Outflow Diary Part 1 - The Road to Morocco

2005-10-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all of you at Jesus House. It is so exciting to have the opportunity to share our experiences here in Casablanca with all of you at home. God is truly preparing to do something wonderful here and the story has already begun.
Well, after a small delay in Madrid we landed on October 13th and are still in the process of settling down and finding our feet. Every day is a brand new experience as we begin to find out more about this place we are to call home for a while. At a quick glance, Morocco is a beautiful country - more importantly the sun shines everyday which is a welcome change from London. However, most fascinating to us are the people here. Being an Islamic nation, we are in the month in which they practice Ramadan. Although some appear to partake by force, this corporate fast (which sees people fast from 4am to 6pm) is something to behold. Despite the fact that they pray to a false god, one can only admire the dedication of their prayer lives. Evenings create scenes of literally hundreds of Muslims kneeling and praying to the sound of chants that resemble mourning. It presents a strange and almost eery sight, but one that makes us wonder what power the living God would show if we were to honour Him in this way. Unfortunately for us it makes finding food even more difficult, and trips to McDonalds are becoming too frequent for our liking.
The intrigue of the Moroccan people also extends to the driving here which certainly lets you know you’re in Africa. It is chaos as cars just move around town making up rules as they go along, whilst beeping at everything in sight as if an unwritten rule. London traffic wardens would work overtime! Yes, the culture is certainly different and we will share more over the coming months.
Basketball in Morocco is a new challenge also and one that we anticipate suceeding in. Having arrived on the 13th, we faced a 4 and a half hour road trip to the coastal city of Tanger the following day to compete in a ‘friendly’ game. Any tiredness instantly dissipated with a crowd, almost 1000 strong, watching the new boys from London. It was exciting, fun and an experience we can definately get used to. Although neither of us were exceptional, we were solid and made decent contributions to the game. The crowd were screaming at us in Arabic, the referees don’t understand us, and with the coach combining both Arabic and French, we don’t understand what is going on much of the time. We are working on our French though. Undoubtedly this is going to be tough, but why have it any other way? Nevertheless, settling down in a very new environment is difficult, more so than anticipated, and so your prayers for us would be welcome.
Our season began in earnest on the 23rd, so we have spent the week of practice gearing up for the opener - our first as pro’s. It was a great spectacle. Our home arena is beautiful anywhere in the world, seating up to 10,000 and allowing for a great atmosphere. Surprisingly the game did not pull in a huge crowd, and the game itself was poor with Raja coming out on the losing side despite being the home team. Neither of us really played which came as a surprise. I guess there are obstacles in place already but we shall overcome in Jesus’ name! Indeed, as foreigners on the team one can feel isolated and it is clear we have plenty of work to do to suceed; a challenge we look forward to. Once everything settles, we should be the best players on the team and so that is the aim. Only the best will do in God’s camp.
Currently we are experiencing some ups and downs as be try to balance ourselves in this new life. It is undoubtedly exciting and is a great opportunity, but we are under intense scrutiny every day. Not knowing the language can be a sgnificant disadvantage, especilly when people are talking about us. Despite this, we are doing well out here, glad to have each other and even more glad to have God. We liken it to our ‘wilderness’ and certainly find ourselves closer to Him as a result. We look forward to the next entry to Outflow to let you know of any progress here in Casablanca. In the meantime, please keep us in your prayers. God bless.

The Warmann BrothersUkari and Otty

Cage to Casablanca

Outflow Diary Part 1 - The Road to Morocco