Praying

Last week my room mate Merve from Turkey and a volunteer teacher who is also Muslim took my second year Hilary from Organ and I to the Mosque for the last prayer of the day. Since Barium when I fasted for a day with Merve I had been wanting to go to the mosque and check it out.
I was doing my homework when Merve reminded me we where going in 15 minuets and so we rushed upstairs and she taught me how to clean myself before praying. washing hands, face, ears, mouth, nose,feet and arms three time in a specific order and always using the right hand. After being cleaned we put on our head dresses that covered our hair and neck and put on lose fitting covering clothing.
We then walked about 4 blocks to one of the closer mosques. On the way there my room mate said to me, "I know you may not believe in 'God' but when you are in the mosque just think about a higher power and feel them."
"I belive in God" I responded "I'm just not religious"
We entered the mosque with our right foot first and then removed our shoes for the prayers. the men where in the front, and we lined up in the back. With the prayers in Arabic the leader spoke we moved from standing to pressing our foreheads to the carpeted floor and then back up again. I did not know what these movements or words meant, but moving in synracy with so many people in a place of worship felt very powerful. I prayed to God or a higher power that people of all religions could try to understand each other, and find there similarities and respect their differences.
At the end of each prayer we faced our right shoulder, and then our left shoulder saying peace to the spirit that writes down all of our good deeds on our right and the spirit that writes down all the bad deeds on our left.
On the walk home Hilary who is Christan and Lela (the volunteer teacher)talked about how although they reached their god in different ways they prayed to the same god. They spoke about how any Christan who wishes death upon Muslims is not a true Christan and any Muslim who wished death upon a Cristan is not a true Muslim. And how the war here in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not abide to any of the religions participating.
Living my whole life with out belonging to a religion the whole experience was very opening for me, to participate in the Muslim prayers and to debrief about how going to the mosque made us feel with people of different religions, I was able to understand better the importance of spirituality and of being open to the ideas and beliefs of others.