After supper in the Tiznit Hotel

In the afternoon of the first day of the 'Reunion des Amis d'Iligh' the group was taken to meet Tiznit's famous resident architect Salima Nagji. I went back to the Tiznit Hotel to take a rest in my room. Although the hotel is situated on the corner of the busiest roundabout in Tiznit I didn't hear the traffic in my room at all. The rooms of the Friends of Iligh were all situated around the landscaped and shaded court with at its centre the swimming pool. A typical three star hotel the Tiznit had an alcohol license and a bar where the local drunks and as far as I could see prostitutes gathered. Right across from the window plus balcony of my room an old gent sat during the day in the shade of a date palm. I soon discovered that he had a great view of what went on in the rooms. I slept till evening and joined the group for supper in the hotel's dining room. Of the experts who met Aisha in Leyde in October only one was in Tiznit: Herman Obdeijn. He was accompanied by his wife Louise (Wies). Poor Harry Stroomer who had wanted to come had had a minor stroke on the day before coming here. Fortunately it wasn't crippling and the prospects for recovery were good. It brought home the fact that it was 5 to 12. Harry's right hand man Mohammed Saadouni was with us. And a good thing it was. During the day there had been a lot of local luminaries that had tagged on to the group, but back at the hotel the group had thinned out considerably. Aisha, Annie and Bert were still staying at Fatima's. After supper the 5 strong delegation of the NIMAR had also gone to the rooms. Left were from left to right Paul Dahan of the Jewish Museum in Brussels, he was accompanied by his Belgian wife and 4 year old son, Herman Obdeijn, retired diplomat and Morocco specialist, Wies Obdeijn, retired medical doctor, Mohammed Saadouni and Abdallah Al Moutassir the history professor with whom Aisha was doing her phd. Paul Dahan, who cherishes his Moroccan passport, was a lively fellow who got a discussion going and who held some outspoken views that he didn't suppress. Around him it was never dull.

Back in Tiznit

Aisha's friend Abdellatif Jhilal picked me up from the Tildi Hotel at exactly 10 o'clock. He drove me in an upmarket gleaming black Volkswagen sedan in around two hours to Tiznit. The Tildi is situated in a narrow quiet street that runs down hill to the beach. Just before the beach it is cut short by the main traffic artery that runs north-south parallel to the coast. This wide street took us first to Inzegane past the huge Marijane supermarket, the bus station and the Grand Taxi station. Next it crosses the Sous River that gives the region its name. March should be the time of the year that abundant water is passing under the bridge. It wasn't bad actually. Morocco also had had a miserable and cold month just like in Ireland. Next we drove through Ait Melloul. In this town is the turn off for the N1 to Tiznit and beyond. The other route goes to the airport. It was the route I had come that morning. By that time I knew that Abdellatif was courtious, somewhere in his forties, unmarried and from Taza. He taught theoretical mathematics at Agadir university and had been taken once by Aisha to Iligh to meet her family. After having established his antecedents without giving mine away we could proceed over the N1. First through the string of villages from one roundabout to another and than on to the new fast road. We passed the turn off to Sidi Rabat on the right and hit an empty stretch. Abdellatif had the address where we would meet the others and stay: the Tiznit Hotel. I knew where it was: on the major roundabout. Who would have thought that Tiznit would become such an important part of my Moroccan experiences? At the end of my stay I would finally get the chance to make a sketch of this roundabout from another hotel: the Idou Hotel. On the sketch you look from the west side of the five exit roundabout towards the east. The road to the east is towards Tafroute and is the traditional way to get to Iligh. From left to right is the N1 north to Agadir and south to Guelmim and beyond. That is the new or alternative way to Iligh. The two roads towards the west of which only one is visible go into the town.