A Call to Prayer

Several times a day over loud speakers, a call to prayer is blasted throughout the town. And also in nearly every other town in North and East Africa. It’s not what you may be thinking. It’s sent out by the Muslim mosque. The first time I heard it (at 1:00pm) in Nairobi, I was scared and wondered what was going on? I was eating at Java and all of a sudden a loud, wailing began to be played over speakers…. Loudly. Someone informed me that it was the Muslim call to prayer and shrugged it of as no big deal. It was something they were used to. Coming from the US, I had never heard that before. We have noise laws! You can’t blast things for the entire town to hear. The police will shut you down! I came to learn that these calls to prayer happen five times (I think) a day, every day. At the same times. The worst one… 4:00am. Yes, that is 4:00am. There are mosques all over every city and it’s hard to escape the wailing at 4:00am. (I saw wailing because it sounds like that to me. I don’t know what language it’s in.) In Kisumu, there was one pretty close to our house so if I didn’t have my ear plugs in, I was woken up at 4:00am every day. It’s aggravating at first (and still is at times), but you get used to it. Most people sleep right through it, but I haven’t reached that point yet.

During these calls the prayer, Muslims are supposed to stop what they are doing and say their prayers. If they can’t get to the mosque, they do them in the house, at work or wherever they are. There are different types of Muslims. Some women are very strict and wear the full coverings from head to toe with only a slit opening over their eyes. Others are less conservative and wear long skirts and head scarfs. There are MANY Muslims in Kenya and Tanzania (and other African countries). Coming from San Diego, I never saw someone in a head covering. My only experience was hearing about them in the news…. And it usually had to do with terrorist activity. That instilled great fear in me. I will admit being totally freaked out the first few times I saw someone in the head to toe coverings. My first thought was they have a bomb. This may sound ignorant and judgmental, but that’s all I knew. My only exposure to Muslims related to violence. Since I have been here, I have met many kind, peaceful Muslims. Our favorite neighbor in Kisumu, Mama Agu, is Muslim. Yet her entire family was kind to us. We really miss them actually. My eyes have been opened and I believe God is reminding me to love people with the Islamic faith. After all, He loves them and so should we. It can be hard at times. I still feel that flash of fear. And, I do have to be careful about where I go because the truth is there are lots of extremists who are causing chaos and creating many problems all over the world. Many have developed a strong hate for Americans. But there are also others who are peaceful and nice. They all deserve our love and kindness. Through that love and kindness, God can do a work in their lives and also do a work in ours.