Traditional Weaver in the Medina of Fès
I got stuck with a guy who claims he was just trying to learn English because he was trying to get a job as a tour guide. I thought his English was already good enough to understand but if he wasn’t to practice, then it shouldn’t hurt. The English conversation eventually turned into a full blown tour of this area of the medina. I really wanted to leave but I didn’t want to risk upsetting him in his home turf. Like it or not, I will be going on a tour with this guy since I can’t figure the way out. To his credit he did bring me to a couple of interesting places, one of them was this place where traditional weavers still do their work.
Closer Look at the Loom
It was a weekend but these guys were still hard at work. To get there, I need to climb up a ladder where the weaver was. They have a full fledged loom here which they use to weave cloth. The loom looks like a very complicated machine and I never paid to much attention to them before. They have pedals to switch the direction of the thread, while the shuttle is thrown from side to side manually. It is important that the weaving is tight or the final product won’t be as nice. I found it amazing to see this and I wondered how would they remember what to do when they have a complicated pattern to make.
The weaver himself doesn’t mind me taking photos. He probably doesn’t speak much English anyway. It is interesting to see this kind of method still alive in this day and age. This is probably why I find Morocco so fascinating. Instead of relying on machines to produce products, they still do it the old fashioned way, and this way, they add value to the product compared to one which is mass produced.
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