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...I may be poor to you, but I am not a beggar...
One fall day last year... I was leading a spiritual retreat in Ouarkan in the High Atlas... 40 km from the epicenter of the current earthquake.
At the end of the day, I and my trainees, seven women... took a tour through the paths of the Atlas Mountains... and at the bend of the hill... we came across an old Amazigh woman who was watching her goats and singing sad tunes...
The girls liked her and wanted to talk to her... She accepted... and I acted as translator... After a few minutes of discussion... the woman invites everyone to have tea... at her house at the top of a small hill
She brought tea and placed the home-made bread, amla, honey, and amla nuts on the small table... The girls were amazed at the generosity of this old woman... Then she began to talk about her difficult but cheerful life...
She treated the girls as if they were her own daughters... touched their hair as if she knew them before... and gave them beauty tips for getting “angel eyes... because love often comes through looking.”
The sun was beginning to set and we asked for permission to go out, and Aisha accompanied us to the road at the bottom of the hill for about a hundred meters and before we greeted her to leave... The girls contributed among themselves and handed her 2000 dirhams...
Lalla Aicha flatly refuses... and tells them: I may be poor to you, but I am not a beggar... I have done my duty as my ancestors have done since the dawn of time: feeding the travelers who pass by the house.”
Then she turns to her goats... and calls the eldest one: Taskert... Taskert comes towards her and all the other goats follow her, and Lalla Aisha directs the small herd to a small barn... and she goes home and closes the door...
As for the girls, for their part...they were speechless before the generosity and dignity of this old woman...and on the way back...a monastic silence fell over the group...
And in the evening at dinner... I explain to them the Amazigh mentality and their innate sense of generosity and sharing... and that the desire to return generosity... is an insult... hence Lalla Aicha’s reaction. ..
On Friday evening, September 9, 2023, Morocco was hit. The earth moved and shook...
Last night... one of the girls who participated in Werkan's retreat... a senior executive in a multinational company... to get news from Lalla Aicha... after the earthquake... and since she didn't have a phone... she decided to... Today I go to Werkan to see if she is still alive... I arrive in Werkan... I am looking for the road with difficulty... I slip between the trees and suddenly the small hill of Lalla Aicha appears...
...but not the house... my heart was beating hard... so I said to myself... she must have died... she came closer again... and there was no longer a shadow of doubt... the house was on the ground and the goat was still there, buried under the ground. Among the rubble... my tears escaped... I sat on a small rock, contemplating and praying to this earthly angel: Lalla Aisha... I stayed for a few minutes with my eyes closed... and suddenly... I felt someone tapping me on my left shoulder... I opened my eyes... He is a sixty-year-old man... “You are definitely not from our village... Can I help you?” He spoke to me in colloquial Moroccan... I answered him in Berber: “I came to see what happened to Lalla Aicha?”
Ali replied: “Her house was destroyed and her small livestock destroyed... but Lalla Aicha is alive.”
And I did not believe what he said... Then he adds... that on the evening the earthquake occurred... she was at her daughter’s house at the bottom of the village and the house there was standing... the miracle worked again for this old woman...
When I told the fate of this woman to all the girls she received in her home with so much tenderness and generosity... they unanimously decided that together we would finance the reconstruction of our home and buy new livestock...
Tomorrow I will meet Aisha's mother to convey this good news to her... As the saying goes:
Everything passes... and this too will pass in the end.
Source: websites