Hiking through the second line of the Altripiani project in Morocco, we have been lucky enough to meet a lot of special people, among them many teachers – often young peers, sometimes older people who dedicate themselves to their professions by making great sacrifices every day.

Hakima and Khadija are two teachers of the High Atlas. Like many of their colleagues, they moved from the big cities where they grew up and studied to the high mountains to teach and educate the children of the long Moroccan valleys.

On the High Atlas, schools are often a newly constructed white and pink rectangle of no more than 40 square meters, where all the children of the village (and sometimes even the ones of the closest villages) must fit in, no matter how many of them there are.

In fact, in these small schools, classes have many children of different ages and different levels of education. In most cases, they all take lesson at the same time, and therefore the difficult role of a teacher is not only essential to educate and train, but it is also extraordinary for how they can find incredible methods for doing their job satisfying everyone.

The main subjects are maths, French and Arabic. In fact, while most Amazighs (most commonly known as Berbers) adopted Islam and began to speak Arabic after the conquest of the 17th century, Berber culture and language survived, especially in the High Atlas.

Mountain teachers are always close to the school, as they were both guardians and responsible for it at the same time. Their houses have thick mud walls and are characterized by small rooms with tiny windows, so it’s easier to warm up in the winter and more sheltered from the sun in the summer. They often live and sleep in the same room as they were students.
The food is bought at the two weekly markets in the largest village of the valley, which is usually not farther than ten kilometers.

It’s admirable to see them happy and positive, aware of the important role they play, despite the lifestyle they have, far different from the one of the big cities they come from.
Cities that they rarely see, because transfers are slow and to travel 300km they lose entire days on disconnected and dusty roads.

In many cases, the teacher is also the only one who knows French and can give information, indicate the right path, translate some conversation with the locals and tell us the real life of the village.

Hakima and Khadija are two “modern” girls, they laugh loudly, communicate quickly with their friends in Agadir and they are always happy to see a bit of youth on these mountains where nobody ever passes. They have lessons both in the morning and in the afternoon, but today is Saturday and the school is closed. They invited us over for lunch, Hakima prepares a very simple but special salad, and Khadija a tasty and smoking hot tajine.
After lunch the sun beats hard and we decide to stay with them a bit more, so Khadija doesn’t lose time and teaches us how to prepare bread, together it gets faster and, because there is no time in the week, we prepare a lot of it and then freeze it for the days to come.

We say goodbye with a smile, hoping to meet again, aware to have learned something new and hoping to have left some teaching as well, despite the beautiful memory in the heart of everyone of us.