The Staff Development team on the ship has offered Cultural tours the last several months. I had the opportunity to go on half of it yesterday. To be able to understand the culture better and to show the people that we love them we had a tour of the Grand Mosque. Guinea is very Muslim. Sitting somewhere near 85-90% Muslim.
When we arrived we were introduced to a group of men that study under the Grand Imam. Two of them gave us a tour around the Mosque showing us, the Mausoleum where some of Guinea's warriors and the first President was buried, the process of Ablution which is the cleaning of oneself before entering the mosque, a view from the balcony where the women are allowed to pray, the process they go through when praying, the main area of the mosque, and finally where the Grand Imam leads the prayer times from.
It was very interesting to see all the different things. Many of the rituals are based off of ancient Jewish and early Christian rituals. When we took off our shoes they told us they do it because Moses was told to do it when he approached the burning bush. God said that it was Holy ground, now the continue to do it to this day.
