To my faithful (and patient!) followers, I apologize profusely... I've fallen behind in my blogging and I have no excuse except that I've been too busy and too tired to post anything new.
As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it! I wanted to get out of the dreary work rut I'd fallen into in Montreal and that rut is so far away now, I can't believe I was ever in it ;-) I miss my friends (and friends who used to be students) in Montreal deeply, but I don't miss the former CCL in the slightest! My current students tire me out with their immaturity, exasperate me with their inability to focus on work for more than 10 minutes at a time and irritate me with their multitude of cellphones, but they also charm me with their innocence, please me with their delight in seeing horizons opening to them through school and amuse me with their ability to laugh at themselves without rancour.
That being said, I've had some adventures since I last wrote here. The latest one was a tour to a mosque and the chance to see what happens during a prayer time, as well as to ask any questions I had about Islam. I went on October 1st and the tour was organized by a government body called the Qatar Islamic Friendship Centre, known as Fanar.
This is their headquarters, a lovely spiral building near the older part of Doha. We were met there by a group of volunteers who were very pleased to have the chance to share their beliefs with us. We were reassured that the purpose of the the tour was to make us feel comfortable living in a Muslim country and to help us understand that Islam means to the average Qatari. So don't worry, I haven't been converted to Islam!
And of course the women on the tour had to wear headscarves and the black robes known as abaya. This photo shows the four of us from the group of newbies who went on the tour. Our nickname is the Doha Wives' Club, as we've gotten into the habit of going out with one or two of the married (or otherwise attached) men amongst the newbie group, thus creating the illusion that we're married! From left to right, you see Hilary, Nikki, myself and Desiree. Don't we look oh so Qatari??!!
The abaya didn't bother me at all, but the headscarf wouldn't stay on my head no matter what I did! Some of you reading this entry will be laughing because you know how much I hate wearing anything on my head ;-) Ain't this quite the picture?! I should try to find one of my photos of me wearing a kimono in Japan - they'd make quite the matched set of "Jennifer looking ridiculous in traditional costumes"!!
The group was taken by bus to a mosque in Al Wakra, which is just outside of Doha, not too far from the coast. This is the minaret and some of the detailed work on the exterior. Our tour guide told us that the funds for the construction on the mosque had been given by the local Toyota factory's owners and that most of the public facilities of the city of Al Wakra had been funded by private businesses.
Our guide explained to us that this protrusion can be found at the back of any mosque. Usually they're round; this one is unusual. The reason for the protrusion is so that if the congregation has filled the interior of the mosque, people can pray outside and know two things: which way is east so they can pray facing Mecca and where the imam will be inside the mosque. No-one can stand in front of the imam during a prayer service!
The guide also explained the interior features of a mosque, stating that there's nothing in the Koran that mandates what the architecture of a mosque must include. The features we know - the minaret and the dome - were developed for purely functional reasons. The minaret allowed the muzzein (caller) to be able to send his voice out over the village to let everyone know when it was time to pray. The dome is a natural amplifier, so everyone in the congregation can hear what the imam is saying. I thought that was really fascinating!
This is what the interior of the mosque looks like, before we all sat down to hear what the tour guide had to say. He also taught some of the more agile men how to do one prayer cycle with himself and two of the other volunteers. It was interesting to see the ritual of Muslim prayer and to know that the five prayer times per day are not all of the same length. There are long ones and shorter ones. At one of the Friday prayer services, the imam speaks to the congregation; the men pray here on the ground floor, while the women sit in the balcony, shielded from view by the arabesque. We didn't get to see a live prayer here, but did back in the Fanar building later in the day. It was quite moving to see the men and women going through the rituals. Our tour guide told us that men rush to get into the mosque and as close to the front as possible, as the angels pray three times for those that stand in the first row behind the imam, only once for those in the second row and not at all for those in the other rows!! What a great way to encourage being on time ;-)
And how do the faithful know the time for prayer? Traditionally it was by the position of the sun. In these digital days, there's a display board inside the mosque (this one, anyway!) The five prayer times are known as Fajr (pre-dawn), Shorooq (sunrise), Zuhr (noon), Asr (afternoon), Maghreb (sunset) and Isha (night).
And just as we were leaving the mosque to return to Doha to see the prayer in Fanar, the sun was setting and there were some actual clouds! I haven't seen too many clouds since leaving Canada, that's for sure, so these were even more beautiful :-) As was the dusk silhouetting the minaret, below. It was a fitting end to an enlightening visit.
For me, personally, the most interesting part was when the British-accented English-speaking wife of the tour guide invited the women to our own eating area for a snack after the prayer and took off her niqab (the full face veil). She turned out to be a British convert to Islam! She converted in order to marry her husband, so she had some fascintaing things to tell us about her life in Qatar and visiting England as a veiled woman. I don't have a photo to show you of her, as most women who wear the niqab and abaya don't like their photos to be taken. In fact, the tour guide told us at the beginning of the tour NOT to take photos of the women.
All in all, it was the most thought-provoking activity I've done since coming to Doha. I hope you've enjoyed reading about it as much as I have writing about and remembering it!
