The idea of tea has always been hot water, a tea bag, sugar and milk. On this fateful day, here I was with a cold liquid mixture with chewy tapioca gums in a plastic cup with extra-large straws, this; I was told is called boba tea; hot tea aside, ice tea is the only other type I had heard of and never once had.
But here I was having had hot tea all my life yet skipping ice tea and now having boba tea.
But this was all the fault of my two roaming partners who have a thing for this ice tea. Our next stop was to the Accra Mall, for lunch and later in the day a movie at the Silverbird Cinemas before we head back.
Lunch at the Chinese restaurant was okay, I assaulted the assorted rice while Moh struggled with his water-based, seafood Vietnamese spaghetti dish.
It dawned on us at a point that Zuhr (the midday prayer) had passed and we were inching towards Asr (the late afternoon) prayer. Ablution was the easy part for us, the ideal prayer place was going to be a headache especially on a holiday at the mall, simply too many people all over the place.
Sore to injury, we did not have a prayer mat (sajjaada) and we dared ask to use Mama Moh’s scarf. Moh and I, however, set out to use any storefront on the southern side of the mall that had the banks; we were certain they would not be opened on a holiday.
As we came out of the restaurant into the walkways and out the mall, down the stairs, I spotted some cardboards, Moh agreed it was a good idea to grab them as our prayer mat, so we did.
Climbed back up the stairs to a small emergency exit walkway, spread the cardboard and said both prayers even as people climbed up and down the stairs, most without noticing the upstanding, bowing and prostrating Muslims.
Before our first Allahu Akbar (Takbeeratul Ihraam) Moh had a concern about the Qibla (direction to face for prayer). I pointed in the direction I believed was east, I was only using the same direction that the Asumah Banda mosque which is in the area faces, Mohammed did not disagree expressly and obliged me, so we prayed.
We carried our cardboard back to the restaurant because we knew Magrib (the sunset prayer) would come. We continued with the cardboard in our roaming around the mall and secured it somewhere around the cinema as we bought our tickets, snacks and took our seats.
We sneaked out to pray Magrib and luckily found the prayer mat safe and sound. Then Mohammed invoked the need to at least use the Qibla compass on the Azaan (call to prayer) app to get the right direction.
Well, it is refreshing to report that the young man was right, we had to tilt a bit off the initial direction we used.
OK, the thrust of this whole ice tea, Chinese restaurant, cinema story is how ‘unfriendly’ our public spaces are to Muslims but more importantly, how as Muslims we must prepare adequately beyond the dressing and money when leaving home for outings.
Our prayer routine is spread across the day and the discipline to respect that routine should never be lost on us, let us commit to it and work towards same wherever, whenever and however. Allah guide our steps. Ameen!
And oh, the film in question was Box Office smashing ‘Everybody Loves Jenifa’ by Funke Akindele. A year before this one, I watched ‘A Tribe Called Judah’ with Mama Moh and we will lace our boots for the next Funke release.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
