What to do?Just trying to write a quick note before the wonderful Didier comes round to sink a few very much needed G n Ts.
You see the plan for a while has been that I stay here for part of Ramadan and push the house/813 forward, trying to get it finished for Jane and Monica, friends of Beccie’s, coming out in early Oct and Jules, Lisa and Gordon, friends of mine, coming out at the end. It would be great to actually have the house finished by then and we are sooooo close, tho to be honest I’ve been saying that it’ll be finished in 3 months, for the past 4 months now!!!
The thing is I feel absolutely shattered, exhausted, crawling…well I would be crawling if I had the energy, but rather I feel like I’m just lying on the floor prostrate, motionless…and that’s me crawling, or the nearest thing I can summon….that’s how tired I feel.
It has to be said that I do feel immeasurably better now. When Beccie and you left I swear I had a couple of days that I literally did nothing, except ensure that I had something to eat, drink and was, at a very basic level, within the norms of acceptable basic personal hygiene! God I was fucked.
I think we started Tazi around April/May 2008, and 813 in October of the same year. We had Finn in August 2007 and moved to Morocco in November of that year. And since then I really don’t think I’ve had a holiday. We did have a break in Jerez around August last year, but in reality, with the combined stress of everything, we spent the whole time arguing…no ones’ fault but hardly relaxing.
Then there was Xmas…but I was finishing a consultancy for UNICEF, and spent most of the time trying to work on that, and since then….apart from a short thing with OXFAM, I’ve been re building two aged houses, raising a child and trying to maintain a marriage, not alone, Beccie has been tremendous and does so much, especially with Finn, I frequently stand there in awe…how does she do it? How does she know how to do it?
Gorgeous wife on a rare day off.
Don’t get me wrong, I genuinely count myself as incredibly lucky. I have a gorgeous son, who I adore, a wonderful wife, whom I have dragged all over Africa since I asked her on bended knee to give me a chance of seeing her, and promising her that I was fully prepared to settle down…oops! And no matter how challenging things are here, and at times they really are difficult, we have a very good life and, hopefully, good prospects of making a successful business.
Morocco and Moroccans are cool, it’s a great place to live and we are happy.
But, Jesus I feel so tired!
As I say, with 813, we are close, soooo close.
But we lost a month with the disappearance of our first zeligi. He started around June and we should have been looking at completing all the zelig within the month. That would have meant that we could have had our mwalem (skilled craftsman) for Gubbs (plaster) start in July, and that should have seen both jobs finished by …well now.
Morocco and Moroccans are cool, it’s a great place to live and we are happy.
But, Jesus I feel so tired!
As I say, with 813, we are close, soooo close.
But we lost a month with the disappearance of our first zeligi. He started around June and we should have been looking at completing all the zelig within the month. That would have meant that we could have had our mwalem (skilled craftsman) for Gubbs (plaster) start in July, and that should have seen both jobs finished by …well now.
Thus the perennial 3 months that I've been citing as the finish date.
Unfortunately, there is an unwritten rule when working with craftsmen here and that is never criticise their work….not if you want to keep them working.
Working with a mwalem, any mwalem, of any trade, is all about trying to get the best possible, which is to say, by perpetually massaging their egos, by saying that bad is really quite good, but what about something slightly different; that their ideas are excellent, but if I might possibly include some miniscule component of my own thought re the design of my house and the work that I am paying to be done; that whilst I know I am not a mwalem, I can see that black is not white and to acknowledge without reservation that any fault, error, mistake, is ultimately my fault, perhaps then, and only then, we could keep moving forward.
I know this rule, I’ve learnt it over the months and soon to be years, that I have been working on these chantiers (building sites). We had Mwalem mason Driss, a great mason, but one whom it was impossible to get to work faster than second grear. It was like massaging a rheumatoid geriatric slug, trying to get him to move out of first gear. His walls were straight…perfectly straight. His brick work was truly beautiful, but it was like watching snails climb walls..infact I believe that he learnt his trade building walls for snails to climb on, one brick at a time!
