Into the Medina...
Our tour guide was great. And he seemed to know everyone, stopping every few turns to embrace a friend and shake hands. The greetings are so warm and friendly it makes you want to be a local
He's got a great sense of humor; pointing out the American Embassy (aka MacDonalds) as we wander the streets. It's Ramadan and he explains to us that participating is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. The other four are to visit mecca once in your lifetime, Allah is god, pray 5 times a day and give to charity. The giving to charity part sounded more like a livestock auction. Someone asked what people were expected to give and he said, "It depends."
On what?
"On how many sheep you have."
Turns out, if you have ten sheep, then you give one sheep, but if you have ten goats and two sheep, you give one goat. But if you have two sheet and 5 cows, you give one cow. And if you have no sheep and ten cows, you give two cows. And if you have no cows and 5 goats then you don't have to give anything at all.
or something like that.
Standing outside a mosque he showed us how arabic numerals work. I never learned this in school, but I feel like it would have been a nice thing to know. The numbers represent the points or corners of each numeral, like so;
It's considered poor form to throw away food, becuase even if you don't want it, someone could find use for it. So stale bread is placed out for birds. But they really go the extra mile by not only supplying the food, but placing it under ledges and in little nooks and crannies to protect it from the rain. How thoughtful!
No comments:
Post a Comment