Morocco: Gallivanting towards the Dessert

The next phase...Er-Rachidia to Merzouga

Our journey sees us journeying farther south gallivanting towards the dessert.

A brief shot of Er-Rachidia on the morning we leave. There is often a familiar feel to small towns the world over. The scene as we left town was a cross between a dessert and Tuscany. Pictured above is the dried river bed of the Oued Ziz. You can catch just a glimpse of Er-Rachidia as we leave (above). I make Nigel stop the car and turn around so I can get these last few shots. Unfortunately he dropped me off on one side of the bridge, I walked to the other and we both waited thinking the other was coming to us. Yes, there are all sorts of crazy thoughts that go through your head when your travel mate doesn't show up. The Ziz Valley is spectacular. Here we were driving on mountainous roads when we turn the corner to witness a panoramic breathtaking view.

Some crazy couple got in the way of this shot.

A small village rests in the valley below.

For the travellers there is a large cool Berber tent erected with a place to drink your tea de menthe.

A close up of the village in the Ziz valley.

A lone woman ventures out into the heat of the midday soon to vanish and leave the feeling of a ghost town.

A lone man. I suppose I didn't have to write that, as it is pretty obvious, hey?

I love the images of the women in full covering wandering the streets. Their wraps billowing in the wind. In different parts of Morocco I noticed a different change in the clothing of the women. In the dessert they were often in black. Donkeys as transport becomes more and more common a sight the farther south we travel.

Horse and buggy are also common.

This is the town of Rissani where the Ziz river is finally overwhelmed by stone and sand. Here caravans from the Sahel used to unload some of their gold and slaves. It is from Rissani that the Filali (ancestors of the Alawite dynasty that rules today) swept north to overthrow the Saadians as the ruling dynasty in Morocco. It is from the town of Rissani, traditionally the domain of tough and wily tribes, that faux guides tried to convince visitors that the road to Merzouga is still unpaved and hard to find and they would need a guide. When that failed, an effort was made to vandalise road signs so that travelling south would be difficult without assistance. The road, finally clears of any town and leaves the Atlas mountains far behind. It heads south towards the Algerian border and the Sahara dessert. The low lying sparse town of Merzouga pops up as camels migrate the vast and barren landscape. It turns out the camels are heading the same way we are. In Fes we follow the ass. In Erg Chebbi, Morocco's only genuine Sahara, we follow the hump.

Morocco: The Journey to Er-Rachidia

Okay, let me continue my journey through Morocco with you... Having spent 3 days in Fes we began our long drive south through Azrou and Midelt. The climate of this region varies widely between the mountainous area to the south and the dry flat lands of the valley between the Middle Atlas and Rif Mountains. The summers are scorching hot with temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius in the summer around Fes. Their cool stone and clay housing, tiled internally, reflect the climate. Ifrane (population 10,000) is the first unusual sites as you start to rise into the Middle Atlas. It feels like Switzerland or Whistler, not Morocco. The French built the town in the 30's trying to mimic an alpine resort feel. In the off season the town if filled with rich, trendy students attending the prestigious Al-Akhawayn University. We tried to have a look around the grounds, but were stopped by security.

At times the landscape has the look and feel of Tuscany.

Other areas are barren except for the occasional sign of life.

The subtle shift in colours is breathtaking.

One has to pay particular attention to the road signs which are in Arabic and French. This picture reminds me of the Alberta foothills in Canada. I do love a good electrical wires post in a promising landscape photo.

Some low mountain ranges had small alpine forests.

Pictured above, we begin to see signs of nomadic life as Berber tents begin to dot the horizon. Then just when you think you are in the middle of nowhere you round a corner and there on a hill top is an ancient village. When we step out of our car for a break we are so thankful we had been upgraded to an air conditioned unit. The more south we drive the more we begin to see camels wandering the barren landscape.

More villages crop up, this time with huge mountainous backdrops.

Despite the heat the locals are covered from head to toe...one way to get circulation of cooler air in the heat is to wear long flowing gowns and head scarves. The Zis river brings a sense of life to this barren area. It carves out a valley that continues south past Merzouga. Spectacularly ancient villages are easy to miss as they blend into the surrounding mountains and hillsides. The turquoise blue water of the Barrage Hassan Adakhil are a stunning site but difficult to get a picture without gaggles of power lines. We arrive in the town of Er-Rachidia which is at the cross roads of important north-south and east-west routes across Morocco. It was built by the French as a military outpost. We tried to find a place to eat that evening, but there was an odd feeling to the whole place after dark...instead of seeing families out late, it was only men. Our room at the Auberge Tinit just 3km outside of the town. It was basic with a nice hard bed (good for a bad back). With the heat it is great having a pool in any place you stay. The Tinit has one along with the standard roof to sleep on at night if it is too hot.

The view from the roof.

Embracing the Challenge of Good Data Collection in Post-Conflict Liberia

The Lofa County Survey

(Photo: left) Survey team member Priya Marwah mapping out logistics with Dr. Geetor Saydee and Dr. Basia Tomczyk, Photo: UNFPA, 18 July 2008

LOFA, Liberia — Dr. Geetor Saydee’s legs were tired, his brow drenched in sweat. He’d been walking for several hours through the dusty streets of Lofa, a county in Liberia’s northern region, to assess the status of the public healthcare system in the wake of the country’s 14-year civil war. But he trudged on, knowing how much was at stake.

