Hamid ben Henna had just requested his young son Marouane to fetch a knife for cutting a melon when the earthquake struck Morocco on Friday night.
As the weekend began, the family had been enjoying a lamb and vegetable tagine stew. Marouane had been discussing the materials he would need for the upcoming school year.
“That’s when it struck,” Ben Henna said. The room started shaking, the lights went out, and debris began falling from the ceiling of their traditional house in a remote village in the High Atlas mountains.
This earthquake was the most powerful in Morocco since at least 1900 and resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 people, predominantly in small mountain villages like Tafeghaghte, where the Ben Henna family resides.
Ben Henna and his other son, Mouad, managed to escape their collapsing house, and they were able to rescue his wife Amina and their young daughter Meryem. However, they discovered that Marouane hadn’t made it out.
The eight-year-old had run further into the house and was buried under rubble. It took until the next day, with the assistance of Ben Henna’s brothers, who traveled from Casablanca, five hours away, to recover Marouane’s lifeless body.
Marouane, described as an enthusiastic boy who loved school, was laid to rest on Saturday morning.
Now, the family not only grieves but faces destitution. Their possessions are buried in the wreckage of their fallen house, and they are enduring a third night sleeping outside in the cold mountain weather.
The three-wheel moped Ben Henna used for transporting goods around the neighborhood for a small fee was crushed by falling debris and no longer functions. The alley leading to their ruined house is littered with fallen rocks.
The family still has a surviving donkey and goat, but their animal feed was stored in a collapsed room, and slaughtering the animals without the means to refrigerate the meat makes little sense.
Hardly any houses in Tafeghaghte were spared by the disaster. Of the approximately 400 villagers, nearly 80 have perished, according to survivors. The village is now littered with large piles of rubble. One family Ben Henna knew lost seven members.
Families have gathered under olive trees in a small field to set up shelters where survivors can spend the night, providing safety from aftershocks even if their damaged homes remain standing.
Fatima Boujdig sat with her husband near their badly damaged red truck, a valuable possession they borrowed money to buy. They are uncertain how they will now repay their debt.
“We were in darkness and covered in dust. We heard the earthquake and the rocks and walls falling… now you can see the village is reduced to rubble,” she said.