br />
not disappointed! The welcome was tremendous – kisses galore<br />
– two on one cheek and one more. Having photographed each<br />
My next dream for the villages is to organise a doctor who will<br />
hold a monthly clinic. At present there are no doctors nearer<br />
than Asni, and with no transport available, this seems the next<br />
priority. In addition, the local school has no water or loos for the<br />
younger children, though I am hoping to secure funding and<br />
support from<strong>Virgin</strong> Unite and <strong>Kasbah</strong> <strong>Tamadot</strong>, and on my next<br />
visit I will take a further interest in this project.<br />
I feel so very privileged to have found the simple art of loving<br />
and living high in the Atlas Mountains. This surely is a world<br />
separate from any other, where the people have not been<br />
contaminated or exploited – people wanting nothing, asking<br />
for nothing.All my life I’ve tried to find a philosophy, a religion.<br />
Perhaps I’ve found it in this simple mud brick village.<br />
EVE BRANSON
“WHAT IS VIRGIN<br />
UNITE? WHAT IS ITS<br />
AIM? WHAT DOES<br />
IT DO?”<br />
W E L L , A S R I C H A R D H A S A S K E D M E<br />
TO HELP WITH THE LOCAL VIRGIN<br />
UNITE ENTERPRISE IN MOROCCO, THIS<br />
NEWSLETTER GIVES SOME ANSWERS TO<br />
THOSE QUESTIONS.<br />
C O N T A C T<br />
<strong>Virgin</strong> Unite<br />
The School House<br />
50 Brook Green<br />
Hammersmith<br />
London W6 7BJ<br />
tel: +44 (0) 203 126 3962<br />
fax: +44 (0) 203 126 3980<br />
email: sue.hale@virginunite.co.uk