my first Ramadan

My first (day of) Ramadan!

• Pre-dawn: wake up every now and then to drink water. No eating or drinking during the day!
• 6:30am: wake up – good morning, community!
• Slow-moving community. No one is eating. Everyone is resting/conserving their energy inside their homes.
• 1:00pm: Half-fasting. I allow myself to only drink water. My head was starting to hurt without any food or liquids. During Ramadan, people fast from the first call of prayer (around 3:30am) until the second to last call of prayer. Young children, sick people, and pregnant women don’t have to fast. Menstruating women don’t have to either.
• 2:00pm: Teach English at the neddi.
• 5:00pm: Hearing the community come alive. People (women) are starting to cook and prepare for breaking fast.
• 7:30pm: Breaking fast with my host family. Surprisingly, my host family didn’t gorge on as much food (or sugar) as I thought they would.
  • Breaking fast meal: dates, askif (special soup though not Herrera), sweet fried cookie.
  • Next meal: bread soaked in butter and sweet mint tea.
  • Third meal: Sheep or goat head flavored with onions and spices.
• 10:30: I’m home. I eat and snack in my house.
• 11:00: Watch shooting starts and meteor shower on my roof under a starlit sky.

By the way, why is there a rooster cockadoodling at midnight?

Goodnight, world.

Advertisements