Solidarity in the Moroccan Mountains 

My name is Isabel and I am 25 years old. I love the mountaineering world, having been introduced to it from an early age by my parents; hiking peaks, climbing walls, crossing torrents, etc.  For me, these are exciting challenges rather than difficulties.

I have always lived in Madrid, the biggest city in Spain and the country’s capital. There are big mountains nearby, not very high but there is quite a lot of variety around. Landscapes are very different from one to the other, as well as the challenges they pose. I have spent great days in Peñalara1, and complicated nights at the “Sierra de Gredos” mountain range, at many degrees below zero.

My parents, besides being mountaineering lovers, work as civil servants. My father works for the Ministry of Education, and my mother is a paediatrician at a public Health Centre, which means that she is a medical practitioner specializing in children (up to eighteen years of age). They have always taught me to care for what’s most important: the people around you, your family, your community, your country etc. They are fair people, humble, supportive, as well as ecologists. Basically, I have learnt many things about being a good and committed person thanks to them.

This is the reason why since I turned eighteen, I try to collaborate with certain associations and NGOs. Normally, these are non-profit organizations which are, step by step, seeking to improve different aspects of people’s lives. I have volunteered for the Red Cross, for example, teaching Spanish to foreigners who have just arrived in our country, because speaking the language of a place helps you to get closer to that country’s culture and people. It is also very important for studying, working, etc. Imagine arriving and, on top of everything, not even being able to afford getting lessons for that language. For me, being able to help them learn Spanish is an honour, and so I give these lessons as a volunteer. Depending on the centre where they are taking place, they take about one or two hours a week. We concentrate mainly on getting these people to learn subjects useful for their everyday life: food, getting around the city, essential Spanish verbs, listening skills for them to understand when spoken to, etc.

I have also collaborated with organizations that help children in situations of social exclusion. Perhaps you are asking yourselves what I intend to say by “social exclusion”, it is a new term that has been adopted in the last few years with the intention of avoiding discrimination or derogatory terms being used, such as “poor people” or worse. Generally, we are referring to situations where children have fewer opportunities, due to poverty, situations of violence in their environment, abandonment, etc. In most cases, these situations are very hard indeed, I won’t lie to you; I have seen all sorts of things.

For several months now –and thanks to the “Fundación Acción Geoda”2-, I have been able to link my two passions: solidarity and mountaineering. A “fundación” (foundation) is a different type of non-profit organization. “Fundación Acción Geoda” works specifically on the integration and improved relations between two close countries: Spain and Morocco. They do so by working in one of the poorest and most depressed areas in Morocco: the High Atlas Mountain Range.

Spain and Morocco are so close to each other… and yet so far! Morocco is what we refer to as a “developing country”. The main cities have advanced greatly during these last ten to fifteen years. Essentially, they have exited the middle ages and entered the modern world. The young inhabitants are cosmopolitan and they speak Arabic, Berber and French without difficulty. They go out at night with friends, they dream about getting a good job someday, going to university and creating a good future for themselves. They have fun with their mobile phone, listening to modern music.

However, this can be found only in the urban area; Moroccan cities might be big, but the country remains essentially rural. People in the countryside are slowly starting to have access to the country’s infrastructural improvements. Nevertheless, Morocco is a country of wild natural areas and it has one of the most inaccessible mountain ranges in Africa, The High Atlas.

In the High Atlas Mountains, you can find peaks higher than four thousand meters -this destination stands as one of our favourites (we, the Spanish mountaineers). When we go there, we discover immense valleys and beautiful mountains. You can also come across the nomad tribes and their flock; they inhabit the high valleys during winter and the low ones in the summertime.   

The nomads are very hospitable, friendly and modest; their living conditions are very, very hard. Electricity has still not arrived to many places, or if it has, it is only a recent occurrence. They get their water from wells or from the river, also where women hand-wash their family’s clothes (and families over there are very large!) Women are also the ones that look after the harvesting and collection of fruit from the trees within the family’s land, normally near the river. Additionally, it’s always the women that prepare the tea when a visitor (as was in our case) passes by. Berbers inhabiting these mountains always welcome visitors with tea.

So, with “Acción Geoda”, I have already been able to travel twice to these magical, charming valleys, where people are so incredible. Both this and last year, during the Easter Holidays, I was able to tag along on a few trips where a school was being built and set up in the Tessaout valley. I had a lot of fun during the second trip especially, there we were, a group of adventurous Spaniards, heavily loaded with all sorts of school material a child may need (pens, notepads, pencils, crayons, pencil cases, colouring books, sheets of paper, etc.). We were also bringing material for the teachers, such as various coloured chalks and world maps. 

Every time we have been there working, the locals have been incredibly attentive to us, they have always paid us countless compliments, and, in general, are really grateful. We spent our nights at a “Gîtes d’étape”, built by a local in an attempt to show his gratitude right after the first projects were completed by the foundation; in order for us –the funny looking and hardworking foreigners- to enjoy a comfortable place to sleep in.

If you are ever travelling through the Tessaout valley, do not hesitate to ask for this “Gîtes d’étape”, and say we recommended it to you! You will have a great time, they will narrate countless stories about these crazy Spaniards, and you will drink an amazing menthol tea while contemplating the river scuttling away under the house! 

1 Highest mountain peak in the mountain range of Guadarrama.

2 Spanish not-profit organization.