Fasting

The students invited some of the non-Muslim faculty and staff to fast with them for one day during Ramadan. Always being up for a cultural experience, I decided this was a good opportunity. Also, the students complain constantly during Ramadan about being tired and hungry, so if this really isn't that hard, I can now tell them to zip it. Just kidding.

That said, Muslim fasting during Ramadan is pretty strict. During daylight hours, there is no eating or drinking. Dawn (fajr) was at 4:08am today and sunset (magreb) is at 5:27pm. So we got up to eat a large meal (suhoor) around 3:30, and drank lots of water. Its considered cheating to decrease your normal level of activity, but we all have to be at work anyway. And many people, especially a lot of the students, do take naps in the afternoon. Also forbidden during daylight hours are smoking and sex, and many men avoid even touching women. Lying, talking badly of others, and general bad behavior are more heavily frowned upon than normal. The fast is broken at 5:27 by eating a date or dried fruit and drinking some water, followed by the sunset prayer, and then a huge dinner called iftar. After dinner, most people spend much of the night socializing with family and friends, and then sleep a bit before the next suhoor.

Donating food to the poor for their iftar is a huge deal, and almost all of the people who don't recieve that food are donating it. Some of the wealthier families will sponsor an entire mosque in poor neighborhood for a night or a week, to make sure that those people have iftar.

So anyway... I am a few hours into my fast with slightly more than a few to go. I'm kind of thirsty but other than that its business as usual. The best thing is that the students and Muslim faculty get such a kick out of the fact that we are "voluntarily" fasting. I don't know if I'll be repeating this at any point (you all know how much I like food), but it is definitely worth the cultural experience.