I am not sure, but Anne and I accepted (and ate) the small offering of nuts and raisins given to us by the pilgrims at the Star Mosque. Did I want to? Not really, and our companion on the guided tour did not (or not much, she had one then refused more). I was guided by many things - my overwhelming sense of politeness, my scant knowledge of Islamic culture, and the fact that these men allowed three women (2 in western dress) to enter their holy place. These were men from different places in the Islamic world, mostly Pakistan, who are on a 3 month journey to study, pray, and work with the local communities. They travel to mosque after mosque, spending an average of 3 days at each mosque. Our tour guide had been on 2 of these journeys. When he spoke of them he lit up with joy. To me, the small gesture of offering nuts and raisins spoke volumes about the true nature of Islam or any other religion.
No photos - this is after my camera battery died.
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4 comments:
Anthony was just on the Travel Channel touting the fact that his number one 'must have item' was his anti stomach meltdown medicine. He would have eaten a huge handful, popped a pill, and smoked a butt! So you were close!
Rock on. I come armed with Cipro.
This was actually some magical anti-D drug - John are you reading this? Immodium for crazy people. Seriously, he mentioned it as his best friend!
Cipro is the magic stuff - it helped with the consequences of trying guinea fowl in Ghana (against the waitress's recommendation, which should have been my warning). Only other anti-meltdown med I can think of is Lomotil, but I wouldn't want to use that! Sometimes it's better to get the toxins out of the system, if you catch my drift.
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