Casablanca

We've made it to Africa. And now we're outside the city of Casablanca here in Morocco. The first couple of flights went very well - we made it through security and all the modern hassles of airflight travel, and now we're awaiting our final flight to Niger in just a couple of hours. We had a layover here in Casablanca for a few hours, so they put us up in a hotel -- the Atlas Hotel -- right outside Casablanca.

We met our friends Donn and Elizabeth and their kids at the Casablanca airport, and it was great to be able to chat with their kids, Elliott, Ilsa, and Abel. They all seemed pretty excited even though we were in our half-groggy, jet-lagged flight mode. We had breakfast here with them at the Hotel -- and I must say -- the orange juice here was some of the most amazing stuff I've ever had. I finished off three glasses before breakfast was over.

In some ways it was nice to actually leave behind the stiff airport look and see some of the surrounding countryside -- some of real Africa. As we drove past palm trees and tall, wavering trees, we could see piles of rubble, half-finished buildings with workers scrambling over them. We reached the Atlas moments later and found our rooms past the star-shaped fountain in the lobby.

I had a couple of interesting conversations on the airflight here -- one with a man who saw my t-shirt with "The Dunes Bible Camp, Est. 1957" written on it and he started asking me about it. I explained a bit about the camp and then he went on to tell me what he believed. It was definitely an eye-opening moment to listen to this man who seemed on the one hand entirely confused about spiritual things, but on the other hand, so entirely convinced that what he believed was "truth."

Time is running short -- we need to run to our next flight at the airport. Lord-willing, our next post will come from Niamey, Niger!

-- Shaun Stevenson, AfricaTeam2010