Volunteers' blog

This is a bit of what daily life is like in the house…

I made my first pot of mint tea tonight – 1 pot, less than 1 litre, 6 logs of sugar. Maybe it’s not as healthy as I thought… It is delicious though!

Still on the tea - it must be poured from the highest height possible – even if it splashes. Now, I had been thinking that the tea I drank in Marrakech was made in a cup that had not been rinsed properly – hence the immense amount of bubbles. I now realise that in fact the aim of the high pouring is to increase these bubbles, because ‘they’re nice in tea’.

Lunchtime…There is always a range of salads around the table and there is also bread, which is placed on the table and is used to dip into things or scoop up food with. There is always some kind of meat in the middle of the table with heaps of onions and sauce. When all of the salad is eaten and all of the sauce is gone from the meat, the meat is pulled apart and eaten. If you like bones, you have to get in quick.

Breakfast consists of milk and coffee. I am the official pourer. Most of the girls like it micky mick – which means half-half in Berber. There is also bread with cheese or apricot jam or olive oil.

Dinner is usually a soup, bread and eggs or cheese, followed by mint tea.

OK – so I was wondering how 15 girls were having a shower every day, yet we always have plenty of hot water and there is never a queue for les douches. Well, Tuesday is shower day and Saturday is Hammam Day, where they go for a big scrub in town.