Today
12:18... The Imam arrives from upstairs to set out his prayer carpet
12:20... The bathrooms get bottlenecked by people washing their face and hands
12:23...People start filing in for the 5 minute small talk session
12:25... Somebody turns off the AC
12:31... It gets real quiet, and then comes the Allahu Akbar (x4)
30 seconds later... The first cell phone goes off
It rings through for 20 seconds
It rings through for 20 seconds
12:32... The second cell phone goes off
12:32:10... An office phone starts ringing
Did I mention people don't silence their phones during prayer?
Suprisingly, it's easy to get used to a bunch of guys bowing and chanting prayers while I'm trying to work, but the constant cell phone buzz is much harder to get over. I assumed that you'd want peace and quiet to connect with God, and that's true, but some people don't really care... Oddly enough, Egyptians are usually pretty considerate in the movie theaters: you usually only hear one phone go off in the theater.
Tomorrow -- Repeat today, but one minute earlier
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