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Wind Caravan
Morocco
April 14 - 22, 2001
Tamdaght, near Aït Benhaddou, Ouarzazate
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April
14th (Sat.) - 22th (Sun.) , 2001
Surrounded
by rocky hills, Tamdaght is a small village with a beautiful
ruin of a casbah, which means fortress. The site for Wind
Caravan was a reddish small hill full of rocks adjacent to
the village. Although the wind was quiet in the mornings,
strong gusts, caused by the heat in the desert, attacked the
site every afternoon. Once a strong sand storm with a velocity
of 20m/sec. continued to blow for two days and it was nearly
impossible to keep our eyes open. The villagers who live in
the houses of soil lead a simple life with these endless bursts
of sand storms.
Wind Caravan Morocco concluded very successfully thanks to
the full support of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Communication
and the Governor of the Province of Ouarzazate. It was especially
a wonderful experience to have communicated closely with the
local children and villagers crossing over the border of language.
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Wind
Caravan Morocco Opening Ceremony
April 14th(Sat.), 2001 11:00 -
13:00
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Wind
Caravan site at Tamdaght
Casbah of
Tamdaght |
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the visit to the Wind Caravan site by Governor Merghich
of the Province of Ouarzazate and the consul Mr. Yokoyama
and his wife from the Embassy of Japan, an enormous performance
of folkloric dance and music by 200 local performers crested
at the casbah. The sails designed by New Zealand children
were exhibited on the wall of the casbah. |
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Activities with
Children
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Passing
out paper and crayons donated by a Japanese company to
the pupils of Tamdaght Primary School, we asked them to
draw. Many of them depicted the casbah, a place of great
pride to them. We exhibited all of their pictures in front
of the casbah on the opening day.
We tried to light the lumberjack's candles from Finland
in the evening of the opening day. However, it was so
windy that we were obliged to make a bonfire with all
the candles. We sang, danced and had great fun with the
children. |
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| The
Casbah and the Villagers |
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| Many
storks nest on the towers of the casbah. During our stay,
we were often invited to the homes of the villagers where
we were treated with mint tea and couscous. Aïcha on the
donkey is 13 years old and helped us as a translator of
Berber and French. |
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| Organization |
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| Organized
by : |
Wind Caravan
Executive Committee |
| Endorsed
by : |
Ministry of Culture
and Communication of Morocco, Province of Ouarzazate, Urban commune
of Tamdaght in the province of Ouarzazate, Embassy of Japan in Morocco,
UNESCO |
| Supported
by : |
Hermès,
Royal Air Maroc, DDI Corporation, The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc.,
Suntory Limited, Shingu Atelier |
| Cooperated
by : |
Nippon Express
Co., Ltd., Toray Industries, Inc., Sumitomo Special Metals Co., Ltd.,
Ashikaga Institute of Technology, Sakura Color Products Corporation |
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