Ramadan

Ramadan is a holy time in the Muslim calendar. I must confess that I know very little about Ramadan but I will do my best to share my perceptions and surmises. Ramadan occurs ever year but not at the same time. This year it started during the last week of August with the sighting of the first crescent moon and ends the last week of september with the next crescent moon. Next year it will start at the end of July , the year after June... At the end of Ramadan we have Eid (all the expats at the school head out on trips and school is closed for a week).


Ramadan is a time of denial, it reminds me of lent, but the guidelines are rigorous, universally observed and quite challenging. During Ramadan all Muslims fast. The fasts include all food and liquids including water. The fast begins at sunrise and lasts until sunset.Families get up before sunrise to chow down and hydrate. For kids that can be super tough at school when the temperature is 40+ and they're outside during their breaks. Lenore regularly sees kids with hydration issues around midday. She has to call home first before giving any water!
All restaurants and coffee shops observe Ramadan, you can't even buy a Dunkin' donut or a Big Mac until after 5:56pm (tonight).This is observed all month long. The flip side of that is that restaurants stay open until mid night or later. Some kids come to school really tired... nuf said.



One rule I've learned during Ramadan is "never drive betwen 4:30 and 6:00pm". The local men who are already not the most easy going of divers are now behind the wheel, hypoglycemic/cranky and can't get home fast enough! It's actually somewhat dangerous.
Ex pats are also encouraged not to be seen eating and drinking, therfore, no coffee, no water, no gum ... zip. Students need to go to their locker to get a drink of water, teachers can step into the hallway and descretely take a sip of water. While playing hockey at the mall on Friday we were all told to watch our fluid intake, be discrete.
Something I love about the whole experience is the call to prayer. Every evening mulahs climb the minerettes next to the mosques and sing. The singing repeats when the prayer is over. From my roof there are 6-7 towers. You can hear the different chants over lapping, its beautiful. For me its been the quintessential Mideast experience. All the photos of the minerrettes in the blog were taken from my roof without a 35mm camera. There many mosques in Doha. In this country anyone anywhere in the city must be able to hear the call to prayer.