And what could you say? Certainly not “Fucking hell Driss could you please get your finger out and build that wall at something resembling a mason and not a rose bush creeping up over several summer seasons?”
No, the only way forward is to massage his ego, to tell him how great his work is, to joke about maybe, perhaps, bizarrely it might be possible to go slightly quicker, you know, so that we might finish the wall (forget about the fucking house) before I have to retire!!!
Always being ever so aware that to criticise, is to risk…at best a mood, a strop, hours, maybe days, possibly weeks, of petulance, passive aggressive, childish STROP…and that is the best scenario. Others include sabotage, (blocking drains is a very popular one), theft, slowing down even further, decreasing the quality of work until you are forced to sack them…yes there are times when the strategy is not to say “thanks but no thanks..good bye” but rather, I’m going to force you to sack me.
Why? Now there’s a question!
Unfortunately, there is an unwritten rule when working with craftsmen here and that is never criticise their work….not if you want to keep them working.
Working with a mwalem, any mwalem, of any trade, is all about trying to get the best possible, which is to say, by perpetually massaging their egos, by saying that bad is really quite good, but what about something slightly different; that their ideas are excellent, but if I might possibly include some miniscule component of my own thought re the design of my house and the work that I am paying to be done; that whilst I know I am not a mwalem, I can see that black is not white and to acknowledge without reservation that any fault, error, mistake, is ultimately my fault, perhaps then, and only then, we could keep moving forward.
I know this rule, I’ve learnt it over the months and soon to be years, that I have been working on these chantiers (building sites). We had Mwalem mason Driss, a great mason, but one whom it was impossible to get to work faster than second grear. It was like massaging a rheumatoid geriatric slug, trying to get him to move out of first gear. His walls were straight…perfectly straight. His brick work was truly beautiful, but it was like watching snails climb walls..infact I believe that he learnt his trade building walls for snails to climb on, one brick at a time!
And what could you say? Certainly not “Fucking hell Driss could you please get your finger out and build that wall at something resembling a mason and not a rose bush creeping up over several summer seasons?”
No, the only way forward is to massage his ego, to tell him how great his work is, to joke about maybe, perhaps, bizarrely it might be possible to go slightly quicker, you know, so that we might finish the wall (forget about the fucking house) before I have to retire!!!
Always being ever so aware that to criticise, is to risk…at best a mood, a strop, hours, maybe days, possibly weeks, of petulance, passive aggressive, childish STROP…and that is the best scenario. Others include sabotage, (blocking drains is a very popular one), theft, slowing down even further, decreasing the quality of work until you are forced to sack them…yes there are times when the strategy is not to say “thanks but no thanks..good bye” but rather, I’m going to force you to sack me.
Why? Now there’s a question!
Or simply walking off the job, which is to say, not turning up one morning. Its all smiles as long as you can grin and bear it!
Thus there was Mwalem Haj, our initial zeligi. We had agreed a price for all the work, measured it out, explained our needs and that there was the prospect of working on Tazi when this was finished. We had shaken hands and hugged one another. We had told him how great his work was when we had gone to see it in other peoples’ houses.
He had then worked on our terraces and once completed by him we were very happy. We told him so, many, many times.
Then he worked in our Menza (a room that gives on to the terrace) and the work was simply not as good. His workers were off for a job in Agadir, a jolly if ever there was one in Morocco, and they didn’t have their minds on the job. He wasn’t around as he was managing a bigger job and as I saw, and told him from the outset in this room, the work wasn’t up to his normal, magnificent quality.
I emphasised the magnificence of his normal quality, how it wasn’t his fault that his workers hadn’t worked as well without him as with him. That he was a true leader of men, but the demands of his popularity, caused by the evident quality of his skill, had caused a lapse in an otherwise bleached white copy book. (in fact I’d been told that this was a similar pattern and that once he left his underlings to work, the quality frequently dropped!)
