Me as entertainment

I have already accepted that I am a strange sight in this part of Sumatra but the other night my presence proved to be the biggest source of entertainment yet for my whole village at the local mosque. To go along with my attempt at fasting, Sumi thought it was a good idea to take me for evening prayers at the mosque by our house. Putting on the white sheet-like draping that only allowed a small part of my face to peek through, I was presentable to enter the mosque trying to blend in with the crowd of ghost-like women. However, just the small bit of my face gave away my foreignness and I quickly had hordes of little girls giggling, staring, and trying to sit close to me, completely distracted from their prayers. Eventually the women caught on to the children's excitement and one woman invited me to share her prayer rug. Not wanting to disappoint, I left my safe position in the back of the mosque. Sumi soon came over to show me how to follow along in the series of bows, kneeling, bending over, and standing that constitutes one "round" of prayers. With eleven of those in between preaching I was quite exhausted by the end. The little girls also had no desire to follow prayers with me there and they kept whispering to ask my name, where I lived, where I was from, it was quite hilarious. While I may not return despite Sumi's offer it was quite a warm and insightful experience to join so many Muslim women in the important evening prayer during Ramadan and feel apart of my little community. Now more people know where the buleh (foreigner) lives and I have had a little group of girls stop by our house nightly to see kakak Jenny (older sister Jenny).