The Circuit

Venturing into downtown Abu Dhabi, we found a rare wall of graffiti alongside equally rare, dilapidated apartment buildings - a bustling mini-neighborhood tucked underneath tall towers of glass.  It was Friday, a holiday. 

At the center of these buildings, the local mosque began prayers over electric megaphones.  Men streamed out of storefronts carrying their rugs.  Cars stopped, children hushed. 

The mosque quickly filled, and the late-comers laid their rugs on street corners and sidewalks, rushing to any available spot as the scratchy song echoed off the Sheraton and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Crossing the street, another mini-neighborhood with another mosque, another loudspeaker.  No songs here.  Instead - emphatic, excited words.  Punctuated and energized.  Rallying.

As they knelt, the loudspeaker hushed. The neighborhood, previously alive with yelping taxis and delivery trucks, stopped for a moment.  Silence.  Then back up and to work, creating a quick traffic jam as taxis jockeyed for a lane leading back toward the hotels.