One such frustration that I have expressed, yet understood, has been the closing of businesses for prayer time multiple times per day. I won’t go into it at length now, but my frustration has taken on a new tone and context. Recently, a new mosque near our home was built. It was under construction before we got here, but it is now in operation. I think this is a great thing, and having more, and more abundant places of worship for people to pursue their relationship with God is a good thing, especially when the land wasn’t being used for anything constructive previously. My new qualm is that the calls to prayer from our new neighborhood mosque are quite loud. From a cultural standpoint, I can see the rationality to a communal call to do something, especially a collective act. From a personal standpoint, that 4:50-5:05am prayer call that interrupts the dark silence of the night is super inconvenient with a baby. I have obviously learned to live with it and sleep through it, but apparently the toddler cannot. I realize that is my own problem to own, but since this blog is a place to vent my frustrations, and a way to record my experiences after we leave here one day, I really needed to get this written down. Those peaceful mornings fading in and out of sleep as the morning takes me over and prepares me for a new day aren’t really ideal when started with the exclamation point that is a 5:00am mandatory wake-up call. This particular problem may fade away when H learns to sleep through it, or maybe not. But in the meantime, that’s a grain of sand that I anticipate I’ll remember long after we are gone.
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Call to Attention
This blog has been a great sounding board for me personally to vent on things I have found frustrating while living abroad. Often, these frustrations belong to me and how living within the parameters of a new culture can be challenging only because of expectations formed by my own previous experiences. There were language barrier issues, and pace of live concerns in Ecuador. Living in Saudi has been a different set of circumstances, again, defined by my own expectation to living in a new culture. Keeping a running log of the singular moments and details that coalesce into our lives here is something I value greatly. I don’t want to look back in 40 years at the amazing things we’ve been able to experience with no memory of anything beyond the broad strokes of our experiences. Writing my thoughts in this way serves as a reference point to the individual moments that will inevitably slip through my fingers like sand, faster and faster the harder I try to hold on to it. So I hope that writing here will serve as my record of all things wonderful and frustrating that make up my (and our) lives abroad.
One such frustration that I have expressed, yet understood, has been the closing of businesses for prayer time multiple times per day. I won’t go into it at length now, but my frustration has taken on a new tone and context. Recently, a new mosque near our home was built. It was under construction before we got here, but it is now in operation. I think this is a great thing, and having more, and more abundant places of worship for people to pursue their relationship with God is a good thing, especially when the land wasn’t being used for anything constructive previously. My new qualm is that the calls to prayer from our new neighborhood mosque are quite loud. From a cultural standpoint, I can see the rationality to a communal call to do something, especially a collective act. From a personal standpoint, that 4:50-5:05am prayer call that interrupts the dark silence of the night is super inconvenient with a baby. I have obviously learned to live with it and sleep through it, but apparently the toddler cannot. I realize that is my own problem to own, but since this blog is a place to vent my frustrations, and a way to record my experiences after we leave here one day, I really needed to get this written down. Those peaceful mornings fading in and out of sleep as the morning takes me over and prepares me for a new day aren’t really ideal when started with the exclamation point that is a 5:00am mandatory wake-up call. This particular problem may fade away when H learns to sleep through it, or maybe not. But in the meantime, that’s a grain of sand that I anticipate I’ll remember long after we are gone.
One such frustration that I have expressed, yet understood, has been the closing of businesses for prayer time multiple times per day. I won’t go into it at length now, but my frustration has taken on a new tone and context. Recently, a new mosque near our home was built. It was under construction before we got here, but it is now in operation. I think this is a great thing, and having more, and more abundant places of worship for people to pursue their relationship with God is a good thing, especially when the land wasn’t being used for anything constructive previously. My new qualm is that the calls to prayer from our new neighborhood mosque are quite loud. From a cultural standpoint, I can see the rationality to a communal call to do something, especially a collective act. From a personal standpoint, that 4:50-5:05am prayer call that interrupts the dark silence of the night is super inconvenient with a baby. I have obviously learned to live with it and sleep through it, but apparently the toddler cannot. I realize that is my own problem to own, but since this blog is a place to vent my frustrations, and a way to record my experiences after we leave here one day, I really needed to get this written down. Those peaceful mornings fading in and out of sleep as the morning takes me over and prepares me for a new day aren’t really ideal when started with the exclamation point that is a 5:00am mandatory wake-up call. This particular problem may fade away when H learns to sleep through it, or maybe not. But in the meantime, that’s a grain of sand that I anticipate I’ll remember long after we are gone.
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