Call to Prayer

The church across from my office is closed all the time. The door is securely locked, the windows bolted, the lights off. The only thing that changes on a weekly basis is the weekly service schedule and sermon title. Some life must exist there, I just don't ever see it. It is very unfortunate as it is the most beautiful building in town. It is also strategically placed in the center of the town square. Everything else around it lives, breaths and functions on a daily basis.

I remember the first time I heard the call to prayer. I was 19 years old and freshly off the plane in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - my first time in Africa. I was lying on a cold tile floor with only a camping mat underneath me and a thin airplane blanket to cover me. I had been up several times during the night sick with food poisoning. When the call to prayer struck, it was a jolt to my body I had never felt before. I felt like I was actually in the mosque it was so loud. I have to admit, I was a little freaked out. A man signing into a megaphone in a foreign language, to what seemed to be still the middle of the night, was a bit shocking to my feverish body and never traveled soul.

The call to prayer is very memorable. When I lived in Congo, there was a mosque on the hill across from our house. I remember it waking me up all the time when I first moved there. After a week or so, I learned to sleep through it - unlike the roosters. At certain times it was my wake up call and even a lullaby. It provided a sense of security that all was right in the town. When there was insecurity, I remember lying awake waiting for the call to prayer to give the signal that we made it through the night and day break was coming. The morning call to prayer was always distinct, I never remember hearing the others throughout the day.

At times, the call to prayer wasn't just for the Muslims. Sometimes the call to prayer saved me from my own an anxious heart. It reminded me that people were alive and the community had a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my own town.