Walid is building a house


Before finding a job in an international agency he used to sell chicken and cows in a small village 25km away from Marrakesh. The donor job is more pleasant than negotiating the price of chickens with old villagers or chasing clients. The donor job is also allowing him to build a house. A precondition to finding a wife in rural Morocco.

Walid's eyes show goodness and more maturity than those of a 24 year-old boy in the continental Europe I live in. He has a plan, or many. A plan to build the house, saving dirham after dirham, a plan to use the weekends to work as a guide and make some extra money, a plan to finish secondary school while his driver job allows it, a plan to develop the fields inherited by his family in the valleys surrounding the Atlas. He even dreams of rebuilding the old riad his family owns, at 5 euros the tile he might need a third job.

Over half of Morocco's population is under the age of 20. I wonder if under 20 in Morocco means under 35 in France, Spain or Italy.

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