Other than sand, the other main commodity in Sudan is prayers. Sand, sand, sand, pray, pray, pray. Sand, pray. With all the praying going on, what with the 5 times a day rule, I'm surprised it took me a while to notice that I'd never seen Abdil pray. So, we were playing backgammon tonight, and it was his turn to play, when I asked, "Abdil, do you pray 5 times a day?" He said, "Not now because we are travelling." I said, "Oh, really? So you don't have to pray when you are travelling?" He said, "No," and went on to explain, however, that he must make up for all his missed prayers when he finishes traveling. This astounded me, so I said, "ALL of them? You'll be with us for 3 weeks. That's 21 days x 5 prayers a day = 105 missed prayers!" He said that, yes, but he already made up for a few in Dongola, our rest day, because he did 7 on that day. He also did some extras in Khartoum. So, I asked him, "How do you keep track of how many missed prayers you still have to make up? Do you have a check list or something?" I was half joking, but guess what? He *does* have a check list! I said, "No way!" He said, "Yes!"
As long as we were on the topic of prayers, I decided to continue. I told Abdil that I sometimes see people praying alone, and other times they are in groups and it appears that there is a leader. Are the prayers different when they pray alone, or when they are in a group? He said that, no, the prayers are not different, but it is better to pray in a group. I asked, "Why is that?" He went on to explain that if you pray alone, you get 1 point, but if you pray in a group, you get 7 points. What a bargain! I liked this points system and could just see myself as a Moslem, trying to rack up the points. I wonder if eventually you can become a Life Master, like in bridge. If Chas ever had more points than me, I might have to try to fuddle up his prayers so that he'd lose a few. Is it possible to lose points? I must ask Abdil to expand my understanding of the point system.
I then went on to ask about women. "When women pray, are they saying the same thing as men?" He said, "Yes, but when they pray in a mosque, they have to pray at the back." This didn't seem fair to me, but I decided not to mess up our friendship by saying so.
After all the prayer talk was over, Abdil then asked, "Whose turn is it?" I said, "Mine," and took my turn. I know that it is bad to both lie and cheat, but you have no idea how annoying it gets that he beats me all the time! Also, in my defense, (a) he won anyway, and (b) I told him afterward that it hadn't really been my turn.
Here is a picture of me and Abdil, playing backgammon.
---------------- TODAY ----------------- TOTAL
Cycled --------- 115 km (72 mi) -------- 1,730 km (1,072 mi)
Sagged --------- 30 km (19 mi) -------- 344.5 km (226.5 mi)
Total ----------- 145 km (91 mi) ------- 2,074.5 km (1,298.5 mi)
In Saddle ------ 5 hrs 52 min ---------- 102 hrs 1 min
Ascended ------ 600 feet ---------------- 15,886 feet
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