Ramadan

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Last night as I was doing my hw I heard three consecutive explosions outside, and immediately everyone in the city started cheering - it was the official announcement of the start of Ramadan. It is based on the moon phase, so it is announced when the moon appears. We luckily got a lecture about Islam, so we are not totally clueless. They pray 5 times a day, facing Mecca. You can pray anywhere, and the times are flexible, but you are supposed to pray 5 times a day. Men are allowed to pray in the mosques, and are supposed to do so if they are near one, and required to go to a mosque on Friday. Women are allowed to enter some mosques in a partitioned area, but most just pray at home. During Ramadan everyone over the age of 12 (puberty) fasts during the day, and feasts during the night. Most families will wake up multiple times to eat. You are also not allowed to bathe, swim or drink anything during the daylight hours. It must be really hard to keep that up for a month. Oh, FYI, i am not fasting. Also, you are not allowed to fast if you are menstruating or pregnant, and are supposed to make it up at some other time or pay a fine of money to the poor to make up for the fasting that you missed.

Speaking of food, the food here is so much better than in Kizimkazi. We have been eating lots of fish, and rice and beans and such. Few veggies and I miss that. We get pineapple and watermelon a lot though. For breakfast my family makes me hardboiled eggs and bread and tea, lunch is at the SIT office (our base/classroom/library) and is cooked by a local guy. Today we had rice with lentils, fish, a bean/eggplant mush, and oranges. Good food. We are only drinking bottled water, tea and coffee for the most part. You can buy sodas and juice though. Last night for dinner I had a whole fish (about 5 inches long, not much meat and it kinda made me sick to think about dissecting it to eat what meat was on it...), a cooked vegetable salad, papaya, tea, and some fried crepe-like things and some fried whole shrimp. Here you eat the whole body...legs, shell and all, just not the very tip of the tail and the head. They eyes kinda freaked me out while eating them, but they were good. That is one problem with the food here, everything is fried and cooked with tons of oil and plain white flour. Basically high fat, no grains of any kind. I am really craving oatmeal. Usually most people actually gain weight when they study in Africa (something that I am trying to avoid.)

Yesterday we spent the whole day on a field trip with professors from the Institute of Marine Sciences. We took a bus to the north end of the island to visit a seaweed farm. So cool!!! We hiked up our skirts (showed lots of indecent knee and thigh!) and trekked out into the water. They grow seaweed for carogeenen (a thickening agent that is in everything from cosmetics to ice cream...just look at the ingredients!). Women do all the farming, and make about $1.50 per dry kilogram of seaweed. DRY. That is so little, but it is a great way for them to gain economic independence. Very interesting aspect of the local economy. Another interesting aspect is that the seaweed carogeenen sales are all (at least here) run by the mafia...like the Italian mafia. Crazy! We also went to a boat building place, a turtle sanctuary, and a fish market. Then it was back to Stone Town for two hours of Swahili class! It was so so tired when we got back.

Last night I was doing homework with my iPOD in my ears, and my two brothers wanted to listen. They thought that was the coolest thing! My little bro Chidi was rocking out to 50 Cent (I did not even know I had rap on my iPOD!) with it so loud I could hear it across the room! I made him turn it down! He is adorable.

During the last month of the program, we are all separated to work on independent study projects. Basically a thesis research project that we do in the field. I was originally going to look at sea turtle conservation, but I have decided to go back to my origional-origional plan of surveying corals like the Seychelles. I really wanted to be in the water for that last month, and turtles were not going to let me do that.

Homework has been taking me all my spare time. I get home after class ends at 6, then work on hw till dinner at 7:30ish, then after dinner when I crash into bed at around 9:30 or 10. I have been working on Swahili, and last night I wrote my first essay...my 17 year old brother/cousin? checked it...4 mistakes! Horray! I was so proud. I have an exam next Friday and I am not feeling prepared at all yet. I have a weekend to study though.

Hope you are enjoying every moment of your day!

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