Ramadan...Maybe

'Ramadan is coming tomorrow...or maybe the day after tomorrow' mohammed ibrahim

I'm still just amazed by the fact that they don't know when a holiday is coming until the night before when they announce it on the radio. It would be like saying on Dec 24th at 7pm 'Christmas might be tomorrow, or maybe the next day. Let's turn on NPR'. It's just crazy!

However, I'm pretty much dreading it. Let me recap some of my 'favorite' things about Ramadan.

1) People are crazy, literally, crazy. They don't eat or drink anything and it's about 120 outside so you can imagine that everyone is a little on edge.

2) Everyone complains, making sure that you know just how much they're suffering for the sake of their beliefs. Mat 6:16 becomes pretty much a daily conversation.

3) Things shut down. People just decide if they 'feel like' working or not. Lots of schools are closed and most offices are working on shorter days, meaning that nothing gets done.

4) You can't drive after 2pm because people are literally insane and there are tons of really bad car accidents. And those of us who take public transportation are at the mercy of whatever random driver decided that he could conjure up the energy to work that day...then we have to argue with them when they insist that we pay them more b/c it's ramadan.

5) No restaurants are open until 8pm.

6) We actually can't drink anything in public. Guess I'll have to carry the big purse this month so I can hide water in it and sip in secret.

7) They make this horrible tasting fermented drink that really stands on the bridge of being a little 'hard' (if ya know what I mean) and they force you to drink it, then they drink tons of it. It is seriously the grossest thing I have ever tasted. I'm also not real sure how it all works out since alcohol is expressly forbidden. So they fast to gain points, then they drink this fermented stuff. Seems to me like the drinking would cancel out the fasting points.

8) Any grocery type of store is an absolute madhouse during the day with all these angry women trying to buy everything that they need to make a feast for breakfast at sundown.

9) When you go to 'breakfast' at people's houses they expect you to eat as much as they do and they eat a ton. It's especially difficult when you really just don't like the special Ramadan dishes that they make every night. Interesting fact, despite the month of 'fasting' people who are observing Ramadan actually gain weight.

There are some good things about Ramadan too.
1) When having gatherings of people during the day time, refreshments do NOT need to be provided.

2) We won't have to eat breakfast or lunch with anyone that we visit during the day time.

3) There is absolutely no one out when the the sun goes down because it's time to eat. It's seriously a ghost town. So if you happen to need to go somewhere and you don't rely on public transporation (b/c they're all eating too) you can get there without any traffic...it won't be open, but you can get there.

4) Lots of the aforementioned conversations

It probably sounds like I'm dreading Ramadan and, honestly, I am not real excited about it. Last year it was a novelty sort of thing and I hadn't been here long so I was optimistic and trying to see the good things about it. Now a year has passed and I no longer feel the need to lie to myself and be so optimistic about things that I know I don't like. Plus I think once you've been in this world for a while you start to really understand what is happening and you feel the increase in the inner tensions and warfare (i.e. evil) that is always around but becomes so intense during this time.

Maybe tomorrow, maybe after tomorrow....