We live right next to a mosque. The mosques in Morocco all have the same uniform design: a long rectangular building with one tower standing straight out of it. Attached to our particular mosque’s towers are 4 loudspeakers which means everyone within the vicinity of it can hear it loud and clear . Five times a day, we hear this loud, rumbling call to prayer blasting out. And this call to prayer is very different from the church bells of Spain.
Here it is this very alien-like deep chanting sound that sometimes sounds like animals beating and it is loud! And goes on for some time. Early in the morning and throughout the day and at night and on Fridays there is some kind of sermon that gets blasted on the loudspeakers right next to us. It’s hard to know when exactly we’ll hear the call to prayer because it changes every day as it’s based on the position of the sun. We talked to this guy, a university educated Morrocan, and he said that not everyone prays all the time and that some people are “100” Muslim and others are a little less and that sometimes he is “100” and other times less.
One night Tamara and I were walking around and we wandered past the entrance of the mosque during a call to prayer. The room was packed full of men praying in the big room in their long shirt/dress clothes. They were all faced towards the front which was also where the door was so we didn’t stay long.
I’ve noticed here many people are dressed in long garb, traditional dress and others are dressed more modernly. We came to this part of Fes about a week ago and it is in the new medina (new city). It’s more modern than the old part of Fes – there is a grocery store that we shop at in this mall that has a Burger King, Pizza Hut and Domino’s. But it isn’t really “modern”…there are large stretches of dirt and gravel in between places and there are little shops side by side on the street that resemble convenience stores in the US where you can buy toilet paper, yogurt, eggs or fruit.
It’s October but it is so hot here. It’s been difficult, wearing long pants and skirts outside in the heat.
But let’s be real, what has been really difficult is this first week and a half of Morroco where 8 of us have been crammed in this small apartment…that has one bathroom. And we’ve all (minus our squad leader) gotten sick. We were sick after the second day in Morocco and it went in waves. About half of us came into Morroco from Spain with congestion/cough/runny nose and then the second day we had street food and it all went downhill from there. Two of us got sick first and then a few more and then all of us. Like we bought a lot of toilet paper. And we made rules like, play music when you go to the bathroom. And keep the bathroom door closed at all times so the smell wouldn’t permeate the rest of the space. And we had a doctor visit. Basically we learned to be vulnerable with each other and I think this time really brought us together.
Other than our sickness and coming together as a team, we’ve also been blessed with the famous Moroccoan hospitality. The last few days our calendar has filled up with time spent with new friends. We’ve been invited into people’s homes and invited to drink the delicious Morrocan green tea with mint and coffee. We’ve tasted delicious chicken couscous served on one large platter family style – everyone just digs right in and it’s been a true blessing to spend hours with our new friends. We’ve met our neighbors and got invited to lunch at our friend’s house right above us and then we also had lunch cooked for us by our neighbor on the third floor. We’ve met people at the mall where we buy groceries and were invited over for couscous and delicious tea.
A few days ago, we went to the medina at night to browse the shops and didn’t realize 8pm was pretty deserted – we tried to find a park but weren’t quite sure where and this older man and his cute daughter led us to the scenic overview and stayed with us until it was time to leave and then he walked us back and then invited us over to his home for tea.
It’s been so wonderful to spend time with the Morrocans, I’m using more French here than I did in France actually!
An example of the hospitality and generosity can be found today: We needed to take a team member Melanie to the doctor – her foot had been hurting since the first day of the Camino.
So, we asked one of our friends we had met if he knew of a doctor and he called during his lunch break to give us the location. Melanie & I go around the corner to catch one of the local taxis, generally about 10 diram ($1USD) and we got denied by the first two taxis – even they didn’t want to go or didn’t know where it was.
Then Andrew, Jacob and another friend just happened to be taking a taxi too and knew this doctor! He happened to be a family friend and hopped in our taxi with us and we were on our way. He brought us to the office, helped translate for us – the doctor only spoke Arabic or French and then went with us after to the orthopedic store to buy a specific brace and the pharmacy to get a specific ointment and then to the sports therapist store to set up an appointment. Wow! What patience and kindness to give up his afternoon to help us out. Then on the way back, it was so difficult to catch a taxi, he called his friend and his friend came by and dropped us off. What a blessed day! Then we get back, and two friends we went with to the medina yesterday just dropped in and started hanging out and we will have dinner with them tonight at their family’s house.
This is just an example of what happened today! I can feel God’s hand over this and it’s been so beautiful to build relationships and friendships. We talk about Islam sometimes and about our spiritual life but also about simple things and just random life things. We have about 10 days left in Fes and I’m excited about what God has in store for us! Please pray for us to complete recovery physically and for open hearts and doors.
