Ain Bouchrik, 20 June 2024

Let’s get you up to speed; I’ve lost a day. So maybe we are getting me up to speed? Either way, yesterday was slow. The day before, which I am assured was a Tuesday, I woke up feeling pretty ill, rumbly in the tummy. I didn’t know if it was just me maladjusting to the different kinds of spices, or maybe something worse. In the end- could have been better, could have been way worse I suppose. I spent all day yesterday trying to stay hydrated, trying to not go too far from my bathroom, and sleeping. The azithromycin helped a lot; so glossing over those details, things are back on track.

The drive up was pretty lovely. It’s hard to really describe the difference between states, but while there’s a lot of people who live in the Fez Medina, it’s really not that large in terms of geography. Just dense. So we walked a little bit and suddenly the walls that enclosed my horizon dropped away and we were in the newer city, we hopped in a car and in no time at all we were in the countryside.

Ain Bouchrik is a very small village, and we’re not really in it, but near enough (ed: let's call it the outskirts). Mama Aicha’s home is built around a central open interior garden (there’s a palm tree and a herb garden, but it is inside from the perspective of shoe rules). One side of the square is a newly-built guest house where most of us are sleeping. The family lives in another house, there’s a kitchen and dining area, and so on.

So: the first step of the ceramic journey is shaping the clay. Unfortunately, this is more or less where I really got sick, so I didn’t make anything myself, nor did I take photos. There’s lots of people doing that, as well as a professional photographer on the trip, so I’ll share that process in more detail later.

Bzzt bzzt this is where I spent a day in bed. I did read the last two novels and the novella collection of the Slough House series, so it wasn’t a total loss. A day spent lounging and reading is almost a vacation in itself; just, you know. In Morocco. So my handbuilding skill skills are not going to be suddenly amazing when I get back to California. Not that this was going to happen anyway, I’m not what you would call a natural.

Okay so now it’s Thursday, the drugs have had a while to kick in and we’re decorating. Good news, both Chrissy and Macrina have made me a pot to decorate, so I’m back in the game.

There are two base colors to use (red and white) and we mostly apply slip here; this will add color and smooth out the surface texture. After applying the base layer, we let the pots dry and paint on designs with similar colors.

After decoration, we fire! Mama Aicha stacks everything up in a pyramid shape with some older large pots providing the skeleton, and covers the whole thing with wood and dung. We play “Ring of Fire”, light it up, and now you’re caught up.

After, in video form.