Going back to my childhood village is always a very emotional experience as memories of bygone days come back. All that is left of my home village is just that; memories!! Most people have either died or moved on to cities or neighboring villages with better economic and social potential. There are no jobs in my childhood village, that is why people have moved out. This, however, did not diminish my sadness while walking from an abandoned home to the next.. my childhood home being one them. My older sister was with me for this emotional visit … when we arrived at our abandoned home, we felt the weight of the past years on our once stumping grounds.. the home had all the signs of a home about to crumble to ground. We even feared for our own lives just walking through it; walls with wide cracks and ceiling tiles ready to come down… the inner courtyard was the only safe place left. We did not stay there long as we needed to move on. All surrounding houses were also abandoned and ready to collapse so we needed to pay attention at every step. When we reached the last house on the eastern end of the village, my sister decided she did not want to walk any further as the ground was wet and slippery so i decided to go alone to visit my grandfather’s grave under a distant olive tree .. Once this mission was accomplished, we went back to my sister’s small but newer house for a small lunch and coffee.
After lunch, it was time for olive collection time so my sister’s husband and i went to one of his olive tree field and started gathering olives both from the trees and those fallen on the ground. It was another emotional moment for me: childhood memories ! The sun was quickly descending in the horizon and so we had to call it the day. We headed back to my sister’s house in Oued Aissi.
A very emotional day came to an end and with it my vacation was also ending fast …
