Saturday 9th March

Unfortunately we couldn't go to the orphanage this morning because of the trouble as we weren't allowed up that far to the area it is in. It was really disappointing but at least we had managed to meet the couple who run it and some of the children at the church the first week we were here.

This is the blog which my sister set up for the orphanage. Take a look at what they do and meet the children.
http://www.godisloveorphanage.blogspot.co.uk/

So we had a chilled out morning instead.

After lunch we got ready to go on half of the planned cultural tour. This is put on to help people understand more of the country's history, culture, religions, etc. So we met at 1.30pm to do the part of the tour we were able to do - a trip to the mosque. We were given a brief history of Guinea and its traditions, tribes, languages, politics, religions, etc. It was explained what we would be doing and given instructions on what we could and couldn't do. We were taught how to greet the people at the mosque and told that we could take photos in the mosque but not of the people unless they gave their permission. It was checked that we had socks, scarves for the ladies, cameras and water. We drove to the Grand Mosque in one of the Land rovers with an interpreter. When we arrived at the mosque we were let in the gates and we put on our socks and scarves. The ladies had to wear long skirts or dresses and shoulders and heads had to be covered. The men had to have long trousers.

I soon discovered that I hadn't really thought the whole socks and sandals thing through properly!! Looking good!!

We were welcomed by some men but the women weren't allowed to shake their hand unless they held their hand out to us. We were then taken around the outside of the mosque and told a bit about it.

It is the 4th largest mosque in Africa and the largest in West Africa. It was built in 1982 as a payback from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia under Ahmed Sekou Toure for an idea someone had about planting trees to provide shelter and shade for people.
We were taken to a building where most of the former presidents and heroes of the country are buried.

It is called the Camayanne Mausoleum and contains the tombs of national hero Samori Ture, Sekou Toure and Alfa Yaya.

The building is kept locked and looked after by a lady they call mother, who is a widow. Hung up around the inside of the building are also passages from the Qur'an on rugs.

We were shown a sign on the wall with the African colours on, an elephant, a bird and the motto underneath which means 'Work, Justice and Solidarity'.

The Africa colours have significance. The red signifies the blood of their anti-colonialist martyrs and their struggle for freedom. The yellow stands for the countrys gold and the sun - energy, generosity and equality for all men under the African sun. And green represents the vegetation and crops grown by the farmers of the country. This is their prosperity and the crops provide a wealth from the soil. With the crops to provide for them, they can stand alone. Approximately 85% of the country's population are farmers. The elephant (Sili) is a symbol of the party and its leader Ahmed Sekou Toure. The elephant is seen as big and strong and this is how he was seen. Crowds often used to chant Sili, Sili when they saw the president.  
The bird was the next presidents favourite animal.

We were then shown the place where the Muslims wash themselves before going in to the mosque to pray. This is called an ablution - a form of ritual washing.

They don't wash because they are dirty, but because they are going to pray. They wash their bodies as a sign that they are also cleaning their minds of all their everyday thoughts so they can concentrate on praying to Allah. This is how it is performed:
They wash their hands 3 times. Then their mouth 3 times, their nose/nostrils 3 times, face 3 times, fore arms 3 times, head and hair, ears 3 times (ear holes and behind the ears), then their feet. They are then ready to pray.

We then went in to the mosque having taken off our shoes. It was massive inside. It can hold up to 10,000 men on the ground floor and 2,500 places on the upper level for the women. Also outside can accommodate 12,500 worshippers.

It is very ornate inside with lots of decoration, big light fittings, writing from the Koran, carpets, shoe racks and a lot of green! Green was Muhammad's favourite colour apparently!

We were shown and it was explained how they pray. They do the Salah 5 times a day.

We were shown some prayer beads and how they are used. There are 99 beads, for the 99 names of Allah, in 3 sections of 33 beads so it is easier to remember. They answered our questions and said that most white Americans and Europeans just come to have a look but they loved that we were interested in what they do, what they believe etc and wanted to ask questions. One of the men mentioned that we didn't need to be afraid of Muslims as they don't all fight like we hear on the news etc and it also came across that their opinion/stereotype of white people was beginning to change as a result of these visits too, which is good.
They asked if they could pray for us and then Steve asked if he could pray for them. This was a bit of a breakthrough and had never happened before so Steve was very excited!

We were shown the Minbar, a raised platform from which the leader of prayer (the Imam) stands to address the congregation

and the Mihrab which is like a semicircular alcove in the wall and points in the direction of Mecca (the direction Muslims should face when praying).


One of the men wanted me to take a photo of him, so I did and then everyone started wanting photos taken in groups, especially with our group leader who has been building relationships with these guys since the ship arrived here.

The leader of our group and his interpreter have been working with Muslims and using story telling. The interpreter, who is a day worker on the ship, is a very good story teller and also speaks 3 of the most common indeginous languages, Fula, Susu and Maninka, as well as French so he is very useful!

They have been telling stories from the Bible in chronological order. Because they started from the Old Testament and worked through to Jesus' life it has been received a lot better by the Muslims because they know many of the stories and characters in the Old Testament. They said that if they had gone straight in with stories of Jesus they don't think it would have been received the same way. They are really starting to connect with them. Guinea is a predominantly Islamic country with Muslims representing about 85% of the population.

The second half of the tour where you go and spend the evening with an African family, preparing food, cooking and eating with them and spending time with them, had to be cancelled because of the riots etc going on as it was in a risky area. So that was a shame. Here are some photos that someone else took on a previous tour to give you an idea of what it is like.