Boudenib, Morocco

Driss Aouijil, 32, tour guide

What do you see when you look out of the window?
I see the patio of our house and the grape plant that grows in the center of it. In the summer, when it’s really hot, we sleep out there. 

 What did you have for breakfast?
Moroccan bread with Moroccan mint tea, olive oil and date juice, that my sister makes. It’s very sweet and healthy. We don’t drink it but put it on the bread.

What do you miss the most?
I miss the old life before the pandemic; people were happier then. Now, everything has become more difficult. People aren’t the same as before. Some have become very careful and hardly leave their homes. Some seem to be very sad. They have had a hard time.

What has become the most important object in your life?
I can’ t really think of an object that has become important to me. But if you ask me what has become very important to me, then I can tell you it’s to stay with my family. And to be with my nephew, whose mom has been divorced. 

Breakfast in Boudenib: Moroccan bread with mint tea, olive oil and date juice,

Driss, to be honest, I have never heard of Boudenib before. And I assume, a lot of the readers of Window Talks haven’t either. Could you give us some insights?
Of course! Boudenib is a Berber town in the province of Errachidia, 85 kilometers off the provincial capital. Around 10’000 people live here. It’s surrounded by six small towns and located in the Southeast of Morocco quite close to the Algerian border, embedded in the Atlas Mountains. I can see them when I stand on the roof of our house. Boudenib is a lovely area, in the middle of the desert, but it is very poor. It’s still quite off radar of tourism.

As a tour guide, what do you love to show your visitors in Boudenib?
I take them to the nomad families in the desert, to the famous Cave of Aziza and to the mountains. But generally, I do tours all over Morocco. However, the pandemic has hit the tourism industry severely. My business partner and I had just finished our new website for our company North Star Tours and started to promote our tours in Morocco when Corona broke loose. Now, very slowly tourists are coming back to Morocco. But until now only the big agencies have work. My friend and I don’t own cars, we have to rent them. That increases the price of our tours whereas the big operators have entire car fleets, thus they can offer trips to a much lower price. And most tourists will go for the cheaper tours. But I hope the situation will get better soon.

View over Boudenib from the rooftop.

Boudenib is a Berber town in the province of Errachidia, 85 kilometers off the provincial capital.

A beautiful promenade in Boudenib

One of the biggest challenges of the pandemic is that it forces us to reinvent ourselves – also workwise. In how far have you managed to do that?
Well, I haven’t really needed to reinvent myself, as I have always also worked as a volunteer teacher for orphaned children and for kids from very poor families. You know, there are people who pay for their children to get extra classes in mathematics, French or Arabic. I teach kids whose parents can’t afford extra classes. My students are between seven and twelve yeas old, we do evening classes. A couple of years ago I have founded the Sahara Service Organization and started a program to bring volunteers to Morocco. But at the time being I work together with other local organizations. However, to get a salary, I have accepted a job on a date farm. I work from 5am to 4pm, clean the area and fill the tabs of water in which the young date plants grow. Any other work is hard to find. 

Tell me, how big is your family?
We are nine brothers and sisters, six girls and three boys. Most of them are married. My oldest brother is 65. I am not married yet - I am single.

How is it to be 32 and single as a man in Morocco?
I am not the only guy here who is single. But it’s very weird anyway. I have friends who got married at the age of 20 and have children. Most of the girls are married as well. Here, in the Southeast of Morocc, there are small towns and people are very traditional. If a girl isn’t married at the age of 21 or 22, people will tell her that she is too old to get married and she should forget about marriage. All my sisters and brothers push me to get married. They tell me that I too am getting old. But I don’t have any problems with that. Actually, it doesn’t affect me at all. 

Why not?
I am an open-minded person. As a tour guide, I have got to know a lot of Europeans and see how they deal with the issue. When I am ready, I will get married. I am not in a hurry.

How has life in Boudenib changed under the pandemic? 
Lots of people have lost their jobs and suffer economically. We heard of five families that didn’t have any food, so we collected money to buy food for them. During the lockdown and quarantine times immense problems unfolded within families. We saw a surge of domestic violence and divorce. And we saw people getting depressed when everything was closed. Quarantine forced you into a routine. It seemed as if you were living during one long day doing the same stuff all the time. It was very hard. You had to be mentally very strong to stay sane. 

“Quarantine was very hard. You had to be mentally very strong to stay sane.”

How is the Covid situation now?
In the whole of Morocco, a lot of people were killed by the virus. But here in Boudenib, just very few people died from Covid and just few were affected. Our town is far away from civilization – fortunately. Today the overall situation is much better because of the vaccination. More than 20 million persons have been vaccinated, that’s around 70 percent of the entire population. And in my family, we are all vaccinated. So - I haven’t heard of anybody who has had Covid in the last six months. 

In Switzerland we have one of the lowest vaccination rates within Europe. People are quite suspicious of the vaccine; we even have big demonstrations against the vaccine and the government, and conspiracy theories are soaring. Do you have discussions like these in Morocco as well?
Yes! Actually, I have friends who keep asking me why on earth I got vaccinated. They tell me I am going to die or that I have some sort of microchips introduced into my DNA. There are also rumors that women can’t become pregnant after having been vaccinated.

“I have friends who keep asking me why on earth I got vaccinated. They tell me I am going to die or that I have some sort of microchips introduced into my DNA.”

