Greetings from the Land of the Pyramids!
Well the boys and
I snuck off in the early morning hours of June 10th and made our way
back to Egypt for a very long awaited reunion with Hany. It’s been so great having our little family
back together. We had not seen him in 10 months. Much too long. This will be about an 8 week
visit for us. We had initially decided
that Hany would return to the States but the more I thought about it the more I
realized it would be better for the boys to spend Ramadan here. Ramadan is a holy month of fasting. If you are able, you do not eat or drink or
ingest anything from sun-up to sun down.
So what CAN you have?
NOTHING. NADA. ZILCH!
It is a true test of your will power and
faith.
No water, meds,
cigarettes, nothing that can enter your blood stream. If you are ON meds, you
must take them before the day of fasting begins. It is similar to the Catholics celebration of
Lent where something is given up for 40 days, you fast and don’t eat meat on
Fridays so that you can pray and reflect on all that God has blessed you
with. Same concept except you can have
NOTHING from the moment the sun rises, until the moment it sets. Every year Ramadan begins fifteen days
earlier than the previous year. It takes
roughly 20+ years, but eventually it cycles through the entire year. In the
years that Ramadan falls in winter, it is much easier to fast as the days are
super short. You may only have to fast 7
or 8 hours. Right now we are in the dead of summer and the fasting day will be
between 16 and 17 hours. This is an
incredibly difficult task as the weather here has been bordering on “hell” for
the last week. You can have NO water if you are fasting. Cairo had a 118 degree day last week, it was
107 here yesterday. ACK! Of course the
young, the elderly, women who are pregnant or nursing, and the sick are not
expected to fast. If you are able, then
you do it.
What I love about
being here for Ramadan is that everything adjusts to the fact that folks are
fasting. Businesses stay closed until after fasting stops (sundown). Doctor’s
offices, specialty shops, even barbers remain closed until well after 8pm so
that people can avoid being out in the hot sun. But once the cannon “booms” (that’s how they
signify that it is time to break the fast) Let the party begin! The streets
remain quiet for about an hour after sunset and then slowly, as bellies are
filled and thirsts are sated, the streets begin to come alive. People will go to visit friends and family,
they leave their stuffy apartments and go out in to the cooler night air to
find refreshments like ice cream smothered in fruit cocktail, sweet sugar cane
and fresh guava juices. MY personal favorite is the fantastic mango drinks that
are made from fresh mangoes…..ice cold and full of chunky mango bits. YUM.
You haven’t lived until you have had an EGYPTIAN mango! They are
amazing! The traffic once again resumes the “normal” levels of near deadlocked
streets. Folks lay on their horns and
sing from their lowered car windows. Celebrating and joyous. Families will head to the local “clubs” (I’ll
write more about those later!) where the adults will find a table near the pool
and start a night of conversation over pots of tea and plates of sugary cakes
and pastries. The kids hit the pool and the soccer courts.
Fasting begins
again around 4 a.m. in the morning.
Somewhere around 3 a.m., preparations begin for “Sahoor”, which is the
last meal you can have before you once again must begin a long day of
fasting. Customarily, the women will
make plates of eggs and pasterma (kind of like pastrami), fresh fruits and
yogurts, olives and cheeses. Fresh bread.
More pots of tea are brewed and bellies once again filled to the brink
of bursting. Those that are fasting
drink one last glass of water in hopes it helps get them through the long day
ahead. The sound of the “Call the Pray”
over the loudspeakers from thousands of mosques across the city signifies that
the time to fast has begun.
One added bonus we
have this year is the World Cup (soccer) which occurs once every four years.
The games will be airing around the time of Sahoor, so those die-hard soccer
fans (and there are MANY here!) will stay up and watch the scheduled match for
the day. After that, it is off to bed.
Even after a full 8 hours of sleep, there will still be an additional 8
hours of fasting. Ugh. I personally will not be fasting this year
as I am on a barrage of medication for diabetes and blood pressure. I am too nervous to attempt it this year as I
had a bad experience with my blood pressure bottoming out after a hard workout
on an empty stomach. Don’t want to risk
it. The boys will attempt to fast, but
because of their ages are not expected to fast the entire day. If they can sleep all day, they may be able
to get through it. We will see, and they
are so excited to be hanging with their cousins and friends during the night
time hours. They have many sources of
encouragement to help them along. It will be a great time for them.
I guess you can
see why I made the decision to come here for a couple of months. It will be good for the boys to spend time
with family. Ramadan is like Christmas Eve every day for a month. The celebration that signifies the end of
Ramadan is one of gifts and a feast of food and family. Lots of fun. I think it would have been too difficult for
us to stay up all night and sleep all day while we are in New Mexico! Much
easier when everyone around you is doing the same thing that you are doing! It is
our hopes to return to the United States (with Hany!) around the first week of
August so that we may once again start the school year and figure out our next
move. Hany will be begin a serious job
hunt (he is actually doing that NOW) and I too will (hopefully) begin working
again. I have not had the time to write
and blog as I wanted to these past few months but I will now have plenty of
time to do that. It will be fun sharing
our experiences in Egypt with you. I
already have a lot to write about including the daily power outages and my
son’s decision to stick something in his ear that I had to figure out how to
remove. THAT was fun. Stay tuned!
Keep us in your prayers!
We will see y’all soon!
Inshallah. (God
Willing)
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