Ramadan

Wednesday, September 12

Ramadan begins tonight—we are virtually positive. We thought it might begin last night, but it didn’t. I had a somewhat sheltered childhood, where the Catholic kids qualified as different (but those Biggins girls sure were cute, and then later those hot Kreisle girls…) Thus, I am not exactly a religious expert. But I am curious, and I am looking forward to experiencing Ramadan close-up.

For those of modest religious background, Ramadan begins when an Imam in Saudi Arabia spots the new moon (I am outside looking right now and don’t see it, but it’s early). At least this is applicable to the Sunnis, which predominate in Afghanistan. If you are Shiite, it is up to an Imam in Iran to spot the new moon. I am told that, on occasion, the start of Ramadan has been staggered depending on your religious sect.

When Ahmad was the only Muslim I knew, he always joked that Ramadan began when his mom called him, and that appears to not be too far from the truth. It seems word passes by radio/TV, then telephone, then word of mouth. I don’t know what time the new moon appears—I should have paid attention in astronomy (yes, it DOES fulfill the math requirement, thank you). It seems that it might be well into the night. Anyway, when I woke up this morning I asked Aman if it were Ramadan, and he said no, that he hadn’t gotten a call. I didn’t ask if he knew Ahmad’s mom.

I am amazed at the level of commitment of devout Muslims—and Afghanistan is a country filled with them— for it truly is a difficult-to-practice faith. (I thought catechism was tough). Everyday, there are prayers five times. It seemed wrong for our staff to be praying in the kitchen or in a corner during the day, so we offered them the house (which is connected) so that they can pray in a quiet area. Prayers can start as early as 4 am or so, and the last call-to-prayer is well after dark. Since my bedroom is next to the mosque, I keep track, though thankfully I usually sleep through the 4 am call.

I still haven’t figured out if the call to prayers is live or Memorex. But regardless, it varies from Mosque to Mosque. The person at my Mosque has a wonderful voice, and makes it really very pleasant to listen to—though I continue to have doubts about that 4 am call to prayers.

Ramadan takes the practice of Islam to an incredibly difficult level, which I had not appreciated. I understood that there were 30 days of fasting. But this is FASTING. This isn’t the ‘give up chocolate for Lent’ fasting, or no meat on Friday kind of thing. This is serious. Beginning with the first light—not sunrise, but that first glimmer of light in a new morning, which is around 4:30 or so—the fasting begins. It is total, no food, and no water/liquid. NO LIQUID all day. The fasting continues to sunset.

To prepare, people get up around 3:00-3:30 to eat and drink, then it is time for prayers. The first day of Ramadan—tomorrow—is a holiday here, but we will normally be starting work an hour early—at 7:30—so that people can leave work 1:30 in the afternoon. I used to hear that people would be lethargic and leave early in the afternoon, and I was a bit skeptical. But I didn’t realize that people were getting up at 3:00, and not eating or drinking from about 4:30 am to sunset at about 6:30.

As I have adopted Aman, we made sure he got some corn flakes out of the mess hall tonight, and I recommended Gatorade, which I hope works ok for him. He is anxious to try it, and never once mentioned that corn flakes and Gatorade is not the typical Muslim meal preparatory to fasting.

For guys like Aman, it is difficult. But there are a lot of other people out there who work hard, outside, in the 90 degree September heat. I really don’t know how they can do it. It will be interesting to see.

Note: I looked at 9, 11, and 3. No new moon. Good thing I am not an Imam, because I would have messed up and not started Ramadan on time. It started Wednesday night/Thursday morning.