Summary Of Church Visit

Church Visit Field note and Summary

It was a dark and windy morning, we woke up at 5:00 am and we went to church. It was very cold we wore the white long dresses and a wide white scarf was draped. On our head was dressed up as is the Ethiopian traditional attire for church, women were supposed to cover themselves from hair to toe so as not to be distraction for men. My father was the one who drives us to church. The name of the church is “Mariam” it is located at 1350 Buchanan St NW, Washington, DC 20011. The church was silent everyone was quiet and reserved. I can hear children crying from every corner of the church, The children were mostly toddlers accompanying their parents. Some children were playing with phones
When we assigned to do this assignment I told her about it and she promised me that she will take me to the mosque (Masjid in Arabic). It is a place for Muslims to worship God. I asked her to take me on Tuesday afternoon since my class was canceled. She was happy about
Which was near for both us. Everyone is welcome on their mosque but for women it’s must to wear any dress that cover her from toe to hair. Therefore, I wore her hijab and Abaya (long black dress). The first thing I notice is women’s entrance is different from the man’s. Before we enter the mosque everyone was taking their shoes off and we did the same and it must to do Wudu(washing before daily pray). Hafsa did the wudu at home even though there was a room to wash. We got there for ASR prayer which begins before the sunset. We entered the mosque and sat on the carpet and after a minute a sound came from the speaker, I could not understand it because it was in Arabic. My friend told me that it is a call to prayer after that everyone stands and the Imam(who leads the prayer) stood in the front of the line in the men room. She told me it’s not allowed to pray with man so we can only hear the voice of the Imam. All the prayers was in Arabic. I was sitting & looking at them when they pray. I learned that they follow the Imam and the imam said something in Arabic while they stand. Then they started praying I noticed that the Imam was reciting the opening half of the prayer. I only heard the Imam voice and I heard twice when the people saying “Ameen”at the same time. Then everyone bowed prostate and prayed another long line of the prayer, with a