Tahanaout and beyond...: Day 7: Wash Day

It rained late yesterday evening - I think I counted 32 drops in total! I'm noticing now that late afternoons are tending to be very cloudy, though it's still very warm and humid today at 5.20pm. I wonder if that's because it's standard autumnal weather here or just a passing front. Either way, it staves off the intense heat of the African sun for a while.

Happy it's Saturday today and therefore Mart's weekend with me rather than his work!

We set off at about 11.00 to walk into town along the dusty track, and as we bask in the blazing heat we stumble upon a signpost to a local Art Gallery. Another stony footpath and several metres further we see an open gate and enquire if this is it - it is! We are welcomed by a trendy young Moroccan man who leads us behind some curtains into a room and immediately begins explaining the life and works of a local painter, Mohamed Mourabiti - in such quick French that I beckon to him to 'please speak slowly'. My thinking is that at least if I can pick up some of what he says, I can give the gist of it to Mart. However, he has finally realised that we are in fact not French but English, so he begins again in broken English. All I can say is that this painter obviously has an obsession with a certain part of the female anatomy - breasts! All around us we see models of breasts, all in unique colour patterns, some form pictures, some even form columns - how bizarre! Apart from that, there are other more tasteful pictures in modern art - but they're not really to our taste, so we decide to just have a coffee on the terrace, explore the superb library of books within the gallery and wander around the garden.

The ubiquitous breasts!

This place is really quirky with several terraces, lots of arty objects, many black and white photos of someone or other and lovely mosaic tables - unfortunately our man has disappeared and there doesn't seem to be anyone else around to explain anything to us. We'll have to go back and explore further - but I think we've seen enough of the breasts for now!

One of the covered terraces

Coffee on a pretty mosaic table

This afternoon is going to be fun - we're going to use the old twin tub washing machine for the first time! Our first thought is how light it is to lift! Our second is that it's not plumbed in! Mart carries it out onto the patio, we find a plug socket and decide to test it out with the dusty sheets we took off our bed when we arrived here on Sunday. Mart knows how to use it, he used to sell them many years ago...but this is even more basic than the ones he sold way back then! We put two sheets into the machine, pour some washing powder on top, then Saïd runs a hose to the machine and uses it to put water in. We switch it on and nine minutes later we are ready to drain the water - only the coiled outlet hose is split so we all get soaked and Mart has to balance precariously to hold it together whilst I wring some of the soap suds out of the sheets to let them drain away too. By this time I have the giggles and decide I must fetch my camera to capture the scene. The suds are still everywhere, so we put it through another nine minute wash cycle (why nine?) without any powder this time.Still soap suds! Saïd gets a bucket and fills it with water from the hose again to rinse everything by hand, and we put one sheet at a time into the spin side of the machine - only it doesn't work! Now begins the process of repeated wringing by hand - I leave the men to it, and the camera takes over...