Does a town in the Rif Mountains change in 40 years? Saudi Aramco World editor Art Clark returned to Taounate, Morocco to find out what happened to his former students, his rooftop Scrabble partners and his old friend, Ma´alim Ali-Ali, the master weaver.
Art Clark
Taounate, Morocco | November 13, 2007
There are now two hotels in Taounate, where 33 years ago there had been none. Now, too, there is a hospital, where there had been the rudiments of a clinic; where there had been two cafes before, now there are more than a dozen on a long stretch of road that I no longer recognize running through the center of town. The city offices are in a brand new building with a polished façade, and now this town in Morocco's north is a provincial capital, with an equally impressive new building to match.
I've been Rip van Winkled, transferred from New York's Catskills to the southern edge of the Rif Mountains...
"Change in the Rif" is written by Art Clark, the assistant editor of Aramco World. He served in Morocco from 1974 to 1976 and has taught journalism and edited publications in the United States, Cairo and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
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