Fez Medina - a sense of community.

One of the most pleasurable things about living in the Medina of Fez is the wonderful sense of community that displays itself - especially in times of trouble. Yet, most often it is the Moroccans coming to the aid of foreigners - stranded tourists, or ex-pats with a problem. Tonight however, the tables were turned.

The View from Fez was just shutting down the office for the night when an almighty banging started coming from the little street outside the back door. After five minutes we decided to go and investigate. The tiny one room factory across the alley was locked and the owner was frantically attempting to break a formidable looking padlock, by banging it with a rock. As the lock was attached to a heavy metal door, the noise was extremely loud and reverberating through the streets.

One benefit from having a house full of workman and doing a renovation is that there is always a stonemason's hammer and heavy stone chisel on hand. We located them and presented them to the owner of the factory. Within minutes the lock was broken and we opened the door. To our surprise all his workers were inside and we resisted asking the question: "why are they locked in?" - In any event they were relieved to see us and it was smiles all round.

The factory owner invited us to see the fine work being done and, of course, it just had to be ... they were making the famous Fassi hat - the Fez.


The workers breathed a sigh of relief, the owner went to look for a new lock and we went home confident in the fact that we now had new friends who, if we ever lock ourselves out, will be first to offer their help.


Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news