So – these conspiracy theories have become global….
…. Indeed! I think these conspiracy theories are too much. They are beyond any sane reasoning, it’s crazy! I always tell my friends who are against the vaccination: If dark powers want us to die, they have a lot of much easier ways to do it, you know. They can just put something in the water and poison us all.  
What do you think of all these conspiracy theories?

It worries me deeply, that highly educated people – often women – believe in those conspiracy theories and disseminate them passionately.
I understand what you mean! In Morocco there still are a lot of people who never went to school, they are uneducated - but they go to get the vaccine. Sure, there are nomads living outside of urban areas in the desert and for them it’s hard to get vaccinated. But if educated people refuse the vaccination, I think this is very questionable. However, the government has made the vaccination an indirect obligation now: You can’t travel anywhere without a vaccination certificate; you can’t even go into an office or a restaurant if you don’t have the pass. 

To come to another burning topic: There is an immense number of Moroccan migrants who risk their lives to come to Europe. Do you understand why they want to leave their country?
Yes. Did I tell you that I was in Spain in spring?

No.
I had a tourist visa for Tenerife and Murcia. It was my first time ever to get outside of Morocco. Then suddenly Morocco closed its borders with Spain. And I got stuck there for three months. So - I started to look for volunteer work with migrants. As I speak French, English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the Moroccan Berber dialect, I was accepted to start working with the Red Cross in Tenerife at a center that receives migrants. They came from Morocco, Gambia, Kenia, basically from all over Africa. 

“People want to live as humans. They come to Europe to feel that they are human. ”

What insights did you get?
I tell you, why people want to leave their countries: Some do it for economic reasons. But the economic situation often isn’t the main reason. The main problems are corruption, the often horrible human rights’ situation and almost non-existent health care. People want to live as humans. They come to Europe to feel that they are human. When I was in Spain, I understood it: I saw that everything is very easy. I had to go to the police station once, and everyone was nice and treated me very well. I also had to go to the hospital and there everybody was very nice. I got in within one minute and could see a doctor. I thought this was crazy. I wasn’t used to that! In my town in the province of Errachidia there is only one hospital for the whole area and one doctor per one thousand people. It’s crazy.

But – you went back to Morocco. Why?
Because I love Morocco and my life here. I am happy. I have my family and my friends. I want to go back to Europe one day -  but as a tourist. 

“In my town in the province of Errachidia there is only one hospital for the whole area and one doctor per one thousand people. It’s crazy!”

What is currently the worst problem in Morocco?
Corruption. If I had any power, I would do everything to get down with corruption. In all African countries there is so much corruption. It will take years to drain this. See, corruption starts on a small level. I give you an example: In big cities if you need a person to sign an official document, he will tell you that he is busy – until you give him some money under the table. I am talking about big cities, as in small cities it’s easier because we know each other. But in big cities they are used to get money under the table to do their work. There is even corruption at hospitals.

In hospitals?
Yes. A couple of months ago I went to the hospital in my town because I was worried, I had contracted a disease because I had smoked a lot in former times. There were about one hundred persons ahead of me, I was waiting for hours. Suddenly a security guy who had been standing in front of the hospital, came up to me and said: “If you want to go around the line, I will ask my friend, the other security guy inside the hospital, to let you in. But you have to give him some money.” I was outraged! There were people waiting in line who had had accidents or were very sick. I worried about them. I told the guy, I wouldn’t give him money to go ahead of them. And this was just the security guy! The nurses aren’t any better. 2005 my mother died because of diabetes. She didn’t know she was suffering from it. She had cut her finger and got gangrene that eventually took her life. At the hospital, my oldest brother had to give the nurses money under the table to take care of our mother. Imagine that: He had to give them money to do their job! And these are just small examples of corruption. Imagine the extent of corruption on a large scale!

“ I love Morocco and my life here. I am happy. I have my family and my friends. I want to go back to Europe one day -  but as a tourist.  ”

Is there a way to fight corruption sustainably?
Well, the efforts have to come from the top and move to the bottom. People have to stop paying for services. If I give money and the other does the same, everyone gets used to it. It becomes normal, a vicious circle. But if more and more people refused to pay, it would start to get a bad thing – and corruption could stop. 

Driss, let’s look ahead: What is your dream?
Oh, my dream is very simple: I don’t want to be rich. I want to have a normal life and support orphaned kids. Because I know how it is to be without mother and father as both my parents died when I was very young. I want these children to have a good and simple life. I want to create a center for orphans where they get a bed, food and a good education. Still a lot of orphans can’t go to school and thus are forced to start working at a very young age.
I have another project as well, though: I met a child of a nomad family. She was in my class as she has a learning problem. We started talking and I got in touch with the family. The family is one of five nomad families, who don’t have water. They have a small well. But the problem is that the land is owned by people who have bigger wells and have the money to drill very deep to get water. Consequently, the nomads with the small well would have to drill deep as well. But this is very expensive. Maybe we will start to raise funds to help them. I know that this is difficult because people have become suspicious of fundraising projects, they don’t trust them any longer as a lot of donations have disappeared in the swamp of corruption. 

But - we will at least start trying.

One of the nomad families that doesn’t have water.

“The family owns a small well. But the problem is that the land is owned by people who have bigger wells and have the money to drill very deep to get water. Consequently, the nomads with the small well would have to drill deep as well. But this is very expensive.”