So when I told someone about the roosters, the donkey and the sheep (did I mention the sheep?), she said, "where are you living again?" Ok. So I really am in Marrakech, also called the Red City because the buildings and the houses traditionally were all the same color--not red, really, more of a salmon color. But let's not split hairs.
Much of Marrakesh is new construction from a building boom that has been going on for some few years now. The new residential construction is mostly 3 or 4 stories. (It also makes for a nice, low skyline.) In the houses I've been in, there is one apartment per floor. Often different couples within the same family will occupy the whole building. In my case, my extended family and I have the 2nd and 3rd floors, the unrelated property owner has the 1st floor.
I live right on the edge of an old section of the city that is about 2 or 3 miles not-so-square miles and is bounded on all sides, I think, by new housing construction. By old section, I mean single-story, adobe-style dwellings and dirt roads. When I first saw those houses, I thought they were abandoned. Then I noticed that quite a few of them have satellite dishes on the rooftops. Some, I'm told, are very well appointed on the inside. I think the satellite dishes would bear that out. Some are poor and use tarps held down with cinderblocks for their roofs and a plastic bamboo fencing for a wall or door. I've heard that some folks are holding out for big bucks from developers or individual perspective new-home builders.
There is a paved road runs past my corner. I live 2 doors down from the corner and while the building on my side street has sidewalks, the roadway itself is the beginning of a dirt road that extends throughout this old section of town. (The dirt road, by the way, has street lights just like the rest of the city.) At the corner to my right starts the paved streets. And just to complete the picture, two blocks away to the right is a wide boulevard lined with trees.
So what's up with all the livestock in my neighborhood? To my left is the old Marrakech. A donkey cart owner parks his donkey directly across from me. Ahh, the braying I've come to know and love. I'm not sure who has the rooster nearby, but someone else has another one a few blocks away and they sometimes talk to each other.
There's also the guy with the small flock of about 20 sheep. I don't know where he lives, but I discovered that there's a small field in this old section of town, and he takes them there to graze. I discovered the field when I looked out of an upstairs window of an old, adobe mosque about 2 blocks away at the end of the dirt road that runs by my house.
Much of Marrakesh is new construction from a building boom that has been going on for some few years now. The new residential construction is mostly 3 or 4 stories. (It also makes for a nice, low skyline.) In the houses I've been in, there is one apartment per floor. Often different couples within the same family will occupy the whole building. In my case, my extended family and I have the 2nd and 3rd floors, the unrelated property owner has the 1st floor.
I live right on the edge of an old section of the city that is about 2 or 3 miles not-so-square miles and is bounded on all sides, I think, by new housing construction. By old section, I mean single-story, adobe-style dwellings and dirt roads. When I first saw those houses, I thought they were abandoned. Then I noticed that quite a few of them have satellite dishes on the rooftops. Some, I'm told, are very well appointed on the inside. I think the satellite dishes would bear that out. Some are poor and use tarps held down with cinderblocks for their roofs and a plastic bamboo fencing for a wall or door. I've heard that some folks are holding out for big bucks from developers or individual perspective new-home builders.
There is a paved road runs past my corner. I live 2 doors down from the corner and while the building on my side street has sidewalks, the roadway itself is the beginning of a dirt road that extends throughout this old section of town. (The dirt road, by the way, has street lights just like the rest of the city.) At the corner to my right starts the paved streets. And just to complete the picture, two blocks away to the right is a wide boulevard lined with trees.
So what's up with all the livestock in my neighborhood? To my left is the old Marrakech. A donkey cart owner parks his donkey directly across from me. Ahh, the braying I've come to know and love. I'm not sure who has the rooster nearby, but someone else has another one a few blocks away and they sometimes talk to each other.
There's also the guy with the small flock of about 20 sheep. I don't know where he lives, but I discovered that there's a small field in this old section of town, and he takes them there to graze. I discovered the field when I looked out of an upstairs window of an old, adobe mosque about 2 blocks away at the end of the dirt road that runs by my house.
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