The guys find it shocking that I don’t count the amount of days that I have fasted. At this point I know it is somewhere around 25 days, but I don’t count the days as they pass by. It is not beneficial to me. I know that when my alarm goes off at 3:30 in the morning I need to get up, prepare my breakfast and go back to bed. I know it helps to not think of food or water throughout the day, if I can avoid it.
I know when I break fast at the end of the day my stomach appreciates it if I eat fruit first, then prepare my meal and then eat something more substantial.
Now, being an American I can’t get the whole day without food or water without thinking of foods I would love to eat. There are many downsides to this, as you can imagine. I think the biggest downfall to it for me so far is I think of American food I would love to eat, but won’t have access to for the foreseeable future. What I really want is to walk through the grocery store dropping everything bad for you into my cart, Poptarts, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Captain Crunch Crunch Berries, ingredients for Puppy Chow, bags of candy. To stop on the way home, pick up Chinese, then pizza. Afterwards run to Dairy Queen and get maybe a Hot Fudge Sundae, or maybe get a Turtle Sundae at Culvers. If I go to Culvers, or Red Robin, or anywhere they’re sold I need cheese curds or mozzarella sticks. Don’t forget about the cheeseburger, that is also important and needed. It’s a sick fantasy that gets me nowhere. The only “fast food” you can find near me without going to Tamale is rice. As I’ve already said, it’s best if I don’t think of food.
With having one week of fasting left it makes counting days seem sillier. I know that when the moon is not there at night, the next day the fasting is over and we will have the Sallah Celebration. I know that Jochem and I fully intent to going all out on a Western meal when we are able to. Along with this, I look forward to the day I go to Tamale or market and can eat again. Until that happens though, I immerse my thoughts into my day and how lucky I am to be in Northern Ghana and in my village. Despite my fantasies of grocery stores with every kind of fruit I could want, there honestly isn’t any other place I would want to be. I wanted to join the Peace Corps for so long, and my application process was so long I can’t help but be thankful for this place I have ended up in. So, unlike the others around me, I don’t count my days but I count my friends and the number of ways that I am lucky for the life I live. This helps me get through 14 hours of not eating or drinking, but still being as active as possible. This helps me remember that although I may have a bad moment, it’s worth it. Something amazing happens when you take a step back from your life to evaluate what you have, don’t think about what you don’t. It doesn’t do any good to think of what you don’t have, it only makes you lose perspective on what you do have. I look forward to the end of fasting, the same as everyone around me, but I hope I maintain my perspective. That is one benefit that I could not have anticipated when I swore to participate in this religious event.
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