January 18, 2004 - page 2

We spent a long while on the bus this afternoon on the way to Kenifra, a Berber town in the Middle Atlas region. The scenery was awesome. Olive trees still abounded, while huge hillsides with more rock than green space loomed above. Shepherds wandered across the fields with flocks of sheep and cattle, and the colors of earth changed around every turn.

The hotel in Kenifra was cold to say the least. Dinner was pleasant, and the waiters were very generous in catering to my meatless diet. After dinner, we had Berber visitors who came to sing, play, and dance for us. Their costumes were long, white, flowing dresses with multicolored straps crisscrossing. The straps all had gold beads attached to the ends, emphasizing the rapid shaking of their hips.

They did one dance with their long black hair let down and spinning wildly, which was to represent the dancing of the horses in the villages after a successful harvest. Though Moroccans really do come in every size, shape, and color, this group of women looked to be very much of the same

small tribe given their skin tone, hair, and other features. Also, apparently younger generations of women no longer practice the tradition of artistic and ceremonial tattooing that their mothers did.