Iftar @ MindSay

This weekend was a bit of a busy one for me.  Not much in the way of posting or reading, so I have a lot of catching up to do.  Let's start with my Friday night, which was fun as well as educating.  Rana invited me, Garrett and Sarah to her younger daughter's birthday party.  Rana decided to make it one big party to celebrate Masa's birthday and Ramadan, and she was going to have it at the Railroad Park Friday night.  It's traditional for families to celebrate during Ramadan by breaking the fast together at family dinner parties, and if I'm not mistaken the meal is called iftar.  We were very honored by the invitaton and looking forward to it all week.  Sarah and I arrived at the Railroad Park around 5:30, just in time to catch a ride on the train with the rest of the kids in the party.  Since the fast couldn't be broken until sunset the kids played in the park and the adults waited patiently until sunset.  No food, no water from sunrise til sunset.  The "no food" I think I could handle, but it's the "no water" part that would make me crazy.  But all the Muslim adults appeared just as cool calm and collected as can be.  Our hosts were gracious enough to offer non-Muslims soda and water, but I just felt bad about drinking in front of them and declined.  Just as the sun was about to set I saw a couple of men carrying huge trays of food and walking towards the direction of the party pavilion.  A few of the moms from the party started gathering up the children and then Rana's husband called everyone over to eat.  As I walked up to the pavilion I saw Rana's father-in-law passing out dates and there was a line of people waiting for water.  I saw a lot of refreshed smiles on faces.  A few minutes later the food was ready.  It was all amazingly delicious; fresh tossed salad with a mint vinagrette dressing, baba ganoush, kibbeh, sfiha (meat pies) and chicken with bulghar wheat.  All of it was very tasty & filling.  Then there was dessert, besides birthday cake, cupcakes and chocolate cake, they had knafeh.  Knafeh is a phyllo dough pasty cooked over a white cheese filling and topped with pastashios, and it's all covered in a very light syrup.  Lots of YUM YUM that night.  With full tummys it was time for the kids to continue playing and the adults to sit back, drink some tea & coffee and relax.  As Rana said, "It's time for the hubbly bubbly.", or hookahs.  I've never seen so many hookahs in all my life; little ones, big ones, fancy ones, plain ones.  The adults gathered in little groups and puffed the night away.  I'm not smoker, and I dislike being in a smokey atmosphere, but the smoke emitted by the hookahs was very light and sweetly aromatic.  I even took a puff.  Garrett partook of it more than I, but we both enjoyed the social atmosphere it fostered, since we're not very socially talkative people it forces you to be in a small circle of people and talk while you're passing the hookah.  The evening just flew by and we knew it was time to leave when Sarah lost the energy to run around after her newfound friends.  We were reintroduced to some old expeinces (Garrett and I have always loved middle eastern cuisine) and we had some new experiences (hookahs), and overall, I'd have to say it was a most enjoyable evening.   

Oh, also, there are a whole bunch of new pictures up yesterday and today.

I just had my first Iftar!  (Breaking of the fast).  It was fantastic.  We went to Arabica and I had tomato soup and a chicken ceasar salad with pepsi and water.  The only bad thing is that Ossama and Souad ordered soup and then when theirs came, I ordered some, so they were eating and I was starving and mine took a really long time to come.  Actually, Sachi and Luisa also had been eating by the time any of my food came.  But it was so good once I got to eat.

All in all, fasting was fine.  I was hungry, but totally okay.

Oh, I drew a picture of a sunset at Arabica for my first Iftar!  Check it out on the picture site.

Happy Ramadan, everyone!

Today marks the first day of the holiest months for Muslims.  During Ramadan they fast in order to feel for the poor people.  They are also suppose to give money to feed the poor.  Between sunrise and sunset (here I've been told 4am to a little before 6 pm) they refrain from eating or drinking anything (including water) and also from anything generally 'Haram', forbidden.  This includes sex, physical contact in general with the oppositte sex, like hugging, etc., smoking, drinking (this is always abstained from), swearing, looking and having thoughts about the oppositte sex, anything like this.  It is a great time to experience a different lifestyle as well as remind yourself of discipline and strenghthen your committment and connection with Allah.  Another thing Muslims are suppose to do during Ramadan is to read the Quaran.  I bought a copy yesterday and am about 60 pages in.

I have decided that at least for one week of Ramadan I am going to be a full participant in the custom.  Today I have not eaten or drank any water.  After this week I will see how I'm going and adjust my fast accordingly.  The last thing I ate were some french fries and a coke last night at about 3:30 and I drank about six ounces of water right before 4:00.  And I will not eat until probably 6:30 by the time we go to a restaurant or order.  It's about 4:30 right now.  My stomach is empty.  I can feel it.  I'm hungry.  But I'm definately not in pain or anything like this.  We went on the Metro for the first time today to get tickets to Alexandria (I'll talk about that next) and it was very crowded and I've been having some 'claustrophobia'/crowd panic issues lately.  On the train I was pretty sure that the combination of the hunger and the crowd were going to make me faint, but I help steadfast, closed my eyes, tilled my head up to reach okay air and made it out okay.  I don't think Hashem and Luisa even noticed I wasn't okay.

Also during Ramadan you are suppose to be in closer contact with family and friends.  A lot of people travel during this month in order to see relatives.  I am going to take this as my key to make sure I write here more this month than I have been.  So you all can look forward to that.  I will keep you updated on the fast, at least.

I am not doing all this because I am looking to adopt Islam into my life or anything like this.  Who knows, it may happen, but that is not my intent.  I am doing it for a number of reasons, though.  I think what made me want to do it initially is my desire here to take on a, "when in Rome, do as the Romans" attitude.  Every Egyptian and Muslim will be fasting, and it would be hard to eat throughout the day without eating right in front of someone fasting.  And I can't do that.  Also, a whole lot of my friends here are Muslim and I wanted to join in their festivities and traditions.  If I was in America and there was a foreign kid who had never experienced Christmas or Easter or even Thanksgiving for that matter, I would like to show him what we do for each of these events.  I have a lot more patients and independence and discipline than a lot of other kids here, but these are things that you can always grow and improve upon.  And this is just one more way for me to become even a slightly better person in some respect.

Anyway, enough about Ramadan.  The more I think about it, the more I realize how hungry I am.  As you may have guess from above, I'm not going to be in Syria this weekend.  Right now things are such that Americans cannot get visas at the airport.  I may, however, go next month.  I need to have my friend call the Syrian embassy and find out exactly how long it takes and what I need to do.  he's going probably the last weekend of the month, which is also Thanksgiving.  Hopefully I can talk to him and talk to a few other people and we can do Syria and Lebanon that weekend and miss a day or two of classes.