March 2nd, Sunday
I woke up to a chorus of birds, one whose song even reminded me of a bird I would hear while staying at my Grandma Johnson’s in the morning when I was young. Once Sarah and I were ready we went downstairs to the patio where breakfast was being made and served. The breakfast was wonderful, it was fresh orange juice, bread, jams, a pancake type thing called a msemen , yogurt, a dry breakfast cake, fresh strawberries, and coffee.
As we enjoyed the fresh air and food we talked to two ladies from England and Youssef about what we should do. After some deliberation we decided to stay all 3 nights there while he set up an appointment at the Hammam (an arabic bath) for that day and a tour for the next. We chose to explore Marrakech on our own until our appointment at the Hammam at 5:30. We were given another map that would take us to the Hammam and then we were on our way. 
The streets were still just as maze-like and complicated but we seemed to move more easily through them. We had to laugh at the similarities of the street-shop venders to the street vendors you see in Aladdin. We were getting more adjusted to getting called pretty ladies with nice eyes and just generally hit on in their street vendor fashion as we found our way to the giant square. We journeyed on we came across many artist's shops, which of course caught my attention right away.
One of the shops we went in, we climbed up all 3 flights of stairs to the third floor where they usually painted the paintings. As I looked through the plethora of paintings until I found one I liked of a lady at a fountain. Then we continued on until I found another row of artists shops. Another shop had a man sitting out front dressed in a cream linen suit jacket and as I passed I saw a very large simply beautiful painting of a blue arabic door. It was very different and captivating. I asked how much and he said 150 and that in galleries in Morocco normally it had been 350 for the same artist’s paintings. I told him I couldn't afford more than 50 and so after some haggling he agreed to it and had his helper boy take it off the frame and wrap it for me.
Then continuing on we first came to a square that we thought could be it, but as we kept walking through the covered streets packed with goods for sale until we finally exited into a giant open space, which was the actual square. It was huge and had many vendor’s tents set up in the middle. We saw snake charmers, musicians, dancers, and people of all sorts. We decided to find our Hammam while we had a lot of time so we wouldn’t feel rushed when the time came to go.
As we were searching for a landmark a lady with a head-covering and long dress asked Sarah where she was from and told her she had pretty eyes. Thrown off by the fact that she was a lady, we stopped walking, which in a moment we would discover was a big mistake, and then as quick as could be the lady grabbed Sarah’s hand and started to draw on it with henna. She was saying things like this will be for you to find a good man and for love. As I was trying to help Sarah break away another lady grabbed my hand and did the same, not letting go. I tried to pull away, but the lady had a good grip on my hand. So she quickly did the same thing on my hand, slopping horribly ugly and clumsy designs all over my hand and I did my best to resist. After the ladies were satisfied with their “artwork” they asked to be paid.
She told me that most people would pay 25 euros for what she had done to me, but that for me she would accept a little less. Shaking and very upset I told her I hadn’t wanted her to do the henna in the first place and so I wasn’t prepared to pay her anything. In the end I gave her 2 cents and walked away, nervous that she would try to stop me or follow me, but relieved when she didn’t.
We then continued on until we found someone who was trying to sell packages for our Hammam (Medina Spa) and he showed us where it was so we could find it later. After that we wanted to go see the big Mosque in the center. So we walked our way there playing the real version of human frogger along the way on the street to get there. We stood under the shadow of the giant tower where the loud call to prayer had been blasting at different intervals during our time there so far. We were able to see through a door down the very long corridor where we saw several shoeless men kneeling down and many doorways. We however, since we aren’t Muslim, were not permitted to enter.
So we walked on to the garden where we sat under an orange tree and prayed. We prayed for the people, the country, we prayed against the darkness, deception, and oppression, we thanked God for the beautiful things we had seen and the people we had met. We asked for His light, life, and freedom to come to these lovely people. As we were sitting there we heard the call to prayer and were even offered coffee by a man carrying a large kettle. During this time it made me admire their commitment to prayer and as I talked with God I thought about trying something similar throughout my day, a special time dedicated solely to prayer.
As I thought on this God brought to my mind what Paul had said about praying continually, and it reminded me that God doesn't want just an outward act of prayer at a certain time. No He wants all of us, He requires me to go deeper, all the way to the deepest part of my heart. To let Him into every part of me and of my day, every hour, minute, second. He wants to invade every space in my mind and being until my call to prayer/worship is a constant, it is to be a fountain that flows within me at all moments changing everything about me not just with outwards actions, but in the inmost parts of who I am, who we are as God's people.
