Ramadan

I am going to explain what I have learned through conversation and observation about Ramadan. This is a month long holiday of celebration and fasting. This is basically on the same lines of our “Christmas season” in the sense that it is super festive, there are tons of decorations, and everyone is all about it. During this month, people fast (no eating, drinking water, drinking alcohol, or smoking) when the sun is out. Then when the sun sets, you are allowed to eat and be merry. The breaking of the fast every night is called Iftar. Everywhere in the city (even when it is not Ramadan) there are “calls to prayer” which are prayers that are being sung over the loudspeakers from each mosque. So from anywhere in the city you can hear the prayer, sometimes you can hear two at once if you are in the middle of neighboring mosques. When the prayer is sung, it’s a real man singing every time, people will gather at the mosques, or anywhere and kneel/stand and have their prayer time, I think this happens 5 times a day. I am lucky cause in my house I can barely hear the prayer, but by my friends house, it is so loud you would have to plug your ear to be able to hear someone on the phone. It is really funny cause there is a call to prayer right as the sun sets and they are then allowed to break fast…picture someone saying “ready, set, go” before a race…that is what it is like minutes before the prayer: cigarettes seconds from being lit, food waiting to be brought to the table, water in hand to take a gulp…

So it is rude for us not fasting to take a big swig of water or eat on the street while the whole country is fasting around us. At work, we don’t eat in the cafeteria, cause it is rude to the workers to eat in front of them. I went to heat up soup in the lounge today and one woman was saying her prayers as I am smelling up the room with chicken soup…

It is humorous how the country works during Ramadan: everything shuts down during the day, and people live life at night. It has been impossible to get hot water in my apartment, cause no one works during Ramadan…that is the excuse for everything: its Ramadan. The streets and shops are less crowded during the day cause everyone is sleeping. Then they wake up right before sundown, eat a huge feast called Iftar, go to work, then they eat one more meal about 4am before the sun rises, and go to bed. So the shops stay open til like 4am, and then close during the day. It has been challenging trying to get set up to live here, when the whole city is nocturnal. Most people actually gain wait during this month of fasting cause of feasting every night, all night. Since I have been here, I have been judging Ramadan because to me the “point is being missed” of “fasting” if they just change around the hours of life and sleep all day. And then it dawned on me: Christmas. How I “miss the point” every year about being more excited about Christmas lights, finding neat presents, getting presents, and hanging out with friends and family vs. Jesus’ birth. Ouch.

Haha…a call to prayer just started J