Ramadan

Written on September 10th, 2010

Yesterday as I was taking my bucket bath I was listening to the BBC and a discussion program where they were talking about a small church in the US which is planning on burning the Koran this weekend to mark the anniversary of September 11th. The timing of this outrageous act of insensitivity is ironic because yesterday was the last day of the Muslim lunar month of fasting, Ramadan and today is Koriteh, or Eid al Fitar, which is the day long celebration of the end of Ramadan. It made me feel sad that people from my country would feel entitled to completely disrespect all Muslims around the world so heinously because of the horrible actions of a few extremists.
I also found myself reflecting on my Ramadan experience and what it has taught me about Islam. I was gone for the first two and a half weeks of Ramadan but when I got back from vacation in Cape Verde I found KJJ to be very different from when I left it. During the month of Ramadan the entire adult population of KJJ (above the age of 12-13) fasts from before sunrise at about 5:30 am to sunset at about 7:30 pm. During this period they don't eat or drink and they even try not to swallow their saliva--this results in spitting everywhere, health concerns abound but that's a blog for another day. Pregnant women, kids, chronically ill and the very old are allowed to abstain from fasting. Women don't have to fast when they have their period and if you're sick you can take a day off but you have to make the days missed up later after the month is over. Ramadan is very physically taxing and all of the adults in my compound have noticeably lost weight.
For some reason however Ramadan also imparted a vacation like atmosphere on my village. Since the only people eating lunch are the kids they just have left overs from the night before so without the burden of cooking lunch women's work loads are seriously diminished. This meant alot more time to sit around in the shade chatting and relaxing. Also napping during the day became even ore acceptable than usual.
What I enjoyed most about Ramadan was the meals I shared with my family at the beginning and end of the day. At 5 am I would be awoken by the sound of one of my moms or Ndene, my host brother, knocking on my door, "Toulie, Toulie kaay nu xeda." (Toulie, Toulie come eat the break fast) Stumbling out into the early dawn you could still see stars and it was always a little chilly, the six of us would huddle around the food bowl in an early morning daze. Few words were exchanged except the morning greetings and prayers for a successful day. It's hard to put into words why this time was so special but perhaps the best way to describe it is that it was a simple family moment and it was nice to be a part of it. After this very early morning breakfast I would open my windows and fall back into bed sleeping easily until 9--a very large feat here. The day would proceed from there pretty uneventfully: greetings, visiting and exclaiming how difficult fasting is. The day would begin to wind down at around 5:30 or 6 as everyone was so tired and hungry/thirsty they couldn't do much of anything. At around 7 pm we would all slowly gather in the middle of the compound collectively waiting for the sunset and mosques call to prayer signaling that we could eat and drink. To break fast we would eat bread and drink cups of hot sweet tea made from leaves found in the bush. About an hour later dinner would be served and we would all eat until the bowl was licked clean and fall into bed exhausted by the prospect of doing it all again tomorrow. (Maybe that was just me)
Last night we waited to break fast with more anticipation because it was the last day of fasting. The end of Ramadan is marked when you can see the sliver of the new moon. For some villages they wait for the imam to actually see it, so if the night is cloudy for example and you can't see the moon you keep fasting. Some places just accept that if someone somewhere, even in Guinea Bissau or Mali, sees it then Ramadan is over. Last night however we could all see the sliver of the moon clearly so today we party.
This morning we ate breakfast at 9:30!! and since then Yaay Sarjo, Mbayang and I have been cooking sauce (potatoes fried with goat meat, onion, pepper, garlic, mustard and Maggi) for lunch. My compound and the two neighboring compounds will all come together to eat lunch--kind of like a Gambian Thanksgiving. Therefore each compound cooks as much sauce as they can and it all gets put together so in the end everyone has enough to eat. Its 3:30 pm and its raining so lunch will probably still be a while--if this had been yesterday during Ramadan I would be fin but now knowing that lunch is there, cooking, almost ready to be eaten I am about to eat my own arm. But I know that in the end the waiting will make lunch taste that much better and as I've learned about Islam in the Gambia through this experience of Ramadan, it is the collective experience and sharing that makes this place so special. In conclusion, don't burn the Koran, just like everything else we can learn a lot from it if we take sometime to listen and understand.