On the way to Egypt I Learned about Islam and Friendliness

Way back in October we had a two week holiday called Eid Al Adha. It is basically the Muslim Christmas i.e. it is a BIG deal. It is when they celebrate Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son on the altar, him obediently preparing to do so and they Lord replacing his son with a ram. Same story that we believe only the Muslim world believe he was asked to sacrifice Ishmael (the father of the Arab world) and that Ishmael knew of the sacrifice and was a willing participant, and we believe he was to sacrifice Isaac (the father of the Jews) and that Isaac had no idea. 

What it means for me is that I had two weeks off. I went to Bahrain, Oman and finally Egypt and it was wonderful! Flights out of Bahrain are cheaper and Bahrain was rumored to be lovely, so I bought the cheap tickets on the train and settled in for 4 hours. Cheap seats do NOT include windows you can actually see through...

 They do however include seats that smell like mold and a train car full of women in abayas who drink coffee and gossip with each other while packs of children run around wild and form train gangs and fight with each other. A very entertaining albeit loud 4 hour journey.

We arrived in Dammam and had to hire a car to drive us across the border. Bahrain is an island that you access via a 16 mile bridge. Most importantly it is NOT Saudi Arabia, meaning, there is music and dancing and movies and men and women talking to each other and Abayas are optional (I opted NOT to wear mine). It is lovely. 

 I was only there for 2 days so I swam in the lovely pool at my Marriott hotel (thank you Tawna)

And then I took a tour of the big beautiful mosque down the street from my hotel. I have been living in Saudi Arabia but here I am not allowed to go in mosques or talk to men. It was very refreshing to be able to not only go into a a functioning mosque, but to ask all the questions I wanted. Needless to say, this 15 minute tour turned into a 2 hour tour so that I could figure out so many of the mysteries of this religion. 

You do have to wear an abaya and cover your hair inside the mosque, but it was awesome to be able to wander around and ask and ask and ask.

Here is a book case full of Qurans. You are not really allowed to touch them if you are not Muslim. They consider the book so sacred that unclean hands cannot even touch it.

Some of the stuff I learned: Mohammed (Like Jesus) never wrote any of the revelations he received, they were all written by other people about what he said.

Muslims believe in all the prophets of the bible, they even respect Jesus as a prophet although NOT the son of God and not the Savior. 

They believe Mohammed is the last great prophet, he said all that needed to be said and the Quran contains everything the world would need to know. 

Muslims pray five times a day. In places like KSA and other largely Mulsim countries you can hear the call to prayer over loud speakers. Typcially men pray in the mosque, women pray at home. This diagram shows the different stages of the prayer and what needs to be said in each position.

The times of the prayer changes each day because it is according to the sun. 1st prayer is at sunrise (usually around 4:30am here in the middle east) 2nd prayer is when the sun is at the highest point in the sky (before noon) 3rd prayer is when the shadow that the sun casts is double the height of the object (around 3pm) 4th prayer sunset and 5th prayer when the sun has gone down completely and the sky has reached a certain level of darkness. In KSA all businesses and stores must, by law, close at all these times and remain closed for the duration of the prayers (15 to 30 minutes). It is very annoying here in KSA when you are trying to get something done or get to the check out before your frozen goods thaw...but I digress.

We flew to Oman the next day. For the record I LOVE Oman! It is a beautiful country full of such kind and friendly people. KSA is NOT known for being kind and friendly, Oman is! I was traveling with another teacher and she had a contact in Oman, who picked us up and took us to see his beautiful country! We stopped along the water of the Persian Gulf to get some kebabs.

 We stopped to take a few photos of the palace of the beloved Sultan of Oman and heard all about how there are all sorts of rumors about his sexual orientation but that it is still strictly forbidden in this area of the world so nobody can or would confirm or deny.

 We went to a souk...abayas are optional but many women still choose to wear them. In Oman they don't wear the face veil and have colorful hijabs, perhaps that is what makes them seem friendlier...

 My friend smoked some shish sha and I had a Lime and Mint Lemonade.

