At my grandma's

After a week at my dad’s village it was my mom’s turn to visit her village, my grandma still lives there, one of the few people who still lives there, it’s much more deserted than my dad’s village once their you would think you traveled back in time.

My aunties agreed to meet at my grandma’s for two days, and if you ask me this is the worst thing that happened to me so far in this trip, when those four women gather up nothing good will came up from it, but I had a plan just stay away from them, the less I hear about what they are talking about the better it is. 

My grandma’s house is really old, she has electricity but again no water which can make living so uncomfortable yet she insist on living there it’s her home she says, she can’t support living anywhere else, unlike her most of the families in the village decided to leave either to the cities or to other villages seeking better living conditions for them and for their children and no one can really blame them for that.

Once there, we settled down, kissed my grandma who looks smaller every time we visit her and my aunties and mom started their, how should I call it, started their rituals, I went to another room lied on the floor and started thinking about what should I do in this long endless day, just looking at the ceiling made me think of all the fun things we used do in this house, when we were children and then negative thinking started about how when we grow up all the fun already ended, I heard a lot of people say that, but no I’ll never be one of those nostalgic people, I refuse to be one of those losers, the fun just started.

I took my camera and started taking photos of anything and everything one day all this would be lost like all the memories from the past, better document it, I started with the ceiling which is already a masterpiece did you ever sow ceilings like those:

I sneaked outside, and strolling in the empty streets it caught my eyes how beautiful the old doors of some abandoned houses were, I know that a lot of those houses are not abandoned but it seemed so cool to say so, sorry about that, anyway those are some of them:

While rereading what I wrote it seems like I complained too much about my aunties, they are not that bad, it’s just that we are different, like if we belong to two different worlds, we only have one small thing in common,  our love to amazigh jewelries.

I asked once my aunty zayna to make for me Tajbadt which is an amazigh necklace made out of 39i9 and jouher ( I don’t know how to translate those to English), it’s usually worn during celebrations with the whole set of silver amazigh jewelries and according to mom only old women wear it daily, I was so happy that my aunt zayna didn't forget about it and finally made one for me, I’ll wear it daily I have an old soul so I don’t care that only old women wear it daily.

 Thanks aunt zayna, you are the best.

Azul Merieme Ayad

Hi friends;

Today I’m going to talk about me, it’s my blog so obviously I would be talking mostly about me, I suck at making introductions but anyway, did you ever wonder what my blog’s name means, by you I mean people who read my blog I know they aren’t many but did that ever came to your mind! Ok even if it didn’t today I’m going to reveal the mystery behind my blog’s name, ready?

It’s not really a mystery if you know a bit of tachlhit, which is an amazigh dialect, you would easily figure it out, AZUL means hi or bonjour, Merieme is my name and Ayad means this is, so basically my blog's name is "hi, this is merieme" genius right? I know it took me forever to chose it, well my brain couldn’t find any better plus it’s in tachlhit a dialect that I love and I know because I’m amazigh, though I grow up a in city where we speak mostly in darija (an Arabic dialect) my parents used to speak tachlhit at home and I’m thankful that they did so, if not I wouldn’t have learned it.
Now that I live in Agadir, a city where a lot of people speak in tachlihit and most of my friends do, knowing how to speak it made it easier for me to connect with people here, and I grow to really enjoy speaking in it. this language is a part of a such beautiful culture which the amazigh culture, I can’t say I speak fluently tachlih I’m way far from that level but I try my best to improve it.


There is another thing that I like about being Amazigh, which is the Amazigh jewelries, Amazigh jewelries are mostly in silver and they are so beautiful, we wear them mostly during weddings, but if it was possible I would wear them everyday and everywhere, I can’t tell you how much I love them. for me they are better than jewelries in gold or even with diamonds, and I don't exaggerate I don’t know why but it’s like they tell a story and they add another charm to the person wearing them.
In the first photo I’m wearing them for the first time in a wedding, and in the second one I was just at home trying them out. they are too different sets and each one represent a region in SOUSS.

I wrote this post because I wanted to share photos of me looking all glamorous with the amazigh jewelries, but also because if there is something I learnt about me loving my culture and getting to know it every day more with its  beautiful and not so beautiful sides, is that now I respect other cultures more and I try not to hurt even with a word others because they belong to a different culture than me, plus I know what is like to get hate just because you are different. If only we could respect each other and put the fact that we are humans above any other title living on this earth would be way easier.

Peace.