The above shows how little - sometimes - Ramadan has to do with your day other than that it has stopped me on numerous occasions from calling people names under my breath (or above) in traffic. I suffer from road rage you see - even on my bike - so this little feat is a bit of a miracle really.
No - it is not easy this year. The lack of food is not the issue so much as it is the little time in which to try and eat a nutritional meal. Pre-Ramadan I would stop eating after 7pm at night - just because it makes sleeping a more pleasant experience. So obviously having to eat a meal at 9.30pm is a bit of a change and my stomach and sleep do not like me very much anymore. All good though - its just for a month I keep telling them, and I am not voluntarily inflicting a McDonalds diet on them so be nice! I want to say its the fasting that has me talking to my organs as though they were humans but I would be lying and I am so trying to refrain from fibbing this holy month.
Other than the fasting, praying and not fibbing I have not been up to much holy the past 3 days - unless power drilling and visiting car dumps have accrued new meaning in the last few days. If we wish to fetch rather far my power drilling was an act of holy intentions - I fed my sister. That's right. I drilled the holes that hold the plank that carries the oven that bakes the pizza. Ta-da!
Otherwise I had a highly intellectual conversation with my niece about the demise of Dutch politics. She concurred that it did not matter much how the cabinet will take form because it was certain it would collapse before Christmas (Eid el Adha if you will..) anyway. I also taught her how to growl like a tiger. Did I mention my niece is 3 months old? She's quite gifted in the art of imitation and kicking rubber ducky in da tub....rub a dub dub?
Yeah - not much Ramadan-ingly events this weekend. I signed up to cook an iftar meal for a bunch of strangers as a way of showing non-Muslims what Ramadan is all about. The idea is that they would have a meal with a family. I suppose I will have to represent the nuclear family unit all on my own. Can't wait!
Come to think of it I suppose it makes sense - Ramadan does either one of two things to families: bring them closer or ensure complete polarisation. The sensation is very different when you break your fast with family as opposed to home alone with your single serving tray watching re-runs of CSI. Don't get me wrong, I love CSI's unfathomable ways of randomly finding crucial clues in everyone's spit. Somehow it just doesn't beat the eager scooping of food, the tired mastication of day old bread and the underlying tension of unresolved family issues. Yes those wonderful commercials on Arab TV with large families of 3 generations gathered around the table all smiling, laughing and patting each other on the back don't quite capture the reality of it all. Instead picture family members moments before sunset circling the dinner table like starved vultures eying up the biggest chicken leg. At this point no one is talking - they are preserving energy for that chicken leg. As soon as the canon fires signaling sunset the beast is unleashed and everyone scoffs down some dates with milk and scurries off to pray in 5 or 6 separate corners all facing the same direction. A slow trickle of pawns return to the kitchen with the usual cousin/daughter/youngest staring at the oven while it heats up bread/the previous night's meal or just for the heck of staring at something. Soon everyone is seated around the table silently passing plates and wondering where that chicken leg went. Occasionally a senior member will look up from the paper to signal absolute disgust at the state of affairs in the country and throw bone at the nearest contender. Try turning that into a marketable commercial.
In any case, I am sure I will represent the 'family' just fine.
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