Ramadan Kareem

---

Ramadan has begun, the month of daylight fasting and nighttime feasting. Many of the shops and private apartments have Ramadan lanterns and flashing strings of lights. As non-Muslims, we are not expected to fast, but politeness dictates avoiding eating, drinking or smoking in public. We watched a Dubai news bulletin saying the Government there was stepping in to curb deliberate food price hikes during the month. Erin wasn't impressed by the drummer that comes around at 2.30am to wake people to eat before morning prayers.

Our days are pretty much routine. We used to stop at the falafel shop most mornings and buy our lunch to take to work, but it being Ramadan restaurants are closed during the day so we are having to make it the night before and buy any ingredients in the evenings. After work, we usually rest or watch TV until dinner. We enjoy watching Arabic cooking shows. I find its a good way to improve my Arabic as we can see what they are doing and hear them explain it in Arabic. I also enjoy soap operas from Arab countries like Syria and Kuwait. Not only is it good for learning Arabic, especially the differing accents, but I enjoy seeing how they live and the various issues that concern them in their daily lives. However, I try to keep in mind that these are probably not typical families and problems, just like how not everyone in NZ lives like a character off Shortland St. American movies and TV programs also feature on TV here and I have to say I cringe when I see some of the programs that screen and the false impressions people in the Arab world must get from these programs. For example, take programs like Friends where unmarried people have children amidst on and off again relationships, and movies where the name Jesus Christ (a highly revered prophet to Muslims) is used as a swear word in a country that is nominally Christian. It's like washing dirty linen in public, and what people in the West don't realise is that although we don't know much about how Arab people live and what they value, they watch our television shows and draw conclusions from that. Since they equate the West with Christianity, it might explain the contempt some people in this part of the world have for Christians, even local ones.

We have almost finished building the steel fence sections and have started erecting them in place on top of the brick wall. The resident construction team took holidays when their own work dried up and we arranged for them to be employed helping us. It is interesting trying to explain what we need done in my broken Arabic and the engineer in charge of the project speaks English only a little better than my Arabic, but fortunately the Egyptians we work with, like most Egyptians, are clever people who always find innovative ways of doing things. One of them is Muslim, and on the first Friday of Ramadan we suggested that later that night we bring some food to the hospital and break the fast together. On the way, we stopped at the market and bought a "goza", this is a simple water pipe made out of a glass jar. In the middle of town it was quite chaotic, most shops were closed as people had gone home for "breakfast" and cafes and restaurants had all their tables and chairs out with people sitting down waiting to break the fast together. Ramadan is a time for charity to the poor, who are provided with meals, however several of them having seen me tugged at my sleeves aggressively and demanded one pound. We normally make a point of giving our spare change to beggars but draw the line when they are rude or aggressive. It was nice being at the hospital in the evening just chatting to the guys and they seemed to enjoy the extra company. To our surprise, the construction on the building across the road continued well into the night, the workers obviously taking advantage of the evening coolness.

In the middle of August we went to Cairo for the weekend to farewell some other workers who were going back home. We didn't do much but it was nice being able to have Chinese food and pizza. Staying at the Guesthouse we were away from any loud mosque, but the noisy Cairo traffic more than made up for that. It was a relief coming "home" to Sadat and we will be sorry to leave.

---

Photos

Sadat
Girgis, Adel and Erin after a hot day in the sun

Sadat
One of the date trees between the hospital and the bank.

Sadat
First two sections are up! Only 33 left to go!

Sadat
Giant Egyptian cabbages being sold at the Friday market

Sadat
The chaos of the Vege Market on a Friday. The market proper is inside the building, but on weekends it overflows onto the street and adjacent empty lot. Actually, any day of the week there is a traffic jam down here.

Guesthouse
Erin, Chris and Helbees, shortly before Chris' return to the States

Comments

[sharon]

haha. you just texted me about berin munchausen