 We dipped our feet in the water of the persian gulf.

 And we slept in a really nasty hotel. Oman is not cheap and we were only going to be there one night so we braved the cockroaches and scary stains.

 The next morning we got some tasty pastries for breakfast.

 This random Omani guy, in true friendly Omani fashion saw us walking and picked us up and drove us around the town to show us the beautiful city and then gave us traditional Omani sweets.

 And then my friend's Omani contact drove us back to the airport to head to Egypt.

Egypt next....

The Grinch Stole Christmas...and its not all that bad

So the holidays in the western world are over and here in Saudi Arabia it is as though they never happened. When the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia became a country in 1932 King Abdul Aziz formed the country by banding together a bunch of nomadic desert wandering warring tribes using their common religion as the glue that holds them together. (The billions in dollars they receive each year in oil profits certainly sweetens the deal though)

 This is the fort that is considered the birthplace of Saudi Arabia. 

This means that KSA is under Islamic law, also called Sharia Law, which means that we celebrate Muslim holidays and follow the Hijri calendar.  This also means that Christmas and New Years and every other holiday that involves religion or celebrations or alchohol or music or dancing or fun or general merriment is strictly forbidden.  There was absolutely no sign that Christmas was happening.  No Christmas trees, no lights, no Santa, no music playing in the malls, no Christmas sales, no days off of work, no candy canes and worst of all no egg nog.  We weren’t even allowed to say Merry Christmas to each other at work. It was crazy, but at least I was able to see what Whoville would have looked like if it wasn’t for Cindy Loo Who.  

As strange as it was to be in a place with no Christmas during Christmastime, it was also fascinating to take a look at Christmas without the culture and the commercialism. When you strip it down to the bare basics what you have is a chance to examine why and how you personally celebrate Christ. 

There were also some other benefits to having Christmas in KSA.

1) Friends become Family-It is one of the things I love most about living abroad. The expat community is very tight knit and in the absence of blood relatives, you create a family of friends.  I spent the evening of the 24th with a group of fascinating, wonderful people from the US and Taiwan and some absolutely adorable kids at their house on their compound.  Look they didn't need to piece together costumes from bathrobes and sheets, they just took out the typical local garb and voila, nativity scene in a place not all that far from the original. 

We sang carols and had a lovely evening that included homemade pies and a huge Nerf gun fight in which I was attacked by a troop of 5 little boys. Perfect night! 

Then on December 25th I got together with a group of awesome people... 

These are two ladies who are here teaching English at women's universities...and they both went to BYU. 

We went out to eat at a traditional Saudi restaurant, where you just lounge on pillows on the floor and eat delicious food off of mats. This is the front, the ladies entrance is around the back and up the stairs.

...and here is a cool car that was in front of the restaurant and me with one of the most fabulous ladies ever.  She has 5 adorable children and treats everyone like family.

2) You get to focus on the real reason for the season- In the rest of the world, Christmas is everywhere you look. Even if you didn't really want to celebrate it, it would be unavoidable. Here you have to make a conscious effort to acknowledge it and to celebrate it in your own way.  It makes for a lot more introspection.

3) You don't have to worry about buying gifts- This year I didn’t buy any gifts for anyone. It was positively liberating. My love language (of the famous love language book series) is not gift giving. I neither feel nor communicate love through gifts, so it was no great loss to my feeling loved but it was a huge relief to not have to guess what people may or may not hate. There was no stress, there were no deadlines, no long lines.

I did however receive a few gifts from people.  This lovely duck was from one of my teachers. I named her Petula after the teacher who gave her to me and I find her delightful!

4) You can go shopping on the 24th, 25th and 26th and there are NO crowds.

5)You never have to listen to "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer"

I did, however, run into this guy at one point...shhh don't tell anyone. It appears that he and his reindeer snuck in.

That all being said, I did miss seeing family and friends and look forward to many Christmases that are celebrated in the traditional Western way.  With Christmas music, Christmas trees, giving gifts, and lots of egg nog.