It began in 2002 with a trip to Morocco. Led by a local friend, Mike Wood explored Casablanca, Marrakech and Fez. Soon after, Mike and his wife, Lucie Andersen-Wood, invested in a Marrakech holiday home.
First, the couple’s friends borrowed the property. Soon, the network grew to friends of friends. Guests then began to contribute towards the upkeep of the riad. “Before you know it, you’re running a hotel,” Mike explained, speaking over the phone. He and Lucie – who are riding out the lockdown in their Hertfordshire home – had never considered running a hospitality business, in fact they’d agreed it was one venture they’d never try. But they fell hard for Morocco and its riads – the traditional houses with an inner courtyard or garden. “We loved the renovation, the architecture, the people and it gradually grew,” said Mike.
Now the couple own five riads in Marrakech. They also run a cookery school and sponsor an educational café. Their business employs 25 people in Morocco. Mike and Lucie bring divergent skills to the enterprise. Mike has a MBA and has dabbled in a number of entrepreneurial pursuits, while Lucie is a psychotherapist. The Henna café, which they founded with another English couple, offers all natural red henna tattoos and simple Moroccan fare. “[We serve] things like potato sandwiches, which the locals eat and cost nothing to make, but tourists don’t usually try,” explained Mike. “That makes money, and then, with the money that we make, we run an education programme. It is effectively a small school, with a full-time educator and a number of part-timers.”
The cookery school, meanwhile, featured on the ITV show Gordon, Gino and Fred: Christmas Road Trip –Three Unwise Men. Television personalities Gordon Ramsay, Gino D’Acampo and Fred Sirieix cooked a traditional meal in the kitchen, then tucked into their dishes up on the riad roof terrace. “It is probably one of the best [views] in Marrakech,” explained Lucie.
The couples’ next project is a Marrakech storytelling café. It is, in part, inspired by Lucie’s psychotherapy training. “Someone might come to me with an issue of anxiety or depression, it might be something related to an event that happened in their past. When they start talking about themselves it turns out that they are viewing themselves as a victim,” she explained. According to Lucie, when the storyteller starts to shift their perception, casting themselves as a survivor, it can transform their life.
Through the café, Lucie and Mike are also keen to tap into, and build upon, the strong storytelling traditions of Marrakech. It will provide a space for both men and women to share stories, old and new, and earn some money while doing so. The couple hope it will also allow tourists to connect with local experience. Pre-lockdown, Lucie and Mike had secured a venue and building work had begun. The plan was to open in Autumn 2020 with an English-language festival. However, on March 15, Morocco went into lockdown and the project was put on hold.
Lucie and Mike had already been in contact with various members of the storytelling community. Among them was John Row, a veteran of the UK festival scene, who the couple first met around 2015. Mike explained: “John had [suffered] a stroke, he came to Marrakech for a longish holiday to recover, and he stayed with us. He became a friend, as many guests do, we’re very proud of that. So we’d stayed in touch, and he’d already talked about getting involved in the storytelling café.
When the pandemic struck, we were talking to John and there was a sort of eureka moment. We realised our staff were going to be underemployed, storytellers were going to be in lockdown and a lot of people were going to be at home, so there would be an audience.” John took charge in curating Mike and Lucie’s lockdown venture, the World Storytelling Café – a virtual platform where professional and amateur storytellers are invited to broadcast their tales and poetry. The professionals can collect donations through the “passing the hat” function on the site, just as they might in a physical storytelling circle. These raconteurs can record their take on video beforehand or broadcast live at an allotted time. The sessions usually take place around 2pm and 6pm each day. Viewers can listen in and watch on the website, or join other audience members in a “meeting room” through Zoom.
The week following the March 15 lockdown was particularly busy for Lucie and Mike. The couple were remotely coordinating the repatriation of around 80 guests, Mike had been struck by Covid-19-like symptoms (and was self-isolating away from Lucie) and they were working to get the storytelling site off the ground.
Lucie said of Mike’s isolation: “I thought oh he’s just watching old football replays or something, but he wasn’t, he was busying away. He’s really worked very hard to make this happen. All the energy he’d normally put into the riads he’s put into this website, which I’m very grateful for.”
Aside from the performers, the project has helped to sustain full-time employment for at least seven people. They include two of the couple’s reservations team and three men who usually look after the riads. Back in the UK, the business’s IT team, PR and social media experts are pitching in.
By March 22, the website was up and running and the first stories were posted. Each day has brought at least two new tales. Tellers beam in from around the world, including the UK, USA, Romania, Iceland and Australia. They’ve included the chairman of the British Storytelling Society, Paul Jackson, and renowned Irish teller Liz Weir.
Stories range from fairy tales to personal anecdotes. A particularly moving example of the latter, found on the section of the site dedicated to amateur tellers, comes from 29-year-old Farouk Saadeddine. The young Algerian suffered a stroke and in the video he describes the experience and how it has affected his life.
There is also plenty of poetry to enjoy. “We’re almost creating a unique record of this time, because tellers are all mentioning Covid, it’s all in the midst of the pandemic,” added Mike.
The virtual resource is gathering global interest. Lucie and Mike hope this will feed into the launch of the physical café. Lucie explained: “One of the things that we’d hoped for with the Marrakech storytelling café was that, through the stories that are told there, we could change people’s opinions and [possible] prejudices. And I think we can do that online. If somebody hears a story that can suddenly allow them to feel compassion and understanding for [the person speaking].”
With the Henna café shut, the next step is developing an educational component on the World Storytelling Cafe website. This is being coordinated by a headteacher living in the UK. Children will be able to listen to stories and poetry and the website will suggest potential activities that build on what they’ve watched.
This creative platform, born out of the pandemic, will continue post lockdown – complementing the physical café in Marrakech. Plus, as people around the world are physically isolated, the site is providing an outlet for creativity and a means for connection. Mike concluded: “I think there is comfort in these traditional tales, there is a resurgence of interest and a need, they provide something very nurturing.”
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