Inshallah.

i dont ever want to travel without a mahraam.

this is the thing

On friday i went on the Year 8 trip as a staff for a day. Meeting at 5am and back at 10.30pm.

so i needed to pray Duhr and because i nod off in the bus (at 5am) i lost my wudu.

then we get on the coach, toilet WAY TOO BUSY. (unfortunatly we werent the only school who decided to go to france that day...)

then we get to Calais. and drive to Boulogne. and stop at this fortified town. 12.35. still too early im thinking. Duhr in france is at 2pm.

so then we go to the NEW town, and have lunch and shop. We eat in this restaurant, CHIPS and i try to go make wudu there ( its about 2pm) but even if the toilet are closed to the public eye (??) the sink was just behind this little seethrough barrier thingy and this dude was sitting facing me and eating. no chance for me to make wudu.

then we walk this long walk on the pier, later on coach take us to shopping center. and in in my head i was like "GREAT!!1 ill be able to make my wudu in all tranquility". Now..WHAT was i THINKING! Tranquility and Public Toilet?? by now im pacing up and down the shopping center (literally) thinking of a way to make wudu! and thats now the ONLY thing on my mind.

cant manage it, i get on the coach, back to Calais for the ferry.

There we miss the earlier boat and have to wait 30 mins for the next one. i see the toilet..CALM..and relatively empty. I ask "can i go to the toilet?" "yes" says a teacher...im so close...nearly off the coach...and the toilet..still empty...THEN this teacher turns around and says "wait we need to ask if any of the other girls want to go too" and i look out the window and i see this massive group from another school go into the toilet.. “this is it -.- I’ve lost my chance” but I try not to loose hope and I think “I can still make wudu in front of the girls from my school, they wont mind” so we go to the toilet, the girls from the other school go out and I decide to make wudu…. The water is BOILING HOT. No way can I put this on my face!!

So back in the coach, my last chance is the toilet in the ferry. I manage ALHAMDOULILLAH to make wudu in the ferry and now I need to pray… its guetting round 7pm , Asr time gone by French OR English time. I. NEED. TO. PRAY.

So im walking around the ferry looking for a quiet place to pray and I see this man in a corner and what looks like a praying mat next to him, he has this air…like he is about to pray..i dunno, I can just tell… and there’s his wife and his kids standing around. I think “moral support”

Then I still haven’t found a place to pray, so I think im gonna pray in the coach, in the sitting position that we’re not suppose to pray in, I feel bad but this is the only way… while waiting for the ferry to arrive, I stick my head out from the deck and look out. And that’s when it hits me…

in all those situation where I was about to make wudu, if I had had a mahram, a mature, sane and who had reach puberty male, then I would have had the strength to go make wudu behind the cars in the parking lot at the shopping center. I would have had someone MUSLIM, who understood my dilemma and we could have solved it together. I would have had someone in the same dilemma, who also needed to pray. He could have covered to me while I was praying the in ferry, he could have asked the crew for a quiet spot to pray. He would have given me the strength to make wudu in the public toilet in front of all those other non-muslims women.
And this was just a day trip to the other side of the channel…
So now im thinking. From now on inshallah, I wont ever travel without a mahram.