Sorry...What is...Mecca?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

ا سَـــــــلاَمُ عَلَيــْــكُم وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكـَـاتُه

It was an ordinary Sunday night. Reiichi was at his desk, engrossed with translating German words into English. On the next day classes would be as usual, but he still had a lot of homework to finish. Out of sheer paranoia, one of his friends called him.

“Reiichi, this is his last day in Malaysia. If you want to meet him, it would be a good time.”

Suddenly Reiichi remembered.

A friend he met few weeks ago soon would be leaving Malaysia. His two months English course just finished.

He closed his book and went to his friend’s room.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked. Nothing. He waited for 10 seconds before knocking again. This time the door finally opened.

“Uhh…Hi. Sorry to disturb you. Sleeping?” Reiichi said, spelling one syllable at a time.

“Hi. Oh no no… I was resting. I… sleep at…2 a.m.” He slowly replied in his improved English, his hand counting his fingers. “One…two… Yes, 2 a.m.” He smiled at Reiichi.  

“Do…you…have…time…for…coffee?” Reiichi added, gesturing with his hands to mimic the expression of how a person is drinking coffee.

“Coffee…?” He racked his brain to find the matching word in his language. About four seconds later he finally replied. “Oh coffee? Yes yes I love coffee.”

Reiichi invited him upstairs to his room, before he quickly scurried to the pantry, making himself and his new friend some coffee. Waiting for the water to boil, his hands deftly poured an approximate amount of coffee powder into two cups. He glanced at the living room to see his new friend was making small talk with his roommates.

Reiichi carefully placed two steaming cups of coffee and some biscuits on the floor. The first 10 seconds was awkward. He looked down, slowly dipping one biscuit into his coffee.

“So…how do you feel, going back to Korea?” Reiichi asked, before swallowing the whole biscuit.

“Owh…I feel so sad… because I have to go for… 2 years national service. I don’t want to go.”

Again he counted his fingers as he chuckled.

Reiichi gave him a half smile. “I’m so sorry for you. But it is good you for you.”

For a moment Reiichi gazed on his coffee and uneaten biscuit. He took a sip before asking his friend.

“How many times does Korean eat in one day?” He took another sip as he waited for answer.

“Um…” He was counting again. “Morning, afternoon and night.” 3 times. He looked at his fingers to confirm them before showing them to Reiichi.

Reiichi nodded. “You always have… soup and vegetables?”

His friend thought for a while before replying slowly. “Yes yes…we have soup and… ve-ge-ta-bles.”

“Oh…I don’t like vegetables so much. Do you know what is…’fasting’?” Reiichi took another sip of his coffee before he mentioned the word.

Both of his roommates stopped doing their works for a moment. Reiichi chewed another biscuit in his mouth to break the tension.

“Fasting…? Sorry I don’t… what is fasting…?” His new friend leaned closer, dipping a biscuit into his coffee.

“Oh…you don’t know? Fasting is… For me as a Muslim, I cannot eat from morning…7 a.m until evening…7 p.m.” Reiichi put his cup down and showed seven fingers to him.

“Seven a.m to seven p.m?” His friend asked.

Reiichi nodded. “From the Sun…rise and set.” He slowly pronounced the words. “But only for one month, in a year.”

He inhaled a deep breath before continue.

“The scientists…scientists?” Reiichi waited for him to understand the word before moving on. His new friends nodded. “They say that fasting is good for us. For our stomach.” Reiichi pointed to his belly and gestured a thumb up, before chuckling softly.

“Oh…good.” His friend nodded.  

“Do you know…Mecca? A place…Mecca?” Reiichi plopped another biscuit into his mouth to keep the casual.

“Mecca? Sorry no… Where? Malaysia?” His friend replied.

“No…no…at Arab Saudi. It is a place…where…all Muslim go for…Haji. To pray.” Reiichi tried to explain as simple as possible. A part of him felt very disappointed because of language restriction. 

Reiichi nudged at his roommate. “Laptop.” Quickly he typed something into the search engine box.

“Here, have you seen this before?” Reiichi said, showing the screen to his friend. It was a picture of a big black box, with a lot of people dressed in white walking around it.  The buildings around them gleamed beautifully in golden. Reiichi showed another picture.

He friend nodded. “Oh…this is…in Arab Saudi? So many people.”

Reiichi smiled.

Then his roommate said. “Reiichi, wenn du eine Chance hast, fragt er, was hat er für seine Religion.“ 

~to be continued~