He looked at the work and agreed. It wasn’t as good as the rest, it could either be redone or we could agree a discount.
Amazingly reasonable, I thought and opted to leave the work and accept the discount. We shook hands, laughed as adults do at mistakes maturely resolved, and went our separate ways until his return after the weekend.
He did not return.
I called him and he told me he’d been delayed but would be at the house in two days.
He didn’t turn up…I began to suspect there was a problem.
I called again…he didn’t pick up. I used someone elses’ phone…..a common ploy when trying to find absent friends..and on answering, I asked if there was a problem. No of course not, I’ll be there tomorrow, ish allah.
Now it should be noted that “Ish Allah” if God wills it, has a number of meanings. Obviously everything depends on Gods will…that goes without saying. But equally it can mean…”No chance”..or “maybe”…or I haven’t decided yet…or if the job that I might be getting with someone else falls through…you begin to understand the subtlety the longer you live here…I suspected the former.
He didn’t turn up.
But this was stupid, we had done nothing wrong (you see how quickly it becomes the fault of the purchaser of services!!!), and we had discussed everything like adults, like grown men. And we had shaken hands. There had been plenty of room for disagreement to be expressed, if there had been any disagreement. But there hadn’t been, we had agreed that the work wasn’t up to scratch, that it had been no ones fault, that we respected each other…were adults.
So I got someone to call him. On their phone. He said he would meet us.
He didn’t turn up.
So I decided to find him, I had to confront him, I needed to ask him…what the fuck are you doing playing these childish games, Jesus you’re my age!
Fortunately I knew one of his workers very well and found his newest chantier. I waited outside…stalking him..yes stalking him! You should have seen his face when he saw me…Let noone say that Fez is anything but a village…there are no secrets, no hiding places.
We talked, he said that there had been a mistake, of course he wanted to carry on working and would be there in two days…
He didn’t turn up.
It took about a month to find a new mwalem zeligi, having trawled any number of potential candidates, to be shown work ranging from the atrocious to the atrociously expensive. Finally we have decided upon working with Yussef, a guy I’ve known since I got here, who’s worked with a few friends and is tried and tested. He’s affable and his work is good…tho, whilst his team is now shooting through the house and has now completed the etage and intra sol, the quality of it is very similar to the menza…tho now I am more prepared to look at it and think that it may not be perfect, but at least it’s fine.
Certainly I’ve learnt that it’s a major decision to lose this mwalem again and again retard the completion further.
He had then worked on our terraces and once completed by him we were very happy. We told him so, many, many times.
Then he worked in our Menza (a room that gives on to the terrace) and the work was simply not as good. His workers were off for a job in Agadir, a jolly if ever there was one in Morocco, and they didn’t have their minds on the job. He wasn’t around as he was managing a bigger job and as I saw, and told him from the outset in this room, the work wasn’t up to his normal, magnificent quality.
I emphasised the magnificence of his normal quality, how it wasn’t his fault that his workers hadn’t worked as well without him as with him. That he was a true leader of men, but the demands of his popularity, caused by the evident quality of his skill, had caused a lapse in an otherwise bleached white copy book. (in fact I’d been told that this was a similar pattern and that once he left his underlings to work, the quality frequently dropped!)
He looked at the work and agreed. It wasn’t as good as the rest, it could either be redone or we could agree a discount.
Amazingly reasonable, I thought and opted to leave the work and accept the discount. We shook hands, laughed as adults do at mistakes maturely resolved, and went our separate ways until his return after the weekend.
He did not return.
I called him and he told me he’d been delayed but would be at the house in two days.
He didn’t turn up…I began to suspect there was a problem.
I called again…he didn’t pick up. I used someone elses’ phone…..a common ploy when trying to find absent friends..and on answering, I asked if there was a problem. No of course not, I’ll be there tomorrow, ish allah.