After this rest and reflection time by the Mosque under the trees we decided to head back to the square and look for an ATM since our cash level was getting low. After a few tries we quickly discovered that our cards wouldn’t work in the ATMs, even though we were told to not bring a lot of cash, but to take money out when we got there. We realised that we would just have to make do with the amount we had. So we prayed and I felt such peace, there was no time of panic or fear it was just as if God was taking me by the hand and leading me to to a new level of trust and I was all in to go with HIm. 
We stared to get hungry so we decided to go somewhere cheap and drop things off at our Riad. We found this little restaurant along the way and had a lovely waitress named Wafa. She gave us her information and invited us to have tea with her later on. My only regret from our trip was that in the end we didn’t have enough time to take her up on her offer. We ate Tagine which is any food that is cooked in a clay container that kind of looks like a teepee with a plate underneath. The food is cooked in it from a hot surface below. I ordered lemon chicken and it was delicious! 
After we ate and dropped things off then we headed to the Hammam. When we arrived we were served welcome tea with the mint leaves actually inside the cups and then instructed to change into our bathing-suits. We were then led into a roundish sauna type room where the walls and floors were heated and everything was very warm and steamy. There was a fountain on one side and benches to lay on all around. The lady in her uniform doused me with buckets of water and scrubbed what felt like most of my skin off, afterwards though it did feel good. After all that was done I was led to a room for a message where they used A LOT of oil, but it was very relaxing.
I was tempted several times to worry but every time I felt God’s assurance on me. After the message I was practically dripping with oil I was led to a room where I sat down and was covered up with a blanket and given what I can only guess was good-bye tea. At the time though Sarah and I weren’t sure it was over and although we could’ve stayed there probably for another 3 hours, about 20 minutes later we were led out to the changing room. When we exited into the “real” world once again I was struck that the smells outside were not quite as nice as they were in the Hammam. That is at least until we entered the square again.
Once back in the square again we paused to watch a man “charming” a cobra and then headed on to see about the food stands. Evidently in the evening time the square turns into a giant restaurant with a big tent that had a lot of booths inside. As we walked every few steps there was a different guy trying to convince us to go to his booth. They would stand in front of you, compliment you, Sarah was called Lady Gaga and I was told I was too skinny, although not for them, but that I needed to eat. Finally though we were convinced to to eat at the booth where the guy told us in a British accent that their food wouldn't give us diarrhea. We sat down at the benches that reminded me of the fair, ordered one water for us both , and one pastela to share. It wasn’t a lot but it was cheap and somewhat satisfying. I was a little disappointed we couldn’t try more, but I was just glad to be able to eat. 
While we were eating we had many different types of people ask us for food or money and each person made me sad, but the children broke my heart. One boy who seemed so sweet and looked to be about 8-9 years old came and tried to sell us tissues, he had scratched and scars all over his little freckled face. My heart broke for him and for all he had probably seen and been through in his short life. I wanted to take him with me to take him from his hard life and from the causes of his scrapes, but all I could do was pray and know that God was with him through it all.
While we were eating we also met a couple that originally the man had been from England and the lady from South Africa, but now they lived in New York. They ordered a lot of food to try and so they shared it with us. Then afterwards they even took us out for ice-cream. What an unexpected blessing!
After that we headed back to the Riad, where we found Bathseer, who worked there as well, and told him our money problem. He made sure we had enough to eat and then offered to drive us to another bank and talk to the manager if need be the next day. Then Youssef came and we talked to him as well and he even offered to even loan us money.
A little while later while he was in the kitchen Sarah and I went in to talk to him while he worked. We ended up talking about the differences in the Muslim religion and Christianity. He asked us if we were real Christians and we found out that he was a devoted Muslim. We talked about Abraham, whom he said was the first Muslim, and learned about what was said about him in the Quaran. Sarah shared the story of Abraham how it is in the Bible. As we kept talking about the differences between the Quaran and the Bible, one huge difference of course is their belief that Jesus was only a prophet.
Youssef said it bothered him that Jesus’ first miracle in the Bible was to turn water into wine. To him it was like Jesus was condoning drunkenness. I told him the story as it is in the Bible and then said it also used to confuse me that this would be the first miracle of Jesus. I then said that as I researched the story I came to realise that the reasons that Jesus did it may have been because He cared about the newlywed couple and didn’t want them to be embarrassed and He also respected and listened to His mother. This showed me that Jesus cares about what matters to us even if it might be something so small as this and that this really brought great comfort to me. In the end I’m not sure if he listened or heard, but I pray it went to his heart. We then said good-night and went to bed. 
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