NOW I KNOW HOW THE POPE FEELS

I went to Auckland on Thursday for my niece's graduation on Friday. I stayed in the new apartment for the first time. It was good. Today, after the graduation ceremony I went back to the apartment to pack up before catching the bus back North. It was about 1PM and I heard a Muslim call to prayer. I opened the ranch slider and stepped out onto the balcony to see where the sound was coming from. The apartment is on the 7th floor and I was looking straight down on a courtyard below. Just as I looked down about a hundred Muslims on prayer-mats bowed down, seemingly to me.

I felt like the Pope standing on the balcony.

I was tempted to bless them and say "In nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.....Amen,
but, fearing a machine gun volley I just waved.

.

What I like about inner-city living is that now, there is such a wonderful mixture of cultures and nationalities. We have Japanese, Malaysian, Chinese, Lebanese, Korean and other restaurants and cafes nearby (the apartment is right next to AUT and close to Auckland university). The graduation ceremony (Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries) represented all the nationalities with some of them wearing native costume beneath the graduate robes. Great.