Over this past weekend, post tropical storm Lee slowly moved over the Maritime provinces in eastern Canada. Prince Edward Island wasn’t greatly affected by this storm. Other parts of the Maritimes were more seriously affected with trees down and power outages for thousands. In our area, during the storm on Saturday afternoon, the sun broke through on occasion. We did have high winds gusting to 70 kph and torrential rain occasionally but the power stayed on in our area.
As we waited out the storm, I was thinking about a woman we met in Morocco ten years ago when we did a tour there. She was a Berber woman, of the indigenous people of North Africa. Her name was Lala and she invited tours groups into her home for a tea ceremony.
Lala ready for the tea ceremony
Lala’s home was in the Ourika Valley at the base of the Atlas Mountains, near the center of the recent earthquake. I have been thinking of the Berber people since the earthquake, having seen photos of the area.
The home was made of mud and straw and was hundreds of years old.
Kitchen in Lala’s home
Chances are it wouldn’t survive a strong earthquake. I hope Lala and her family did. Her children were married and lived in the area too and her husband was a farmer. By hosting the tea parties, Lala worked to support the family as well. They were hardworking people with rich traditions and culture.
In addition, the tragedy in Libya, where a dam broke and killed thousands of innocent people, has been on my mind too. I saw an interview with a man from the area who was crying because the authorities had been warned about the instability of the dam. It was a needless tragedy.
Meanwhile, here in eastern Canada, we clean up from the weather event. While some of us will struggle, we have it easier than the Moroccans and Libyans. We have more resources of all kinds available to us compared to much of the world.
We can’t do much to help but we will support the Red Cross/Red Crescent in their efforts in Morocco and Libya for the Lalas and their families.