Today, our group hiked through Ifrane National Park to have tea with a Berber family. The Berbers are an ethnic group that lives in many regions across Africa. Though historically nomadic, many settled down after conquest by Arabic tribes during 700 to 800 CE.
We walked through a beautiful forest of old cedar trees led by our guide Karim. Along the way we learned about how the trees defend themselves from parasitic bees who lay their eggs in the wood by ejecting the eggs in pinecone-like droppings. We also saw a flock of sheep passing through nearby, guided by a local shepherd and a dog. When we finished our hike we arrived at a cluster of plastic tents where the Berber family kept turkeys, chickens, and a few baby sheep that weren’t with the shepherd. Karim gave us a tour of the tents and showed us all the animals, before bringing us into a heated tent to serve us tea. As he poured us tea and served us cakes, he began to tell us his life story.
Karim’s father came from the north of Morocco and walked in the Green March – a large state-coordinated protest against the Spanish military presence in the Western Sahara. After that, he joined the Moroccan military. His father had asthma, however, and soon had to move to the mountains for the better air where he and his wife eventually had Karim. When Karim was born, they decided to move to the city of Azrou for their education, leaving the mountains. His dream was to be a forest ranger or guide, as he loved being in nature. However, despite his good grades in school, he did not have enough money to go to school for tour guides because it was very expensive and competitive. At the time, people had to pay bribes to get into certain colleges due to corruption. Instead, he studied biology at a different university.
One day, after seeing smoke, a lost English traveler came to Karim’s village in the mountains. Karim fed him and gave him water using the well. The traveler asked Karim to be a tour guide since he was a local, so Karim guided the traveler even with broken English, and the man gave Karim a lot of money in exchange. After their interaction, Karim wanted to learn English, so he used the money to buy an English dictionary and go to English classes. A few months later, the same English traveler came back to the village with his friends all with Western camping attire. They spent a long time trying to find Karim, and asked other people in the village for him, wanting to go camping. Being impressed by Karim’s English improvement, the man offered Karim a job as an assistant for a Moroccan tourist company that brings tourists to Azrou in 2006. However, shortly after, the company transferred ownership to a new owner who did not want to have a tourist organization in Morocco, so Karim lost his job. His job there was his entire life, so he lost his sense of self after having no work.
Eventually, he continued his passion of outdoor exploration by selling outdoor gear in the weekly market at Souk from 2014 to 2018, in addition to freelancing as a tour guide. However, coincidentally, the Moroccan government gave appointments for the tour guide license through an exam, and Karim placed first with 183 other Moroccans. Receiving the license, he finally obtained the government license to become a tour guide.
Now, he continues his freelance work by giving tours of his village, the mountains, the cedar forest, and fishing excursions. He has even appeared in some outdoor TV shows. Despite all his struggles and disadvantages, he has managed to live his passion and share it with us.