Lofa was a focal point during the war, a place where ritual murder, systematic rape and torture were commonplace. Though the war ended in 2003, clean water and sanitation are still scarce and nearly all basic services, including health facilities, were destroyed and remain in shambles. The country’s Human Development Report recently concluded that as a result of the conflict, only 5 per cent of the country’s health facilities are still standing. In 2003, fewer than 20 government doctors (out of 400 who were trained before the war) remained in the country.

Difficult conditions

(Photo: left) Difficult conditions, Driving on rugged roads into Lofa County, Photo: UNFPA

“The biggest challenges were bad roads and inaccessible areas. We spent a lot of time walking. If the villages were too far to reach by foot, we’d have to turn around and find another option. After this survey was conducted, I realized that in order to gather good and genuine data, one has to surpass many challenges,” Priya Marwah of UNFPA’s Humanitarian Response Unit recalls.

Shocking results

The results of the survey were shocking: 96 per cent had lost shelter due to the war, 90.8 per cent had lost their livelihoods, and 72.8 per cent had lost a family member. More than half of all women in Lofa County were victims of at least one incident of sexual violence during the 1999-2003 conflict.

While 90 per cent of these women were physically abused at least once, almost half of the women reported more than four instances in which they were required to have sex for favours. The data also revealed that 61.5 per cent of women experienced violence at the hands of an intimate partner at some point in their lives.

A community effort

"Local NGOs know the culture, which helps them address sensitive reproductive health issues." --Meriwether Beatty

At the beginning of the survey process, the 14-member survey team travelled across rutted roads and thick forests to reach the Lofa districts of Voinjama, Foya, Zorzor and Salayea to explain to village leaders the purpose and procedures of the survey, and to obtain their permission to conduct it. Making sure the communities knew what was going on and trusted the process was critical to the survey’s success.

“The local population was very helpful and cooperative throughout the entire process. They provided accommodation for the survey team and directions to the next selected towns and villages. The local population also assisted in the education and sensitization of the survey,” said Basia Tomczyk, a CDC epidemiologist.

Forgotten and vulnerable

Ironically, access to reproductive health care often declines after a ceasefire because, once peace is forged, humanitarian agencies often stop providing emergency assistance. Yet in post-conflict settings, broken-down infrastructures and a lack of resources often mean that displaced populations are left to try to reconstruct their communities without the necessary supplies and equipment.

Conclusion

It had been nearly ten years since a population-based survey had been produced in Liberia. The lack of information meant that calculating sample frames was difficult since some of the villages and roads listed no longer existed. These obstacles are not uncommon when collecting important data in countries transitioning from the emergency phase of a conflict.

The participants of the survey included some 907 women of reproductive age living in 36 locales, which included both urban and rural areas. They were interviewed by women, many of them locally recruited, who had been trained by the CDC on the survey methodologies and who also spoke the local dialect. Survey team members filled out a questionnaire form for each participant, since many of them did not know how to write. Participants were asked about maternal health practices, knowledge and use of contraception, experiences with sexual violence during and after the recent conflict, and knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to HIV.

“It was important to evaluate the reproductive health situations of the women here. What we found was that they have a very low social and economic status, which makes them vulnerable to a variety of things,” said Dr. Saydee, a national consultant for UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Early pregnancy, sexual violence and HIV transmission are among the issues he cited.

In fact, the data he and others collected suggested that “the single most important intervention needed is improved access to and availability of reproductive health services.”

Edinburgh, Scotland

We are back in the UK and decided to hoof it up to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a few days to see the last of the Edinburgh Arts Festival. It is an internationally renouned annual city wide art event that spans all of August and includes dance, comedy, art, music, theatre and probably more. The city was enchanting. There were musicians on so many street corners I lost track of them all. Harpists, violinists, brass bands, bag pipers, and a jazz band. The whole city is small enough to wander around, but large enough to host an amazing art scene. I spent the time treking from gallery to gallery. My favourite shows were at the Collective Gallery (pictured above) combining comedy with performance art while the Fruitmarket Gallery featured brilliant installations by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. There was a great promotional event called the Art Late Running Tour put on by the festival. We signed up for it. It was meant to be a whistlestop tour of some of the gallery highlights. No one actually believed it was literally running until the leader showed up in retro running gear and hoofed it off. Lucky for us he was an out of shape artist and had to stop a lot. The photo above showing us all running can be found in the review.

The city really was breathtaking.

The winding streets were everywhere and there was no modern section in the whole city.

Edinburgh is full of green spaces and parks.

I like the slightly blurred picture of the great couple we stayed with (actually all their shots were blurred. oops). We met Trevor in Malawi at a friend's house one evening and called him and his wife up from Morocco. Without fully remembering who we were or where we had met we were welcomed into their warm household. Trevor and Franny are amazing and laid-back hosts, fellow travellers and life-time adventurers, and genuinely wonderful people. (Oh, and did I mention great cooks?)

The castle sits up on the hill and overlooks the entire city.

Tracey Emin was having her first UK retrospective at the National Gallery of Scotland and I couldn't resist running over to see it on the morning we were catching a train to leave. It was a good show. I was most drawn to her more recent quilts and 2007 paintings.

Then we were back on the train returning to England. Moo.