Now it should be noted that “Ish Allah” if God wills it, has a number of meanings. Obviously everything depends on Gods will…that goes without saying. But equally it can mean…”No chance”..or “maybe”…or I haven’t decided yet…or if the job that I might be getting with someone else falls through…you begin to understand the subtlety the longer you live here…I suspected the former.
He didn’t turn up.
But this was stupid, we had done nothing wrong (you see how quickly it becomes the fault of the purchaser of services!!!), and we had discussed everything like adults, like grown men. And we had shaken hands. There had been plenty of room for disagreement to be expressed, if there had been any disagreement. But there hadn’t been, we had agreed that the work wasn’t up to scratch, that it had been no ones fault, that we respected each other…were adults.
So I got someone to call him. On their phone. He said he would meet us.
He didn’t turn up.
So I decided to find him, I had to confront him, I needed to ask him…what the fuck are you doing playing these childish games, Jesus you’re my age!
Fortunately I knew one of his workers very well and found his newest chantier. I waited outside…stalking him..yes stalking him! You should have seen his face when he saw me…Let noone say that Fez is anything but a village…there are no secrets, no hiding places.
We talked, he said that there had been a mistake, of course he wanted to carry on working and would be there in two days…
He didn’t turn up.
It took about a month to find a new mwalem zeligi, having trawled any number of potential candidates, to be shown work ranging from the atrocious to the atrociously expensive. Finally we have decided upon working with Yussef, a guy I’ve known since I got here, who’s worked with a few friends and is tried and tested. He’s affable and his work is good…tho, whilst his team is now shooting through the house and has now completed the etage and intra sol, the quality of it is very similar to the menza…tho now I am more prepared to look at it and think that it may not be perfect, but at least it’s fine.
Certainly I’ve learnt that it’s a major decision to lose this mwalem again and again retard the completion further.
Despite everything, we've gotten this far on the terraces.
It took us months to find our initial masonry and labouring team. I’ve forgotten how many masons we’ve been through…perhaps ten, perhaps more. There are the jokers, the chancers, the no chancers and the you’re having a laughers. Some have lasted days, months, hours. Some haven’t turned up, others keep turning up. Some go peacefully, others are too stoned to care, some have put up a fight, threatened legal action or have only left because we’ve threatened the police. We’ve had stand up rows, come close to fisty cuffs, or just burst in to uncontrolable laughter.
However I have to say that these days we have the basis of a really great team, many of whom have now been with us for over a year and a half and I would say are great, and great fun. Obviously everyone has on and off days, but generally we all do pretty well. But it’s taken time, and lots of opening and closing of doors.
Finding a new mwalem is to enter a world of the possible and the possibly not. It may be that anyone recommended was brilliant in their last job, and will be so on yours…or possibly not. Then there is the re negotiating of prices, assessing current work rate, quality etc as opposed to those reported or promised, integration in to the team, development of mutual understanding…or mis understanding, and the ever necessary massaging of egos. It brings a whole new first hand and personal experience with the theory of “forming, storming, norming and performing…………………………….and this is part and parcel of starting any new mwalem or team.
Such complications are part and parcel of all teams or skills.
Our decappeur team (the guys who strip the old paint off the wood in the house..and there’s a lot of wood in the house!) started saying that they would be finished in a month, took three months to complete and in the mean time, raised their price by 30%, refused to include the oiling of the decapped wood, something that that we had agreed originally, and walked off our job to that of another house in our derb, that I had recommended them to, only returning when I had finally organised with the house owner for them to be shut out of that house, until they had completed ours!
Equally our very lovely, tho very frequently stoned iron monger, who gave us a quote of a week to complete the metal railings a month ago, and told me a month later, that they might be ready next week! I've since seen him and he now, two months later, tells me, there's a shortage of iron!!!
Ali, our loveable plumber, went missing for a month as we were trying to finish our plumbing system, so that the zeligi and carpenter could finish their work…both of which remain…waiting. Fortunately he has returned. I managed to track him down by visiting a coffee house he worked on, where the owner knows his cousin, whose house I visited to ask a man I had never met to contact his cousin so that he could return to my house, as Ali was no longer answering his calls, to find he had been on holiday in Casa and Rabat and had been working in Azrou.
