Preparing to “Ramadan”

With less than a week ‘til the fasting I am anxiously awaiting to see how the month will unfold. I am eager to participate in the religious event, although I know it will be a lot harder than I am imagining it to be. But when else will I have such an opportunity to participate? I have never done such a thing, go from sun up til sun down without taking anything food or water. I am thankful this religious event does not occur during the hot season. If it did I don’t think I would be physically capable of participating.

Being who I am, I am taking it up as a personal challenge to see how long into Ramadan I can fast. I fear I will get a lot of pressure early on to break the fast. On the other hand, my counterpart is excited I will be participating. He sees this as the opportunity for me to convert to Islam. Either way, I will decide when I stop. I think it would be something great if I were able to go all 30 or so days without cheating or breaking fast.

It’s hard to imagine going from sun up ‘til sun down without taking food or drink of any kind, but that is what I’ll be doing. Some of the guys in the village like to say it won’t be a problem for me, they don’t believe that I eat anyway. Which from what they generally see of me, is an understandable thought. I do as my old roommate says, I eat like a rabbit. Plus, in the village I can only take so much of my rice when ever few bites I chomp into a rock. For the sake of my teeth, I hardly eat in the village.

I keep asking guys different rules according to Islam. My counterpart Mohammed was saying that women breakfast around 7pm where men have to wait until 9pm. I thoroughly did not believe him, and instead asked Mohammed AKA Assembly who said that depending on the weather people either break fast at 6 pm or 6:15 pm. I have also been told you take breakfast at 4:30am and need to be done by somewhere 5:15am. According to Assembly you take breakfast between 3am and 4am and need to be done by 4:30 am in time for the Fajir prayer. I hear different accounts, some I believe over others, some I’m not so sure about.