Hajj

    This blog is based on what I learned, some of it may be false or different, I don't mean to insult any one, I just want to share my experience.  

      On sept. 12th in the middle of our week long orientation in Ghana, all the exchange students wherevable to experience Hajj, which is one of the biggest holidays in the Muslim religion.  Hajj is one of the five pillars of the Muslim religion.  It is the pillar about sacrifice.  Hajj is a day celebrated in rembrence of Abraham who was told to sacrifice his one and only son.  Since Abraham worshiped Allah (God) he was going to fallow through with his instructions, until God said no, do not kill your only son you have proven to me that you are loyal, sacrifice a goat instead.  

      So on the 12th we woke up early and put on the cloths AFS had given us to wear.  For the girls that was a full length dress with long sleeves and a hijab.  The boys wore long white shirts.  Once we were ready we ate breakfast which was hazardous because the guys where waiting white and least one of the stained there shirts.  After breakfast we took a bus to very large market in Accra that had been transformed in to place of worship by removing every thing except the tents and adding prayer rugs.                 

      When we arrived not many people where there yet so we set up chairs in a circle, and for some reason decided to play frog detective.  Which is game where one person is a frog in a circle and when they stick out there tonge at you pretend to die, then there is one person in the middle who is trying to figure out who the frog is.  Any way we were playing that while waited for people to arrive and then when people started arriving they were staring at us like we were crazy, when we were pretending to die (usefully with sound effects).  It was quit hilarious especially since we were the only white people and wearing religious clothing. 

      Once there where a lot of people there one of the female AFS volunteers who is Muslim led the girls through Abulations while a male volunteer led the guys through it.  Abulations is spiritual washing before you perform prayers.  We used water from plastic water bottles which seemed out of place in a spiritual ritual, but that was the water that was available.  You start by washing each hand three times, right hand first.  You then rinse your mouth 3 times, then wash your nose and face both three times.  After the face you rinse your forearms three times each, right side first.  You then do each foot once, the right one first. Lastly you run wet hands through your hair, which is alittle difficult when you are wearing a hijab.

       After Abulations we all sat down on prayer rugs.  Women sit in the back of and prayer area so they don't distract the men, who all sit in the front of the prayer area.  Once we were all situated the leader started prayers which where in Arabic, so none of us understood it.  During the prayers we would stand up, lean over, put our foreheads on the ground, and do some arm movements, which we all figured out by watching what everyone else was doing.  After the prayers there was the sermon which was also in a foreign language.  Most people got up and were talking during the sermon, people came through with charity boxes so I put in 20 cedis.  Then people handed out food I got some biscuits and this really good icecream that came in a bag, so you just bit the corner and sucked the icecream out.  

       When we stood up to walk around, I felt like I had become some sort of celebrate because everyone was taking photos of us or asking if they could get a photo with us.  It was mind blowing how many people wanted pictures with us, we could barley move more than 2 ft at a time.  It really showed how the world shows white people because that was the only thing that was interesting about us, we were white.

      Since Hajj is about sacrifice there was a cow and a goat  sacrificed.  Some of our group decide not to watch, because it is a hard thing to watch very large and powerful animals get killed.  I watched the cow get sacrificed and I've never seen anything like it.  There where so many people there that I actually could not see the cow get its throat cut but I saw the man with the knife and I saw the movment he made to kill the cow.  And then there was so much blood, and the powerful animals muscles moved it legs for a few more minutes.  After the sacrifice we were again the center of attention, so many people wanted our picture that we barley were able to get back to our bus.

     Once we left we headed to a mosque in a poorer area, at the mosque a man explained Islam in a simple way (sort of).  It was very helpful though in our understanding of other religions.  When we left the mosque  I saw men on the porch chopping up lots of meat, which I assume came from a sacrificed animal.  Our next stop of the day was another mosque that was very, very nice and expensive though when you looked out the window you could see the people who had very little, the contrast was shocking.  In the second mosque the woman who designed it gave us a tour, the mosque had only been finished 6 months ago.  We were very lucky to have the person who poured their heart and soul into the building to give us a tour.  And like she explained the community around the mosk was very proud to have such a nice building especially one of worship.

       After leaving the mosk we were driven to one of the members on the mosque who was kind enough to have us for lunch.  We got to try so many new foods, one was this corn dough that you put in slimy soup and then when you ate it you just swallowed you did not chew.  Finally after our very full day we headed back to our hostel, on the ride back I think every one fell asleep, we were so tired.  It was thanks to AFS and the volunteers that we got to experience such an amazing celebration.