The many meanings of five

The time is now 5 pm- which in Baghdad means time for another call to prayer. There are two Mosques near our vicinity, and the eerie yet beautiful echoes of prayer song can heard throughout our living quarters. The flowing words can practically be felt as the sounds reverberate throughout the concrete infrastructure surrounding our world. I wonder what is being sung, but my Arabic, though improving, is not nearly at the level in which I can understand the echoes of words that reach our courtyard.

Five o’clock also brings another meaning to my day- it means that I have just finished a cup of the delicious Chai tea. As a lover of strong drinks and food with an abundance of flavor, I am growing quite fond of the Iraqi diet. Chai tea is an experience in itself with the intensely strong taste combined with a generous helping of sugar and milk. One of our Iraqi interpreters makes a carafe of Chai daily and then makes the rounds to fill our eager cups.

5 pm signals the end of the day, the setting of the sun, and the transformation of the bleak Arab sky into shades of color that can only be appreciated in person. Many of us try and step out onto the roof of the hospital in anticipation for the setting of the sun and to take in the beautiful shades of color as day turns into night. The first color is the change of the sun from golden yellow to a tangerine orange that sizzles on the horizon. As the ball of fire dips down and touches the earth, shades of pink emerge and stretch across the sky. Next follow the streaks of purples that embrace each cloud. The grand finale is the blue that has a brightness and depth that can only be compared to the deep Caribbean ocean. Blue fades into black and the stars emerge, and the Arab world waits for the next dawning of the sun.