Friday, February 1, 2008

Information


This is a sign for a parking lot in Place Djemma ElFna where you used to be able to park the items in the picture. It was also used to store all the food carts that are pulled out into the square at night.
Right now it is a large hole in the ground so I'm not sure where the carts are being kept.



This is the side of a truck delivering bottled water.
Just think how carefree and wonderful I will be if I drink their brand.



These are the items you are not allowed to bring into the mellah fruit and vegetable market.
Hand-painted signs are quirky and wonderful.



I have a huge collection of pictures of chicken signs from all over southern Morocco. Some of them appeared in our old blog.
I really think they would make a super poster. "Chickens of Morocco" - sort of like "Doors of Florence" etc. I am a complete sucker for chickens in real life and in art.
One day I will have a farm.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love all these painted signs. I need to be more carefree. A bottle of that water, please. ;-)

Paz

Britt-Arnhild said...

I love these colourful, somewhen naive signs :-)

Mari said...

I have to go go back and look, how long you´ve been living at Morocco... Can you actually read those signs?

When I look those I see more like lovely shapes and figures - almost pictures.

I remember, when I learned to read my first russian word - it was same feeling pupils have, when they learn to read finnish.

Claudia Schmid said...

I'm glad that there is no 'maybe' before the statement 'One day I will have a farm.'

rochambeau said...

Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for sharing these signs!! They add such soul to a place. I love especially the one of the chickens. Could you please tell me what language is spoken in Marrakesh. I know that might be a silly question. I never thought about it before I saw these signs.

Willow said...

Lovely photos that give place and soul to your city. I love the chickens...our neighbors in Los Angeles kept chickens. We didn't appreciate the rooster at dawn, but the chicks were cute. My brother keeps chickens on his farm in Oregon so he always has fresh brown eggs.

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Do you read Arabic? It has always fascinated me (so does the music)...but I can't read or speak it. It is such a beautiful alphabet....the closest I've come is learning a bit of Hebrew, very close in word roots, but not in how it looks on paper.

I love those folksy signs...

Elizabeth said...

Dear All:
I have to admit that I do not read Arabic.
I can speak a little bit of the local dialect, Diriga, which is Moroccan, rather than Classical, Arabic. I can buy things in shops, greet people and tell them their children are cute and so forth.........
Perhaps reading is the next step. Unlike English, I think the shapes match the sounds.
Claudia: Where should the farm be?

Traveling Mama said...

These are so great! I love the chicken signs too! My husband and I have been learning derija Arabic this last year, which has been challenging but rewarding. For the first eight months I wanted to quit and try French, but slowly but surelt it's paying off. I can read a lot of signs, but not all of them. The whole language thing here is unbelievable...French, local Arabic, Fusa Arabic, Berber, Rifi...
Well, anyways! Thanks for sharing!

Mélanie said...

I love these signs . For me they are poetic !