Morocco: Culture & Ecology, Fall 2007

Today we left the modern campus of AUI to head for the woods of Azrou. We traded students in trendy outfits for hungry monkeys! This morning, we visited the Azrou Center for Community Development, where we learned about current development initiatives in the Azrou community. These include literacy, IT, and women/human right's classes. The center also hosts a hair stylist training school and a carpet weaving room. In addition, the Azrou Center for Community Development includes health facilities, which offer medical services to local women and children free of cost.

In the afternoon, we visited the Cedre Gouraud, the oldest and largest cedar tree in the area. Azrou is known for its beautiful cedar trees all over Morocco and throughout some parts of the world. Deforestation and use of the trees for construction and firewood continue to pose a threat to this cedar population. In the ceder forest, we had an up close and personal encounter with the Barbary Macaque, a species of monkeys native to the area.

We finished our trip to Azrou up with a lovely couscous Friday meal with some local women in the community and visited the zawiya (religious shrine) of Sidi Absellam, a marabout responsible for bringing water and providing blessings to the area.

Tomorrow morning we will return to Fes.