Second Worship service

Friday was spent relaxing around the house (details on our accomodations will come later). Kevin worked on the slides for the upcoming service at the church and Todd and I hung out with our new best buddy, a local North African man who has been with us most of the week. He plays guitar, so we spent most of the afternoon taping him as he played some great music for us. For security reasons I can't give much details on his story or life, but he is the real deal.
The main friend picked us up for the worship service and on the way, he enlightened us on how things work here- you have to be very flexible to survive. It seems that a communication error had another church group using the courtyard and sound equipment, and the workers who were supposed to have the main part of the building renovated and cleaned up hadn't quite finished their job... so we just adapted and had the worship service in the small P room. About 25 people besides us, crammed in this little room and we had CHURCH! It was an incredible experience- some of the youth from the night before joined us as well as some others from Canada, England and a few other countries sang and worshiped as we had to play above the French Gospel Choir amplified rehearsal out in the courtyard. Kevin's planning kinda went out the window, as we had no slides or anything, and he just led from the spirit. I think we may have played a few songs on his original set list, but the rest was totally improvised. It was so great to have that freedom... more later.

First Worship concert

Thursday night we led worship for a local youth and singles group at a friend's apartment. There were about 15-16 people that showed up, mostly teenagers and young adults from the body. It was an incredible time of worship and really reminded us of the real purpose of the trip. The kids were amazing and drowned us out vocally. We worshiped for about 2 hours, before the unoffical curfew prompted some to call it a night.

Visit to the New Medina

Our friend took us to another open air cafe on the street "Hassan Tani"- which is the street that leads to the king's palace.

Todd an I had the fish platter- which had Marlin, Seoul, Tilapia and some other mystery fish that was very tasty. Kevin had roasted lamb.

We then went to the King's palace gates (see top photo) and then walked thru part of the market in the "new" part of the city (it is only 400 years young) It was a very different atmosphere than the other market. A little nicer stuff, but a little pricier as well.

Visit to the Medina (old city)

 


We made a visit to the old part of the city - 1200 years old. It was an amazing place, with strange sites, smells and sounds that really causes culture shock. After entering the huge gate to the city, we ate lunch at a place called  "Le Kasbah", an open air cafe near the gate. Kevin and I ate "Tajine"- a stew like dish with meatballs and fresh eggs that was really good.
Todd ate the "Couscous" which he said tasted like cornbread and cabbage topped with raisins.


We finished the meal with the traditional hot mint tea.

We ate on the 3rd floor and had a great view of the city and got some great pictures and video.

After lunch we ventured into the narrow streets that are lined with shops that sell just about anything imaginable. Things like fruits and grains, fresh cut meat, live chickens, severed camel heads, jewelry, rugs, trinkets and our favorite... musical instruments! Our friend helped us haggle for some goods, it was more like full contact shopping. We would have been broke within a few minutes without her.

We made some friends in the jewelry shop and the handmade musical instrument shop. They were eager to try their English.

Settling in

We got on a train and rode about 20 min. to another train station. Todd and I hung out with the luggage at a open air cafe while Kevin went and looked at a couple hotels for future travel. We got on the train to the city at about 2:15pm. It was about a 4 hour train ride. The first hour and half was thru slums and really poor areas- tons of trash and poverty everywhere. The whole area looks a lot like Mexico or West Texas. Once we got into the country is was very beautiful, lots of orchards and farms.

Our friend picked us up at the train station and we had an exciting ride thru the city- evidently there are very few traffic guidelines, every man for himself, and the pedestrians (who have the right of way) just bolt out in front of cars anywhere they want. (our friend said if you hit them it is an automatic 5 year jail time.) She took us to the villa where we are staying. It is very nice, the couple is probably in their late 50's. Our friend then took us out for supper with another friend of hers. I was still a little sickly, so we went to a sandwich shop called "So Sweet". it was pretty good but everyone smokes EVERYWHERE so the smoke was hard to be around. We got back to the villa at about 9:15 and we crashed! We had been traveling nonstop for about 28 hours straight.

After a good shower and breakfast we feel much better. We have been checking email and updating the blog.
Our friend is going to take us to the Medina (old part of the city) for some sightseeing and stuff today. We have to go to the local airport and pick up the guitars, also. We have a pretty busy schedule the rest of the time.

Arrived in Morocco

Well, we survived the big part of the trip. We left Atlanta and went up the Eastern coast - right over Atlantic City Boardwalk, New York City, Boston, Nova Scotia then arced over the Atlantic (which is really huge) then came in under Ireland and England right into Paris. Todd and Kevin lucked out and had lots of room around them, I was crammed in next to a really nice Indian girl traveling to India. It took right at 8 hrs to fly that part. We taxied around the Paris airport (which is also huge) for about 30 minutes before the plane finally let us off with only about 15 minutes to get Todd's boarding pass and get on the plane.

It was crazy- I got held up at the security checkpoint and had everything searched and everybody was yelling at me in "Paris-talk", while Todd was running thru the airport with no shoes on trying to get back to the plane, and Kevin had went ahead to try to get the plane to wait on us. Everything worked out, but we were literally the last 3 people that boarded. The 2 guitars didn't make it on that flight.

We were told on the plane to Casablanca that the flight was about 50 minutes- we must have misunderstood, because we kept flying and flying- turned out it was a couple of hours and 50 min. The first 30 minutes of the flight was one big roller-coaster and I got pretty airsick. I really thought I was gonna have to use an airsick bag, until I picked it up and it looked like it had already been used a little. I sat next to a little old Moroccan woman who couldn't speak English. She just tried to be sympathetic by nodding and hand gestures. Todd once again had a bunch of room around him.

We just found the guitars and they are being shipped to the Fez airport for us, so we are leaving the Casablanca airport and heading to the train station. -Michael

We're off!!

Everything went pretty smooth from Little Rock to Atlanta. Todd didn't get a seat assignment for the flight from Paris to Casablanca. We have a small window of time to get that resolved when we get to Paris.-Michael

We're trying to stay mobile & wear ourselves out for the upcoming nine hour plane ride. Once we get the Paris, and then Casablanca, we'll have a whole day ahead of us! So, this flight basically needs to serve as a night's sleep for us. We'll see how well that goes. Our connection in Paris is fairly tight, and we'll need to get things straightened out with his seat assignment, so pray for no delays! -Kevin

All-Star Blues Revue at FOTR

We had a great time jamming on some old Blues standards at the Fellowship on the River Picnic. This was our 4th appearance at Toad Suck Park.

Morocco here we come!

Kevin, Todd and I will be traveling to North Africa to play some concerts in preparation of the 14th Annual World Sacred Music Festival. Visit www.long-walk-home.com for more information and touring schedule.