Thursday, August 4, 2011

Ramadan: Trials of Hunger and Thirst

So as promised to myself I decided to fast for Ramadan this year. The holiday started 3 days ago, at midnight on Monday. The fast involves not eating during daylight hours, so all eating must take place before sunrise (4:30 AM) and then no eating or drinking until sunset (7:30 PM) 15 hours total.

The first day was the hardest, and the days have very gradually been getting better. I decided to spend my first day with my host family. I pretty much just laid around my host aunt's apartment all day and tried to read to keep my mind off of how thirsty I was. Once the time hit 4 o'clock I felt like I was dying, all I could think of was water. This is one of the reasons that I decided to spend the day with Moroccans, so I'd be less tempted to cave in and just drink water. My host mom and cousin kept on telling me that the first day is always really hard. By the last hour and a half people had generally stopped talking and were just sitting around waiting for the call to prayer at 7:30 that signals its time to break fast. Sometime during the last hour my host mom went outside and came back saying that people outside were crabby because of how tired and thirsty you get by the end of the day. When we finally broke fast, since I am not accustomed to fasting, I quickly stuffed my face with food and water and within two minutes I had the worst stomach splitting cramps from eating to fast. Everyone told me to slow down and that you have to ease you way into eating again. So I kept slowly eating and drinking for the next hour until I couldn't eat anymore.

Breaking fast in Morocco traditionally involves dates (the first thing you put in your mouth), water, harira (soup which can be "red harira" tomato based with lentils, chickpeas, barley, cilantro, and egg or "white harira" which is a milk based broth with barley and spices, usually cumin), and shabakia which is a type of oily, honey soaked cookie that has sesame seeds on it. Other things that I've had for the leftour (breakfast) meal have been hard boiled eggs, bughrir and millwie (both a type of pancake thing), leben (a kind of yogurt/buttermilk), fresh fruit juice (one night I had cucumber and orange, and tonight i had carrot, orange and banana), fruit like watermelon, grapes or fresh figs, and sugary popcorn. The meal is usually finished with coffee and tea.

This meal is prepared by all the women on the household for several hours before the call to prayer. Each day that I've broken fast I've hung out with the women in the kitchen while they are finishing up the food prep, and even after hours of not eating and being around so much food that you cant eat yet, the hunger hasn't been a problem, the thirst has been the hardest part.

After "leftor", the breaking fast meal, typically Moroccans stay up and eat a heavy dinner meal, like a tajine, and then either take a nap or stay up until 4am to have the last meal, another breakfast, before the sun comes up. I've been skipping invites to dinner because I'm so full from breaking fast and I've been cooking my own breakfasts of eggs and a sort of fruit and yogurt parfait. And of course chugging as much water as I can fit in my system before I go to sleep.

So far I've broken fast with three different families in my community, my host family, my friend Esma's family and the family of two girls that I am bringing to summer camp with me. Each experience has been somewhat different in terms of the food that we break fast with (minus the mandatory dates, harira and cookies). But all have been the same in nature, I arrive an hour or two before its time to break fast, (the second two days of fasting I've pretty much just laid around my apartment watching movies trying to ward of feelings of hunger and thirst until around 5:30 when I go to the house where I will be having leftor). I hang out while the food is prepared, then help bring the food to the eating area, and then we all sit around staring at a table of food waiting until we hear Allahu Akbar from the mosque, say Bismila and dig in.

Each day fasting is somewhat easier. The hunger and thirst pains aren't as intense and the after break fast food comatose isn't as painful. However, I and all Moroccans agree that Ramadan is "werera" extremely difficult. Tomorrow I leave to go work at a summer camp in El Jadida. I plan to continue fasting but we shall see how it goes.