Disclaimer: Just because I'm not participating in Ramadan doesn't mean I don't have a lot of respect for my neighbors for fasting every year and especially this year.
For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of fasting (this means fasting from food, liquids, smoking, everything) from sun-up to sun-down in order to remind them of humility, submissiveness to God, and patience. Ramadan is based on the Islamic calendar rather than the Gregorian so it changes every year. Unfortunately, this year it fell during the hottest month possible: August. So just to be clear, all the Moroccans around me are abstaining from eating or drinking water for about 15 hours a day during 120 degree heat.
For good Peace Corps Volunteers, Ramadan is a month of experiencing a new culture and religion by participating in the fasting or making sure to break fast in the evenings with the people in their communities. It's probably also a time of introspection and self growth.
For Alisa, Ramadan is a month of going slightly batty. Because Moroccans are fasting all day, their energy levels are greatly depleted so they tend to sleep most of the day. This means transport is almost non-existent, shops are only open waaaaay early in the morning and for about an hour or two before sunset, and the rest of town is pretty much shut down. Because I can't leave my house at night (guys in my region tend to think women out at night are prostitutes) I only have about a two hour window where I can actually leave my house during the day. So I've spent the past month in site (new record!) catching up on bad movies and tv shows, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without the bread because I always forget to buy it, waging war against the lizards and spiders in my house (Ramadan also seems to be the month of critterly invasions), reading trashy romance novels that I am beyond ashamed of, and daydreaming about my fictional boyfriend: Dr. Gregory House.
In my defense I'm not a completely horrible volunteer for not breaking fast with more families. People in my town are really reserved and typically don't just invite strangers into their house, much less talk to them other than the standard head nod and "Salam. Lebes? Lehamdallah. (Hello. You're fine? Praise Allah.)" I could break fast with my host family but honestly I'm terrified of the epic food poisoning I got there, so I'm thinking I'm going to wait until after Ramadan to visit them (visiting a Moroccan family during Ramadan = you will be stuffed full of food until you can't ever move again). I did manage to get invited to my site-mates' host family's house to break fast last week and since they've never given me food poisoning, I was pretty happy about the invitation. When the sun goes down Moroccans break their fast with a meal called lfdur (aka breakfast, get it?). For my meal with the Saidis this included my favorite Moroccan dish, askif (a really hearty soup with eggs, chickpeas, tomatoes, chicken, and sometimes lentils or pasta), dates, croissants, cheese, couscous with roasted peppers and chicken, tea, and fresh figs and grapes for dessert. I've never had fresh figs and didn't expect to like them because I've only ever had dried figs and those taste too much like Fig Newtons for my liking, but fresh figs are AMAZING. Why do we dry them in America?! Our country's palate is in need of serious examination if we can take a fruit that tasty and make into a nasty Fig Newton instead.
So that's been Ramadan for me. It'll be ending in about a week and a half and then hopefully I'll actually get to start some work. I've also got a lot of travel coming up, so it may be awhile before this gets updated again. In September I'll be going to Agadir for a regional meeting and Ouarzazate for a Volunteer Support Network (peer to peer counseling for Volunteers) training. In October I'll be going to Fes for a TEFL training and then to the wonderful, wonderful USA for my Britany's wedding!
For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of fasting (this means fasting from food, liquids, smoking, everything) from sun-up to sun-down in order to remind them of humility, submissiveness to God, and patience. Ramadan is based on the Islamic calendar rather than the Gregorian so it changes every year. Unfortunately, this year it fell during the hottest month possible: August. So just to be clear, all the Moroccans around me are abstaining from eating or drinking water for about 15 hours a day during 120 degree heat.
For good Peace Corps Volunteers, Ramadan is a month of experiencing a new culture and religion by participating in the fasting or making sure to break fast in the evenings with the people in their communities. It's probably also a time of introspection and self growth.
For Alisa, Ramadan is a month of going slightly batty. Because Moroccans are fasting all day, their energy levels are greatly depleted so they tend to sleep most of the day. This means transport is almost non-existent, shops are only open waaaaay early in the morning and for about an hour or two before sunset, and the rest of town is pretty much shut down. Because I can't leave my house at night (guys in my region tend to think women out at night are prostitutes) I only have about a two hour window where I can actually leave my house during the day. So I've spent the past month in site (new record!) catching up on bad movies and tv shows, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without the bread because I always forget to buy it, waging war against the lizards and spiders in my house (Ramadan also seems to be the month of critterly invasions), reading trashy romance novels that I am beyond ashamed of, and daydreaming about my fictional boyfriend: Dr. Gregory House.
In my defense I'm not a completely horrible volunteer for not breaking fast with more families. People in my town are really reserved and typically don't just invite strangers into their house, much less talk to them other than the standard head nod and "Salam. Lebes? Lehamdallah. (Hello. You're fine? Praise Allah.)" I could break fast with my host family but honestly I'm terrified of the epic food poisoning I got there, so I'm thinking I'm going to wait until after Ramadan to visit them (visiting a Moroccan family during Ramadan = you will be stuffed full of food until you can't ever move again). I did manage to get invited to my site-mates' host family's house to break fast last week and since they've never given me food poisoning, I was pretty happy about the invitation. When the sun goes down Moroccans break their fast with a meal called lfdur (aka breakfast, get it?). For my meal with the Saidis this included my favorite Moroccan dish, askif (a really hearty soup with eggs, chickpeas, tomatoes, chicken, and sometimes lentils or pasta), dates, croissants, cheese, couscous with roasted peppers and chicken, tea, and fresh figs and grapes for dessert. I've never had fresh figs and didn't expect to like them because I've only ever had dried figs and those taste too much like Fig Newtons for my liking, but fresh figs are AMAZING. Why do we dry them in America?! Our country's palate is in need of serious examination if we can take a fruit that tasty and make into a nasty Fig Newton instead.
So that's been Ramadan for me. It'll be ending in about a week and a half and then hopefully I'll actually get to start some work. I've also got a lot of travel coming up, so it may be awhile before this gets updated again. In September I'll be going to Agadir for a regional meeting and Ouarzazate for a Volunteer Support Network (peer to peer counseling for Volunteers) training. In October I'll be going to Fes for a TEFL training and then to the wonderful, wonderful USA for my Britany's wedding!
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