Em, the caretaker of the mosque in Istanbul welcomed us inside and asked us to stay for afternoon prayer. We put our shoes inside the plastic bags she handed to us and she showed us where to sit with the other women in the back. As the muezzin called out over the speaker, everyone stood, bowed and kneeled several times, as I sat there praying along with them. We stayed for about 15 minutes. Afterward she hugged us and gave us a small bag of bread, along with prayer beads.
We returned on our last day to give her gifts. She invited us to her home where she prepared coffee, chocolates (the box we gave her), Turkish sweets, mini apples, chicken and bread. She gave us more gifts, including prayer rugs she had gotten while on Pilgrimage to Mecca (she pointed to the Black Box on her wall & showed us a video on her mobile phone). All this and she didn’t speak a word of English and we didn’t speak more than a few words of Turkish.
A photo of Em and my sister.
