As soon as you set foot in this place, you have the impression of entering another world... A world of misery where time no longer counts for people desperate for life. In the slums, everything is experienced differently, even the change in climate. A small downpour or a gust of wind is enough for the earth to turn into quicksand and for houses to lose their roofs. Because here everything is removable. Everything is failing, including the human being... Today, the inhabitants of the "Al Garâa" slum have their work cut out for them, because the small storm and the downpours of last Saturday spared no house. Even the most solid of dwellings did not resist this winter climate. Normal! Since the majority of these shacks are built from wood and zinc. From the first hour of the morning, the women were therefore busy clearing water from the clogged sewers. Armed with their brooms, they try in vain to chase away the dirty water. The men, for their part, have another mission: to repair the damage caused by the rain. "I have the impression that we live in a removable house like children's toys. The wind just has to blow for our roof to fly away", comments Ibrahim with a melancholic smile. A smile that hides behind it a bitter taste of despair and sadness. Indeed, this family had to spend the rest of the night between Saturday and Sunday under the open sky. "We couldn't sleep because of the crying of my two children frightened by the sound of the rain on the roof. But that's not all. From three in the morning, we were forced to stand up to move the furniture we could save and cover them with plastic bags to avoid them getting soaked, because we lost our roof in a single gust of wind. The whole family covered themselves with plastic bags for the rest of the night. Today, my two children are suffering from the flu and everything we own is damaged by water", adds Ibrahim in a sad tone. Yet the time is not for depression. Because it is not the time to give up, we will have to act and as quickly as possible before the walls, the only thing remaining of this "mirage" house, fall. From the first hour of the morning, Ibrahim went to buy a new zinc "roof" that he hurried to place with the help of his neighbors. In the slum, misery pushes people to stick together. A few meters from this shack that had almost fallen into ruins, the Chtioui family is repairing the damage. "For once it's not serious. Apart from the water that entered the house and the satellite dish that flew away, we didn't lose much", affirms Fatima. Here the term "much" has several meanings, because it can designate furniture damaged by sewer water, the roof and sometimes even the hovel. Moreover, what haunts people the most in these slums is dying under the ruins of their own house. This explains the need that people feel to want to repair the damage caused by bad weather immediately. This need has created a special trade. It is the sale of zinc. As they say, one man's misfortune is another man's happiness!

Sometimes, the damage that a rainy night can cause goes beyond material damage. This is the case for the Sibari family who have just returned from the maternity ward where their baby was hospitalized. "My daughter Malake is only nine months old. She couldn't stand the cold. She had a very severe flu, but I didn't know that her condition was going to worsen and that she was going to fall into a coma for seven days", explains the mother Hanane, crying. She adds naively: "We don't have the means to treat her, do you know who can help us?"