Tomorrow is Eid al-Fitr which means celebrations of the end of Ramadan and also a day off from work! It is a day of visiting with family and friends and of course EATING! I have not yet blogged about Ramadan because the month of fasting came and went by so fast that I have no yet had any moments to reflect on it. Honestly, I have not truly experienced what the true meaning of Ramadan is (it was not really apparent if you understand what I mean). At work, except for a few who were missing from lunch, many were having lunch as usual. One coworker fasted for a week and was told by her mother to stop because she felt her daughter was looking pale and ill from the fasting.
One very odd time, we were visiting the house of a MEDA staff in the Isfara region and he made my coworker and I have lunch in his house but him and his wife did not join us. His wife naturally cooked us the meal and we ate alone inside the house. Talk about such devotion and inner power to deny the body from the temptations of the powerful smells of food. It is indeed a very spiritual and out of body experience to wake up at 5-6am (the women wake earlier to prepare the food) to eat and then to go without food and water until past 6pm for a whole month. I have fasted before for the 30 Hour Famine but it was only for 1.5 days and we had water. I can’t imagine not drinking any water!
Then there are the sounds of men chanting. I would hear it at home, at the office; the sounds coming from somewhere in the city. It is very mysterious but yet there is something peaceful and spiritual in the sounds. Nargisa (coworker) and I had a short discussion on prayer time and she told me how nice and calming it is to the body to pray five times a day. That is definitely something that I should pick up…I hope to learn more about the Muslim faith.
Yesterday, I woke up with the worse stomach cramps ever in my upper abdominals. I knew exactly what it was…I had either stomach flu or food poisoning. Anyways, I made several trips to the toilet and realized that I was STILL without water! It was a horrible discovery but of course the pipes in the apartment were broken so no water. I won’t go into details but you know this is bad news. Anyways, by the afternoon, things were looking a little brighter. Water came back (pipes fixed) and my cramps subsided. My body is still in a bit of shock but I’m much better today.
One last thought…I started listening to “The Life of Pi” by Yann Martel (I’ve dropped Collapsed for the moment) and I can’t stop! The tale is colorful, thoughtful, funny and quite hard to stop listening to haha. In the book, there is mention of the phrase, “secular like ice cream…” which I don’t quite understand. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know!
Bye for now!
2 comments:
I've read Life of Pi. What was the context of that line?
Hey, Rae!
I just re-discovered your blog and am pleasantly surprised that it is well-updated more than once weekly! (None of my half-baked attempts at blogs turn out as well as yours.) You're in my prayers... and what's so secular about ice cream? I also would like to know the context.
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