Greetings From Saudisandy
There has been a huge amount of digging on the road in front of our apartment here on our compound. At first we thought it was to be just a resurfacing. Our mistake, or were we just misled? We are getting a new road. Not a little project, as the machines have dug out the existing road down over two feet and the whole area is terribly dangerous to walk on and we have to walk on it to get to our car that has now to be parked about a block away. Outside of stepping into muck over my ankles as I headed out to have a social day, and one day my husband tripping and falling while arms were full of groceries, we are surviving. He wasn't hurt and the concrete-type muck came off my feet and shoes after hard scrubbing.
However, I do think a bug from Hell was unearthed in this process. Seriously! I came out my front door the other day and saw this ghastly black thing, half hornet and half locus flying and hopping about in a nasty frenzy. He would bounce and fly about a foot off the ground and then when he hit the ground he would rub his ugly head around on the concrete. It was really sickening to watch. This is how he maneuvered down our walkway: bounce, fly, grind head in concrete, bounce, fly, grind head into concrete. He was the size of my index finger. I saw him once and never again. Thank God, it was one bug and not a fleet.
We are finding the new mosque, just about one half a block away, to be very disturbing. The sound on their speakers has been turned to full volume and the first call to prayer at 4:30 or so every morning is wrecking the nerves of many in the surrounding neighborhood. With our doors shut and air-conditioning on full, we hear it as if it were on our back patio. A friend who lives even closer than we do, paced off one day from her apartment: 50 steps, the next nearest mosque is 70 steps and the last and biggest mosque in our compound is 100 steps from her doorway. Her husband has put in a request to be moved. He is suffering from sleep deprivation. So far, my husband is sleeping through this first prayer call of the day, but I am not. Better me than him. Another mosque is half completed about four blocks from us. Our compound has five mosques that I know of, and a sixth is being built.
However, I do think a bug from Hell was unearthed in this process. Seriously! I came out my front door the other day and saw this ghastly black thing, half hornet and half locus flying and hopping about in a nasty frenzy. He would bounce and fly about a foot off the ground and then when he hit the ground he would rub his ugly head around on the concrete. It was really sickening to watch. This is how he maneuvered down our walkway: bounce, fly, grind head in concrete, bounce, fly, grind head into concrete. He was the size of my index finger. I saw him once and never again. Thank God, it was one bug and not a fleet.
We are finding the new mosque, just about one half a block away, to be very disturbing. The sound on their speakers has been turned to full volume and the first call to prayer at 4:30 or so every morning is wrecking the nerves of many in the surrounding neighborhood. With our doors shut and air-conditioning on full, we hear it as if it were on our back patio. A friend who lives even closer than we do, paced off one day from her apartment: 50 steps, the next nearest mosque is 70 steps and the last and biggest mosque in our compound is 100 steps from her doorway. Her husband has put in a request to be moved. He is suffering from sleep deprivation. So far, my husband is sleeping through this first prayer call of the day, but I am not. Better me than him. Another mosque is half completed about four blocks from us. Our compound has five mosques that I know of, and a sixth is being built.
posted by saudisandy at
3:39 PM
2 Comments:
the whole point is that people should be waking up for prayer.
By
Anonymous, at Saturday, November 11, 2006
There were no loud speakers at the time of the Prophet. Mosques were built in neighborhoods so that the natural unamplified voice would carry just fine. It was a wonderful sound to wake up to. Our mosques on our compound are close enough to hear a human unamplified voice call out and that is a glorious sound. When living in a mixed religious compound here in Saudi Arabia, it is not unreasonable to be considerate of all neighbors and the speakers do not need to be turned up full volumne. Many Muslims around us are equally disturbed by this ugly call to prayer. The natural voice in a call is beautiful to all. Some places in the Middle East are finding ways of connecting to radio stations in their area so Muslims can hear the call to prayer from their local mosque over there radio, like their own personal alarm clock. What we have here now is total noise polution. Not good for anyone to wake up angry.
By
saudisandy, at Saturday, November 11, 2006
Post a Comment
<< Home