While strolling through the port of Essaouira, Morcco the visual, acoustic and olfactory mass of impressions simply overwhelmed me. In order to get a bit of rest, I left the busiest part of the harbor, where the fresh fish is landed, sold and packed and moved to the part where the larger boats are situated.
I took a seat and watched the fishermen doing there work, when a friendly face appeared in my sight. It was Mustafa, a 60 year boat repairman who has been working in the port of Essaouira for the past 30 years. He recognized my camera, took my hand, and led me into his world.
I was introduced to the ship workshop of Essaouira, where the old boats are repaired and refurbished. Mustafa led me through the tight, narrow corridors between the boats trying to explain to me the secrets of ship building.
We did our best to communicate, which was a bit complicated by the fact that I only spoke a small bit of french, and he spoke almost no english. Nevertheless I understood that different parts of the ship are build from different types of wood, in their case the boats were build from mahagoni, teak and a third wood type that I don’t remember.
The ways not only led us between the ships, but we also climbed one ship, so that I get the chance to see the shipyard from above. Mustafa told me that there are 8 people working on the boats, but since I was there on a sunday afternoon, only Mustafa was left. I think he did not work at that time, but was there to watch the workshop.
The ships are in various conditions, to me some looked like they have been waiting to be repaired for many years,but that might not be the case.
Before Mustafa led me to the exit, he asked very politely for some money. This is not uncommon in Morocco, and I really started getting kind of frustrated over this during the time I spent in Morocco, but this was different. I really had the feeling that he was a honest person, who really needed the money. I would have loved to give him something, especially after this interesting insight he gave me, and the time he took to explain everything to me so detailled. But I did not have anything left. That left me kind of sad, but Mustafa was very understanding and still greeted me goodbye.
Note: This is the first real series I ever produced that I am happy with. For me its hard to rate its quality as a series, so I need your help. How do you like this series?
How do you like the selection of images, and their order? Does it make sense? Every honest criticism is appreciated!
Oh, and if you visit Essaouira, visit this nice guy. Thank you Mustafa for the invite into your world!
Yours