School of the Sands: A Teacher in the Sahara, 1958-1962, Jacques Gohier

In 1958, Jacques Gohier was 20 years old. As a young teacher in Algeria, his first post took him to an oasis in the eastern Erg, and the shock of this first encounter with the Sahara would never leave him. He would continually exorcise this nostalgia through writing, and most of his works would be inspired by it. Forty-five years later, a chance encounter plunged him back into his memories. The immensity and captivating magic of the desert: El Oued, the city of a thousand domes, luminous, mysterious, the green islets in the ocean of sand, the mixed scents of flowers and spices, the start of the school year, the first students: Tayeb, Mabrouk, Aziza, the qadi of Guémar, and many others. The young teacher's sand-drenched memories come back to life on paper. The teacher, of course, taught arithmetic, reading, and writing to the children of the oasis, but he learned even more from the inhabitants of the rouf. Initiated into strange customs, lulled by incredible stories, enriched by unforgettable sensations and warm encounters, the young teacher would in turn become a curious and attentive student. Jacques Gohier left Algeria in 1962, caught up in what was long called "the events." A grain of sand in the storm of history, his twenty-year-old heart would forever be marked by his Saharan adventures and this love story with the desert and the children in his class.