Ramadan Continues

Ramadan continues, and I am learning more about how tough the fasting really is. Most people get up around 2:30-3:00 am—earlier if you have a bigger family that you need to prepare for. After you eat, morning breaks—the first glow of the morning— and prayers begin. After prayers, you have the choice of either going back to sleep, or just hanging out until it is time to go to work. Since everyone is up anyway, we start work at 7:30 pm.

The fast goes until about 6:15 pm or so. It’s a total fast—no food, no water. I tried to fast for a bit, but the no liquid thing is a killer. I really don’t know how people do it—it is quite a remarkable show of discipline and faith. I am doing well to do without food until 2:00 pm, when everyone has left and I can grab something to eat. I don’t know how people will do it in the future, as Ramadan is on an 11 month cycle, so it is moving into summer. If Ramadan during the fall solstice means you can’t eat or drink for at least 14 hours, Ramadan during the summer must be unbelievably difficult--there must be about 20 minutes when you can eat/drink in June.

In my never-ending quest to better understand the world in which I live, I noticed that the mosque across the street (the picture is shown here) sometimes has the green and white fluorescent lights on its tower turned on, and sometimes it doesn’t. So I asked Karim, and he says the lights are on when they have power, and off when they don’t. Nice. I am dumb.