NOTE: This entry has been updated, the new section is written in purple. There are some minor changes throughout, but the purple part is the important one.
29 days of solidarity, of giving, of faith, of sacrifice, of fatigue, of thirst, of hunger, 29 days of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is the month during which the Muslim world fasts each day, from about 6:00 AM until 7:30 PM. The fast is a display of solidarity. The elimination of food and water during the day allows those who are blessed enough to have these comforts to know the hunger of others. The fast includes extraordinary giving tendencies and extends past the basics of food and water, into the realms of everyday pleasures like playing sports, listening to music, watching movies, and even enjoying the company of the opposite sex. The degree to which these are restricted depends on the person who is fasting. Some people abstain from going to the beach for fear of seeing provocative bathing suits, while others dive into the water, openly accepting the risk of a few drops entering the mouth, breaking the fast.
For 29 days, we awakened at 5:00 AM, groggily ate, in a sleepy silence, a breakfast of bread and chocolate spread, tea or coffee, and maybe a hardboiled egg, and slept for a few short hours before starting the day. As the walk to and from school became more and more exhausting each day, it also became gradually longer, and taking a cab became more frequent than usual. The air conditioned classroom of the WARC became a more welcomed work place and the hours of dusk became the most anticipated time of day. Most days were easy enough - to silence a growling stomach one must simply remember that there would be food in it in a few short hours, much more comforting than hunger without a known meal time - but there were a few poignantly difficult days, which consisted of hours of lying down and sleeping as much as possible.
The hunger and thirst in themselves were a unique experience. Although I wasn't actually starving, it made the reality that some people do deal with a constant feeling of emptiness in their stomachs much more realistic and understandable. As for solidarity, I can't say that I have experienced it more than during these 29 days. Solidarity is, according to the third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, "A union of interests, purposes, or sympathies among members of a group." This was evident in my family's appreciation and encouragement and in the reactions of others to the fact that I was fasting. My fasting with my family and friends surprised and was appreciated by all who discovered it. It irrefutably created a union of interests, purposes, and sympathies among me and the Muslim community. Once someone who was fasting learned that I, too, was fasting, there was immediately a sense of appreciation and of common purpose.
For 29 days, we broke fast around 7:30 PM, breaking with a date or two and then a small piece of bread with butter and a cup of tea or coffee. Although this was the relief from the long day of hunger and thirst, it may have been the hardest, because to retain an appetite for dinner, the breaking must be restricted to a small amount of bread and water. Dinner, usually about an hour or two after breaking fast, was always delicious and followed by various snacks and desserts, teas and juices.
With the nightly meals came newfound bursts of energy, accompanied by a general mood of happiness and community, which were exemplified during the nightly power outages, when everyone congregated outside to talk, dance, and joke around - a somewhat ironic result of the power outages, which tend to cause strikes and demonstrations on a somewhat regular basis. These nightly jamborees would serve as a preview to the celebration marking the end of Ramadan, La Korité.
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