Ramadan

Last night we passed the 15th day (the halfway mark) of Ramadan. It's really been an interesting month, for several reasons.

For those of you who may not know, Ramadan is a holy month in which Muslims fast during the daylight hours. They are supposed to be spending their time praying and seeking after 'god'. They fast from everything, food, water, cigarettes...everything. Then, the very moment the sun goes down, they drink and eat and celebrate, pretty much through the night.
One of the things that I really don't like about Ramadan is 4:30 am. Usually, when it's not Ramadan, they will have the call to prayer at roughly 5 am and I've gotten used to it, at least to the point where I can sleep through it. However, during Ramadan, there are boys who so kindly run through the streets beating pots and pans to remind everyone that it is time to eat and drink one last time before the sun comes up and they start fasting again. Now I don't know, maybe I'm an individualist, but I really just think that if you're fasting and you can't set your own alarm to wake up and eat one last time, then you should have to deal with the consequences of being extra hungry all day long. But, that's not the case, so every morning between 4:30 and about 5:45 I lay in bed wide awake, first it's the parade, then I'm already awake for the call to prayer so that just keeps me awake. It makes for long days and a strong dislike for pre-teen boys.

I also don't like the roads at 6pm. The sun sets around 6:30 and everyone goes home to eat. About 6, the roads are crazy...people are driving like maniacs so that they can be at home with their date and glass of juice ready exactly when the sun goes down. It sounds crazy, I sound like an old lady, but seriously, it's really dangerous to be out at that time. And then once breakfast starts there is NO ONE out, it's like a ghost town. 8 million people and not one in the street, it's kind of creepy!

I also don't like the grumpy people. I can understand why they're angry...I can hardly get out of bed without drinking an entire liter of water...it's hot and you really need it!

That's enough of what I don't like. What I love about Ramadan is the hospitality...I have several families where I have an open invitation to breakfast every night. I don't even need to tell them I'm coming, just show up and spend the evening with their family. It's lots of fun to go and have 'breakfast' with people and it opens the door to lots of interesting conversations. That's another thing that I love...the conversations that arise as you're breaking fast with people. Doors are really opened. Because of these good things, I'm developing a special kind of love for Ramadan.

I decided that I would fast and hostess my own breakfast so last night 3 of my local friends and a teammate came over for breakfast at 6pm. I actually made roast with vegetables and rice and gravy, which I've never made before, especially in an oven with no temperature. I don't even know what a roast looks like uncooked in the Sandbox but my meat guy speaks English, so I figured I'd just ask him. Of course he wasn't there when I went, so I just bought some meat that I thought could possible be a roast. I wish that I'd taken a picture of it b/c it didn't look anything like the packaged kind of stuff that y'all find, but luckily it was the right thing.

I've been told that most of the time the locals won't really eat a lot b/c they don't like Western food so I was expecting to have lots of leftovers. The girls I invited even brought some of their more traditional Ramadan breakfast dishes with them. (I was kind of hoping that in hostessing my own fatur I wouldn't have to eat their gross stuff, but sadly I was wrong!) However, they actually liked what I had made and ate a ton...I didn't even have to itfaddel them! (see explanation below) We barely had any leftovers of the American dishes, but tons of the local stuff. They refused to take it home b/c it was a gift to me, so now I have all this gross smelling stuff in my refrigerator that I really hate to throw away, but I'm really not gonna eat it, so what do you do? We had several really productive conversations and finished the night off with a little shopping...it was 10pm, but when you're fasting and sleeping all day long, when else are you going to shop?!? We had a lot of fun.

Itfaddel is an Arabic word that means whatever you want it to mean. If you're standing up and they say itfaddel it means sit down. If you're eating, it means eat. If you're at the door, it means come in. It's basically a polite way to tell someone to do something and when you're at their house, they can be pretty pushy to make you eat a ton of everything that they've made, whether you like it or not. I figure that I've been here 6 months and that qualifies me as a local, so I can use their local custom and itfaddel people. I was plannig on itfaddeling the girls to eat, but I didn't even have to!! (like that English grammar thrown onto an Arabic word?)

Hope my long stories don't bore you!