{"id":351,"date":"2016-05-13T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/13\/morocco-part-2-2\/"},"modified":"2016-05-13T13:59:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T13:59:00","slug":"morocco-part-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/morocco-part-2-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Morocco Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nA trip to a Berber
\nvillage<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nBerbers (Amazighs)
\nare an ancient ethnic group indigenous to northern Africa. The
\nRomans named them Berbers,\u201dbarbarians\u201d. While they worshiped
\nvarious dieties, some were Jewish Berbers and some Christians. By
\nthe 600’s most were converts to Islam. While some were stereotyped
\nas nomads, the majority were traditionally farmers and lived in
\nvillages. Today most Berbers live in Algeria and Morocco, although
\nthere are large immigrant communities in Europe and Canada.<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThere was no
\nstandard writing system for the many distinct languages. For
\ninstance, when I visited a carpet house the manager showed me modern
\nBerber carpets which told the story of the maker, her family and her
\nvillage, pictorially, in the designs she had woven into her carpet.<\/div>\n
\nIn 2011 King
\nMohammed VI, ordered Berber as an official language of Morocco and
\ncompulsory in all schools. Today it is spoken by 30-40 million
\nArabized Berbers.<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nOn a trip to the
\nOurika Valley at the foot of the Atlas Mountains we visited a Berber
\nfamily. Lest you think Morocco is only desert, the Atlas range is
\nthe highest in North Africa (known as \u201cmountain of mountains\u201d),
\nsnow falling regularly from September to May. In the High Atlas
\nMountains the language is a dialect of Berber Tashelhit (with some
\nTamazight).<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
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\nWhile Arabs tend to
\nleave the family home upon adulthood and marriage, Berbers typically
\nlive in compound houses with extended family.<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nIn Morocco, hot,
\nfreshly brewed mint tea is served to every guest. Made of green tea
\nand mint it is quite refreshing and it is considered very rude to not
\npartake of a small glass (even if it is your 3rd<\/sup> or 4th <\/sup>of
\nthe morning). The offering ranges from a full brewing ritual with
\nmany silver pots and kettles to brewed tea served in small glasses on
\na silver tray.<\/div>\n
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\nThe lady of the
\nhouse wore, for us, a traditional Berber costume,matching green
\npants and caftan, richly embroidered, and small green hat. Although no English was spoken, she graciously showed us her
\nhome and terraces , which held striking views. <\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
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\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nNo home, however off the beaten path should be without TV!!!  The present king had electricity brought to the valley.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
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\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A trip to a Berber village Berbers (Amazighs) are an ancient ethnic group indigenous to northern Africa. The Romans named them Berbers,\u201dbarbarians\u201d. While they worshiped various dieties, some were Jewish Berbers and some Christians. By the 600’s most were converts to Islam. While some were stereotyped as nomads, the majority were traditionally farmers and lived…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}