He promises to come back to the house on Monday…Ish Allah, which will mean that then the carpenter can finish his work, that means that the mason can build on top of that and finally that the zeligi can complete the tiling.
Ish Allah!
And all this, and the buying of materials and negotiating with neighbours and authorities is done, mainly in Deriga and if we’re lucky, in French. But if I’m in the chantier, if I’m with our teams, it’s all in deriga…I’ve a great scope of building terms in Deriga….
However I have to say that these days we have the basis of a really great team, many of whom have now been with us for over a year and a half and I would say are great, and great fun. Obviously everyone has on and off days, but generally we all do pretty well. But it’s taken time, and lots of opening and closing of doors.
Finding a new mwalem is to enter a world of the possible and the possibly not. It may be that anyone recommended was brilliant in their last job, and will be so on yours…or possibly not. Then there is the re negotiating of prices, assessing current work rate, quality etc as opposed to those reported or promised, integration in to the team, development of mutual understanding…or mis understanding, and the ever necessary massaging of egos. It brings a whole new first hand and personal experience with the theory of “forming, storming, norming and performing…………………………….and this is part and parcel of starting any new mwalem or team.
Such complications are part and parcel of all teams or skills.
Our decappeur team (the guys who strip the old paint off the wood in the house..and there’s a lot of wood in the house!) started saying that they would be finished in a month, took three months to complete and in the mean time, raised their price by 30%, refused to include the oiling of the decapped wood, something that that we had agreed originally, and walked off our job to that of another house in our derb, that I had recommended them to, only returning when I had finally organised with the house owner for them to be shut out of that house, until they had completed ours!
Equally our very lovely, tho very frequently stoned iron monger, who gave us a quote of a week to complete the metal railings a month ago, and told me a month later, that they might be ready next week! I've since seen him and he now, two months later, tells me, there's a shortage of iron!!!
Ali, our loveable plumber, went missing for a month as we were trying to finish our plumbing system, so that the zeligi and carpenter could finish their work…both of which remain…waiting. Fortunately he has returned. I managed to track him down by visiting a coffee house he worked on, where the owner knows his cousin, whose house I visited to ask a man I had never met to contact his cousin so that he could return to my house, as Ali was no longer answering his calls, to find he had been on holiday in Casa and Rabat and had been working in Azrou.
He promises to come back to the house on Monday…Ish Allah, which will mean that then the carpenter can finish his work, that means that the mason can build on top of that and finally that the zeligi can complete the tiling.
Ish Allah!
And all this, and the buying of materials and negotiating with neighbours and authorities is done, mainly in Deriga and if we’re lucky, in French. But if I’m in the chantier, if I’m with our teams, it’s all in deriga…I’ve a great scope of building terms in Deriga….
Sometimes you need to be able to do this too! Wedding musicians letting off steam in Fez.That equally is fine, if tiring. But apart from anything, it’s not as if either of us are experts in anything building related. Yes I can change a plug, but not much else. I’m sorely disappointed that I haven’t learnt more of all of the trades, but to be honest, just doing the management, logistics, politics, admin’, sourcing of materials, planning, checking…it all takes too much time. Which is not to say that I’ve not been hands on, I can lug a bag of rubble like…well no, not like the best of them..I’m too feeble for that, but I’ve lugged my fair share, tho it would have been nice to know how to build a brick wall, lay pipes and maybe electrics…or maybe not.
Of course it hasn't all been so bad and I love it when we can get away and enjoy the real beauty of Fez and it's surroundings. We had John and France over for a while before you went and took them camping on Zalagh. What fun, what joy and how we enjoyed it all. Yes there are great things here, there and everywhere, but one needs a break...I need a break or I become more of a boring old fart than I already am...what a terrible thought!
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