Ramadan ... getting used to it

I guess it's been more than a week since Ramadan has started, and just before it, the time has changed - meaning that 7 o'clock became 6 o'clock. The whole reasoning behind this is that Ramadan is a time of fasting, from early morning untill the evening when the sun sets; so they turned the clocks just to make the fasting period shorter.

To give a brief overview on Ramadan i will say that it is a time of fasting for God and a time of prayer; there are about 5 calls to prayer every single day and al the mosques have speakers, so everywhere you are you can hear them - especially the 5 am ones (they always wake me up!).

So, Egyptians fast all day and supposedly pray more - which they do - i've seen them praying and in a way i admire their dedication to this. Once the sun sets, they all go and eat - they call that "iftar". The funny thing is that at that time there are no cars on the street, no shops open .. absolutely quiet; imagine a big and crowded city like Cairo being in silence. Me and Nichole went out for a short walk towards the Grand Mall last week and it was so peaceful!!

Well, once they start to eat they don't stop until next morning - they have a lot of food - it's more like a celebration! People go out and most of the shops reopen after "iftar" and remain open for pretty much a big part of the evening. I think Ramadan is a little bit like our Christian Christmas. They have nice decorations, especially some sort of fabric in bright colours and their Ramadan lamps, which they sell everywhere!

Ramadan is also a time of helping others and doing good deeds - foreginers are usually expected to give bigger tips or to give more to the poor, or to pay the boab more money - but honestly i avent been doing any of that - first of all because we dont have a building, secondly i don't feel in my heart that i should give, because most of the people on the streets are part of a 'begging network' and if i give them money, it will all go to somebody else.

Well, Egyptians are pretty good during Ramadan and they do care for the poor - they set up some kind of tents in different parts of the city for poor people where they can come and eat (food being provided).

From everything i heard before with respect to Ramadan i had a very nasty feeling, thinking: "oh my God, this is going to be terrible!!" Well, it is not that bad! The only thing is that they close shops earlier (around 5 o'clock) until 8 or 8:30, so you rpetty much need to be very organised and make sure you do your shopping before that time, or go to places earlier. Me and Nichole had to get some groceries and by the time we were out of the supermarket, everybody went home for "iftar" so, we had a hard time finding a taxi.

The weirdest thing that happened to us so far during Ramadan was that one afternoon, after school, we decided to go and eat out; so we went to this nice place on Road 9. We ended up sitting outside, as it was quite nice - not too hot and just enjoyable. Well, it turned out to be a bad choice as we had an old Egyptian woman passing our table a few times and probably cursing us in Arabic, as we are not suppose to eat, but fast. The waiter had to chase her away every tiem she came and starting "talking" to us; at one point i turned and i told her: "yes, i know it is Ramadan and we are not suppose to eat, but ... we almost finished now!". I am sure she did not understand a word of that, but in the end, it was our mistake - not being sensible to the culture. Next time we'll know to sit inside!