Baraka Birds

We named our blog Baraka Chronicles after first learning the word for “blessing” from Hamoud. We’d been in Marrakech about a week and were taking our first tour of Dar Noury with Hamoud and his simsar friend. As we started up the stairs to our future bedroom, we heard a rush of feathers and flapping and out whooshed a small starling-like bird from its nest hidden in the stairway. “Baraka,” said Hamoud, pointing to the bird. “It is good luck to have a bird in your home.” We find that navigating a foreign place, we’re more susceptible to “signs” and this seemingly auspicious moment influenced our blog name and our choice of home.

Unfortunately, during the noisy construction on the house that followed, our feathered friend decamped for what we assumed were quieter quarters. We were sad to see her go – she’d had a few chicks during our “escrow” and they left along with her – but we empathized with the impulse. We hoped she’d return and with it the baraka she presumably lent us and the place.

Shortly before we moved in, when it was just Hamoud, a few woodworkers and painters laboring at that house, we noticed a pair of small brown birds nesting in the newly exposed rafters on the balcony. It may seem odd to have a bird take up residence in the house, but because virtually every room is open to the elements, our birds must think it akin to roosting in the branches of a tree.

As much as we enjoy, on a figural level, the return of our birds, sharing the house with them has at least one obvious drawback; the balcony’s white cement floor gets a daily dusting of bird droppings. I’ve never understood the good luck people invoke when bird droppings land on a shoulder. Lucky it didn’t hit the face, I guess. And before we’d clued into our pairs’ messy routine, they soiled a cream-colored Berber carpet that ran along the balcony – a roommate faux pas in any culture.

So, what to make of our baraka birdies. Be careful what you wish for? Too much of a good thing? Maybe they’re just telling us to look up. After all, winter’s coming and we’ve yet to devise a cover for our courtyard. Time to ready the nest, I guess.