Le Petit Fellah:
A Week on an Organic Farm in Morocco
October 6-15, 2024
The first time I saw Taha was on a WhatsApp video call. He was sitting on a big tractor, dust flying everywhere with a big grin on his face. He was so laid back and chill about all of the details I was fretting about so when I got off the call I said to Francesca, "I think this is going to be a good experience for us". And boy was it ever!
Taha teaching Finley how to drive the tractor
The next time I saw Taha was in the flesh as we arrived at his farm, which he has named Le Peitit Fellah which means "the little farm worker" in Arab countries. He was smiling from ear to ear and welcomed us literally with open arms. He showed us our rooms, two clay walled rooms with spotty electricity and wondows with no coverings save for a piece of cloth hung across the top. There was a toilet and a shower, but no hot water. And an outdoor courtyard area that would serve as our dining room and hang out area. Our dining room table was an industral cable spool tipped on its side.
It certainly wasn't the Ritz Carlton, but neither were we expecting that. We had rustic accommodations at our last farm work/stay and the kids didn't even blink an eye. Even later when we realized that we would be living with 1,001 flies, constant dirt and a couple of rats thrown into the mix, the kids didn't complain at all.
Despite it being a Sunday he immediately put us to work herding the sheep. That seemed to be the least favorite job of the farm hands - they all seemed to be very excited whenever we were able to relieve them of sheep/goat herding duty. And on some level I get it - the job requires herding the sheep and goats out to the pasture and then waiting with them for two hours while they graze, occasionally moving them along to greener pastures, as it were. Some would call it boring. We didn't mind though as we would while away the hours chatting with Jade or Taha (when he joined us which wasn't very often) or practicing our Spanish on our Duolingo apps.
One of the aspects of farm life that we liked was the variety of jobs that we were tasked to do. Over the course of our stay we picked lemons, weeded the vegetable garden, cut and hauled empty corn stalks that were used to feed the cows, picked up trash around the farm (our idea), milked the cows, transfered rat infested gourds to a safer storage facility and walked the dogs, in addition to herding the sheep.
But it wasn't all work and no play. Taha made sure we had a lot of fun as well. The kids' favorite was when he would off-road us in his Jeep on our way to somewhere. He would nearly kill us with his dangerous driving and the kids would laugh their faces off. But he also took us on a day trip to Rabat (see blog post), let us swim in his parents' pool, jump on their trampoline, had an outdoor movie night for us and took us to a lake for a natural mud mask.
Swimming at Taha's parents' house next to the farm
Outdoor movie night (Mitchells Vs. The Machines)
Taha off roading us home.
Mud masks at a nearby reservoir
TAHA'S STORY
From the moment we met Taha, we realized he was not a typical farmer out of central casting. He was young and seemed very modern and knowlegeable about the world, politics and pop culture. Over the week working on the farm we learned about his "story" and how he came to be a farmer.
He was born and raised in Rabat, the Moroccan capital city, but spent some of his youth on the large plot of land his parents owned in the area that is now Le Petit Fellah, his farm. His parents ran their own successful transportation business (buses mostly). Taha's brothers and sister all had "professional occupations" (doctor, lawyer, etc.) and he had also chosen a corporate professional path in finance. He went to university in Montreal, Canada majoring in finance.
After University he came back to Rabat and started a new job in a bank as a credit analyts. But after only 20 minutes, he realized that was not what he wanted to do with his life and career and he walked off the job!
He then decided to take over his parent's land in the town of Sidi Allal el Bahraoui - about 20 minutes outside of Rabat - and start an organic farm. He fixed up the house that was his parents second home when he was a child and offered it to them. Then he started studying about organic farming, learning about permaculture and building enclosures for chickens, sheep and cows.
He integrates organic farming and permaculture with the muslim ideals of helping others as he shares his techniques with the neighboring farmers who have been using the more tradiational methods that have proven less productive particularly in times of drought.
Off the farm, Taha feels more like a corporate banker, always on his cell phone chatting with people and making plans. While we were there is was often off the farm in the afternoons or evenings - sometimes taking care of paperwork for the farm, but often visiting friends from university or his childhood. He seems very connected and would wave at many people we passed then in the streets of Rabat.
Taha is a generous and kind man and a smart man, but also a lifelong learner open to hearing new ideas, even from his
One of the aspects of the trip that I valued the most were the relationships that we made with not only Taha and Jade, but with the other farm workers as well. While many of them couldn't speak English and some of them couldn't even speak French (Morocco's second language - our high school French came in handy while living in here) we found ways to connect and communicate through sign language and gestures. I tried to model for our kids that the simple smile is the best form of communication as it means the same thing in every language/culture.
Veteran farm worker, Fatima, seemed to take a liking to me. Taha had told us stories about how past volunteers have feared her as she appears to yell at them when they can't understand her instructions. But she was always very kind to me and would often force me to take a break in the shade with her and give me water - things she didn't do for Francesca or Jade. I had fun trying to communicate with her. At first I tried using the Google Translate app, but she didn't seem to want to do that so we reverted back to gestures and sometimes I fgured it out and sometimes I didn't. She didn't seem bothered either way.
But it wasn't just the people who we loved, the kids espeically loved all of the creatures, domistic and wild, that roamed the farm. These included pets such as a horse, several dogs, chickens, turkeys, a ferret (that they used to flush out rats from their holes so they could squash them with a shovel!), and, of course, the cows, sheeps and goats. There was a baby goat who's mother rejected her after she was born and so it had to be fed by a baby bottle of milk which Finley took on as her responsiblity each day. There were some fun wild critters that we would encounter too like several tortoises, bees and chamelons. Man, it was like we were on a farm! :)
When at last it was time to leave and we tossed our bags into the back of Taha's truck for the drive to Rabat to catch the train to Marrakesh to continue our adventure, Taha gathered all of the farm workers whom we had gotten to know so well over the past week around to take a picture together and say goodbye.
And Taha had one final suprise for us. He presented us with a mango tree sappling for us to plant on the farm. He had been teaching us all week about permaculture being all about relationships between plants, animals and the earth. But another important relationship involved in permaculture is that of humans with plants, animals, the earth and even other humans. By planting this mango tree, as it grew, it would give shade to animals, food for insects and fruit for people. Even visitors and future volunteers might take some of this fruit away from the farm (literally or figuratively) and share them (again literally or figuratively) with others thereby strengthening and broadening those relationships.
After we finished planting our tree we had an emotional goodbye with hugs all around. I wasn't sure about the acceptability of a married man hugging a muslim woman, but I figured this was a two way cultural exchange and, well, I'm a hugger so. They didn't seem to mind and they even initiated hugs - and kisses! - for the children. It felt like grandmas giving smooches on the cheeks to their grandkids.
And just like that, we were gone. Off to our next adventure.
