Learning Curve

This has been a full week of learning about life in the ME.  It started on our first night.  We went to bed after being fed dinner by our hosts (we are staying with a family we know until we can get our own apartment) and we each took our Tylenol PM to help us sleep and adjust with the jet lag. Every apartment here has these metal sliding shades outside the windows that you use to keep the heat out in the summer and the heat in in the winter and it also serves as a black out shade at night.  We didn't have a lighted clock in our room so all through the night we never knew what time it was, but we could sort of tell by the sounds of the call to prayer from the mosques surrounding the apartment.

We remember hearing the call to prayer when we were here last year so we knew what to expect, only this time it was different.  We heard the call to prayer, but it didn't stop after 10-15 minutes like normal.  It kept going, and going and it seemed like the different mosques in the area were competing to see who could go longer (and louder).  After we came out of the darkened cave at 11:30 the next day, we found out that a big holiday called Eid just started so the mosques all had services from 5:30-7 am and shared their sermons over the loud speakers with everyone who could hear.  There are at least 3 mosques within earshot of the apartment so we had surround sound sermons.  

During the holiday, most businesses are shut down, including ours which was nice because it gave us a week to get settled before having to start work.  The first two days of the holiday, people will go and visit their families and spend time celebrating together.  The rest of the week you go and visit more extended family, friends, neighbors, etc.  The pictures show some kids walking down the street with balloons, the nearby mosque with car-lined streets of people there to pray, and a family going on an Eid visit with gift in hand.

We are learning much more, but will continue with that on the next post!