Ramadan and my Mexican Iftar

The holy month of Ramadan began last week. Ramadan is a month long holiday for Muslims all over the world where they fast during all the daylight hours. It is very interesting to observe here because while stores here I believe already have odd opening hours, no one really opens before 10, during Ramadan stores open later and stay open later but they have between a 3 and 5 hour gap where they are closed for iftar, or the meal which breaks the fast each night. Iftar occurs at 6:00pm and before it, a prayer is said. Before I get into my story I would like to say just a few things about what I've observed around town during Ramadan. Muslims are required to give so much money per day to the poor during Ramadan, at first I thought that was a little strange to give so much each day and then I realized that it is actually very similar to the LDS idea of fasting and fast offerings. But because of this requirement, the "poor" have definately sprung up. There have always been beggers and poor people around, but it seems that during Ramadan, they triple.

The women at the iftar told me that people send their kids out all the time to beg, and that is their livlihood because it works, and they aren't starving by anymean. But that during Ramadan more and more do it just for some extra money. Also here the garbage system is terrible and there is dust blowing in constantly so they have these street sweepers who I hear make nothing. So one would think they'd be a safe bet for your Ramadan charity, NO! Apparently according to the Muslim sisters at the iftar I attended, the clothes worn by the street sweepers can be rented and the amount of people "sweeping the street" increases 10 fold during Ramadan. I say "sweeping the street" because honestly I don't see a whole lot of them actually sweeping, more often I see them sitting on the side of the road dazed off, or sleeping on a mat on the side of the street with their trash can and their broom right next to them.

But the idea of sleeping outside on a mat isn't uncommon here, especially during Ramadan when it is traditional for people to fast all day and party all night beginning with iftar. I am not saying that it is done by everyone but I am saying that it is done often enough! So I walk down the street with all the shops and I see men laying outside on their prayer mats sleeping instead of watching inside their shops! Of course if you go inside, they wake up and come bother you to buy something or are grumpy you woke them up. Yesterday i was walking home and on our street there was a man with his donkey and his cart (which they have to push their finds from the trash into I'll go into that in another blog) his donkey was standing there and the man was sleeping on the cart, like out cold. I wish I would have had a camera, I never know what is appropriate to take a picture of and that would have been an opportunity because he wouldn't even have know.

Anyways, on to Mexican iftar. Those of you who know me well will know my love of books. I LOVE to read. So one of the first stores that we stumbled across here in Maadi was a used bookstore. We happened to go in when the owners were there too. Two extremely nice women, one from Georgia and one from Iceland who had converted to Muslim. Well anyways we've been back quite a few times and one of the last times I was there I mentioned to Mandy from Georgia that I really miss Tex-Mex and Mexican food, being from the south herself I knew she'd understand. She totally did and in fact she said that her and her study group were having a Mexican Iftar after a study session on Sunday and would I like to come, I was certainly welcome to.

So I did and it was just so amazing, one of those experiences that I learned about their culture in such a short time and I also explained ours a bit. The women get together (they try for weekly) to put on these study groups where they discuss and study the Quran, or the Muslim Holy Book. They talked about why we are here on Earth and I found it more interesting than I would have at first thought, because many of their ideas are the same as our own in the LDS church. They believe that men are here to, by their own free will, learn about God, to better understand him and his divine qualities and to become like him by also showing and developing his qualities. Interesting isn't it? Well, then the women all put their robes (I don't know what they are called but the clothes that fully cover your normal clothes and the head dress) back on and prayed and we ate.

The differnt women there were just amazing some from the states, some from iceland, some from egypt, from all over really and their study was held in english since many of them don't speak any arabic at all. And while we ate we discussed so many things. A lot of them were very curious about our church and I feel like I had such an opportunity to even be able to say what I said to them, they wanted to know more so I told them that we'd have to get together later with less people to discuss it. But I did talk about how we believe that there is a modern day prophet who leads our church, and I talked a bit about Joseph Smith because I was asked about him. Actually when I said our prophet is still alive someone who knew something about Mormons asked me incredulously if Joseph Smith was still alive! Of course not. We talked about plural marriage because they have it in their culture and religion, in fact they said their are women in the study group whose husbands have more that one wife but they weren't there then.

I am planning on attending the one next week too, the sisters are really very nice and definitely fun to be around, although I am the youngest one there probably by at least 8 years. They were all shocked that I am only 20 and remarked how mature I am and how well I carried myself and was sure of myself etc. I was very proud because usually people go on my appearance and always think that I'm so young! But pride is not a quality strived for during Ramadan, so I shall put away my pride. Joe and I are trying to also come closer to God during this time. Become more Christlike!