Another continent, another country, another world.

Greetings from Meknes, Morocco!

In my absence (due to lack of internet access) I have fulfilled several life goals:

1. Cross the Strait of Gibraltar
2. Come to Africa
3. Come to Morocco
4. Drank Moroccan mint tea
5. Had several tri-lingual conversations

Let's highlight number 3 first, though. I'M IN MOROCCO! This has been a dream of mine since 3rd grade art class at Hall-Kent Elementary where a Moroccan man came and talked to us and told us that Morocco and Alabama are at the same lattitude around the world. WHAT THE HECK?! this has stuck with me ever since and Morocco has always been on my #1 Place to Travel in the World list. So I'm here now, and LIVING here, I'm still a little speechless.

But let's talk in pictures, because that's much more fun, right?

This is part of L'Alhambra, it's a huge palace/military fortress in Granada, Spain. We spent a morning touring and taking too many pictures and just being in awe of the historic importance of it and the VIEWS from it:






After 4 wonderful days in Spain, we traveled south a few hours to Algicera to the Port of Gibraltar. From here we took a ferry across to Morocco!

This is the rock of Gibraltar:



About 5 minutes after taking off from the Port, we could see Africa. At this point, I almost wet myself. It was an incredible moment.

After reaching port, me getting to use FRENCH with the security guards, we rode a bus to Tangier where we spent the night in a hotel, toured the next day, and headed off to Meknes.

(For pictures of this, check my facebook. The Moroccan landscape is breath-taking.)

Since moving into an apartment with 4 other girls, I'm trying to become a local, or something like that.

Here's what my room looks like:


I share a room with one other girl, Mary and we have a huge living room and kitchen with Kalil, Jennifer and Heather. Mary and I have a large balcony off our room, which is really awesome, especially for drying clothes because we don't have a clothes dryer here! Apparently that is a strictly American thing, who knew? Also, there is no central heating here. And I was mistaken about the weather, it's very cold here. We were told that it would warm up in a few weeks, but for now it's multiple pairs of socks a night, leggins, sweatpants, t shirt, long sleeve, and hoodie to sleep in. Seriously, it wasn't supposed to be cold here!

Also, we have two sweet sweet Moroccan women who come cook lunch and dinner for us 6 days a week and clean our apartment. It's cool getting to talk to them in French (they speak NO english) but also I hope to learn how to cook great Moroccan food from them. One of them is a practicing Muslim and pulls out her rug to pray every afternoon- so I, being the cultural nerd that I am, get really excited.

One thing that I have been overwhelmed with, is the Lostness of this world. I mean, being surrounded by mosques and having a skyline full of minarets is a very blatent example of the unbelief here, but even in conversation with the people my heart has been burdened to share the Gospel.

On that note, please pray for the Lord to fill me up everyday and to be the only outpouring of my heart. I am learning to love people in a completely different light.

Know that I am lifting you all up daily! It is encouraging that even with a lack of local Church, God gives us the Holy Spirit to be able to pray for the global body of Christ, and that makes me feel close even when I am not geographically.

Al'hamdu l'illah,