The "whole prayer thing" was the most amusing to me; maybe because I'm a stereotypical atheist hacker, but I fail to understand that people in high-tech fields such as computer science can be sufficiently credulous (of any religion) to... pray to some deity for a visa. This isn't just a mostly-cultural religiosity or spiritual veneer; it's full "long-beard guy in the sky listening and answering to personal wishes" kind of belief...