Winter is not a joke in this part of Africa. These past few weeks have been a wake-up for me in that I have realized how much the weather shapes life here. I experienced the fall floods and the massive toll it took on the region; taking out people, roads, houses, livestock, bridges and roads. We still have not fully recovered from the damage and are now starting to see the effect lost crops had on incomes.
Starting around the 5th of December the weather turned mean with wind and freezing rain. After that the rain turned to snow and ice and didn’t stop for two days. When it cleared people rushed out to shovel off their roofs to prevent collapse. Every family kept their sheep in the barns, huddled together for warmth. Entire families sleep in the kitchens of their houses to keep warm and don’t peek out until 10am.
Early December means l’Eid al-Adha, the largest Muslim holiday. Marmoucha celebrated the way everyone does; they get the fam together and host guests and grill up large animals on kebabs. The only difference between Marmoucha and everyone else was that Marmoucha celebrated l’Eid for a week stuck inside their houses. After the holiday no transportation came for 5 days. If someone needed out of Marmoucha they had to walk. So they did. Some had to walk 5 kilometers, some 20, some 25. Some more.
That week marked the first of four weekly souks (markets) that didn’t happen due to snow and damaged roads. No vegetables. No meat. No butane gas to keep warm or cook. No firewood. If you could get to town centre, you didn’t find much there. It was like living under Stalin, and I bet the weather wasn’t much different.
