So as I'm sure everybody knows the 4th of February is Muhammad's birthday. In village this resulted in some interesting experiences. The night before we had goat with our rice and sauce, and on the morning of the fourth I went to wander around village. I ended up at the mosque where things were getting serious. Everyone had gathered around the mosque and were just kind of staring off into space (perhaps it was a look of religious fervor)... Some people were dozing, and there was some sort of sermon on the radio that they had hooked up to the mosque's "call-to-prayer" loudspeaker. This sermon thing was being broadcast in Arabic which might account for the dozing and staring as very, very few people in my village actually understand any Arabic. Almost everyone can say the Arabic prayers, but they are just repeating sounds. Most don't actually understand what they are saying.
Occasionally, there would be a break in the prayer and a gruff voice would bark something like "hit the dirt it's prayer time!!!" The people in the mosque itself would quickly put their heads on the ground in "prayer position," and the people outside the mosque in the chairs (it was full) would cover their face with their hands and some also put their heads between their legs. Others (like my host dad) were slightly less involved. He kind of covered his eyes with one hand and continued to pick at the dirt under his toenails with the other. The radio would give a few "allahu ackbars" and then some other prayers then the sermon would continue.
During the prayer break many of the kids would throw themselves onto the dirt and press their foreheads to the ground to, I guess, show their devotion to Allah, but the funny part is that many of the kids did face the correct direction (being East in this part of the world). Of course they are just kids, but I have asked some of my friends in village why they pray towards the east and they don't know. Religion can be a powerful thing I guess. Imagine the potential power the imams have in a country whose people can't read the religious text, and have little contact to the rest of the religious world (for comparison).
"Uh.. So it says right here that you have to give the Imam 70% of your wealth or uh... you'll burn eternally."
"Really? That seems like a lot."
"Uh, yeah. It says so right here."
"Well okay, here ya go."
After a little while I left, one because it was fairly dull as I couldn't understand anything. It was sort of like listening to static. And two because it just felt strange to sit with a bunch of people in the heat who were listening to something they couldn't understand...and why? Well, they were just told to. The perfect soldiers. Following directions without question is not an activity that I can be part of comfortably.
Later I came back for lunch, and I had a sort of refugee camp experience. Many cows were killed in honor of Muhammad. All the adults got to eat first, and so there was only one bowl for all the kids. The bowl was put down and a fight broke out over the food. Watching that felt like I was watching a movie or a news broadcast about a refugee camp. But it was a good experience with some tasty food.
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