Ramadan Karim

Where do I even begin?! Let’s start with the important stuff—it’s Ramadan! What is Ramadan you ask?

Ramadan is a time of fasting for the Islamic people. Each day during this month, Muslims all over the world abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, as well as participating in anything that is ill-natured or excessive; from dawn until the sun sets. Fasting is intended to educate the Muslim in spirituality, humility and patience. It is a time to cleanse the soul, focus attention on God, and put into practice selflessness. Ramadan is a time for Muslims to fast for the sake of God and to put forward more prayer than is customary. During Ramadan, Muslims request forgiveness for sins in the past, pray for direction and assistance in abstaining from everyday troubles, and endeavor to cleanse themselves through self-control and great acts of faith. Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of the Islam religion, and one of the main types of Islamic worship. Restraint from everyday enjoyment and curbing wicked intentions and cravings are considered as an act of compliance and obedience to God, as well as amends for sins, faults, and mistakes. -http://www.whatisramadan.com

So now that you know the basics what does that mean for me living in a Muslim country? Well, fasting during Ramadan is compulsory for anyone who has reaching the age of pubery, so long as they are healthy, sane and have no disabilities or illnesses. The Qur'an makes exceptions for certain groups, like the elderly, chronically ill, mentally ill, travelers, pregnant woman, menstruating woman and nursing woman however if able, the days missed during fast this year must be made up next year…. So the big question…. Am I fasting? Nope. A lot of Peace Corps volunteers do fast, it’s a GREAT way to integrate into your community but not something I was prepared to do this year after being sick and having a trip to Spain planned during Ramadan… next year, however, is a different story.

So what happens during Ramadan? As you can imagine there are a lot of hungry, thirsty, nicotine deprived people out and about. Most people try to sleep as long as they can during the day, naps are taken by almost everyone during what would be normal lunch time (with extended hours so ‘lunch time’ now happens from about 12-4) and then not much is done again until break fast (lfdur, which literally translates to breakfast) at 7:30pm. At 7:30pm everyone eats dates, sweets, hariera (soup), juice, bread, jam, butter and anything else that the family can afford. Its great to see the whole family eating together around one big table… I’ve celebrated break fast with two families, my neighbors the first night and my landlords family more recently (they have come to my house every night asking me to come over again- which I will do tomorrow, inshallah (god willing). I love being included in the lfdur meal, its also been great since its summer time and everyone has family visiting from Europe or the big cities. Lfdur usually lasts about 30 minutes of stuffing your face and chugging water then regular dinner at about 10:30pm. After dinner everyone sleeps for a few hours until dawn at about 3:30am when the mosques all go off and everyone eats and drinks one last time until lfdur again at 7:30pm…. And that is how the 29-30 days of Ramadan are spent here in the bl3d (rural areas) of Tidili…

The last few days....

I can breathe- finally.

The last couple days have been scary/long/exhausting/informative and pretty much everything in between. I won’t go into long details, it will just bore you and quite honestly I don’t want to re-live it all. But on Wednesday, at PPST (Post Pre Service Training) in Ouarazate I woke up to my back/side hurting. By lunch it really hurt and between walking from lunch to the room where we were staying I couldn’t breathe because I had a stabbing pain in my chest and was gasping for air. After some fellow PCVs called the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) I was driven to a surgical center for a quick check up to ensure whatever it was wasn’t life threatening. After a few hours of crying and pain they decided it wasn’t it something that would kill me so it was decided I would be driven to Marrakesh that night. We left for Kesh at about 4pm for the terrible, terrible tishka. I mean, it sucks normally, but add in pain in my chest and lack of breathing and well- it sucked. We got to kesh at about 10 and I was met by a Peace Corps Doctor who then told me we would be going to Rabat the next day. Its now Sunday and I’m still in Rabat. They had me connected to a heart monitor yesterday and I’ll get the readings from that and talk to the doctors tomorrow about the next step….

I feel SOOO much better now but this has defiantly made me think a little differently about my service. I mean, I always knew I was out in the middle of no where but this really just confirmed that. This happened to me in Ouarzazate, with Peace Corps staff and PC cars around, it really was the best possible situation. And all I could think when it happened was how far away I was from help if I REALLY needed it. But I guess that’s part of the gig right?

This whole situation made me think too- how LUCKY I am to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. Yes, I live in the bl3id (rural areas) like everyone else, but I’m with the Peace Corps. If something happens in morocco I’ll be drive by the gendarms or army to a safe area and flown out. If I get sick I see the best doctors in the big cities and have tests til someone figures out whats wrong with me. What if something like this happened to someone in my village? What would they do? Go to my sbitar to see my one overworked nurse? Would they have the money to transport themselves the 2-3 hours into Ouarzazate and then have the money to even see the doctor? Realistically, probably not.

I’m feeling better day by day, shaken up, but doing great. Tomorrow I learn the results of the heart monitor they had on me yesterday and then we make a game plan of what to do from there. Which will it be--- back to site or stay in Rabat some more? Only time will tell….