Ive been brewing about talking about Ramadan for a long while now but because of the family drama that has been going on here in dubai and i couldn’t sit down and ponder on it. Anyway, now i can. First, my cousin had an accident here. Yup. Real life greys anatomy accident. I even saw him in the emergency room all bloodied and weak.
Well, now he’s fine and recovering so no worries. That happened on the first day of Ramadan here.
What is Ramadan? For those of you who don’t know, (i didn’t until i came here). Muslims have this Holy Month of Ramadan during sept. Its a Day-fasting ritual where they fast starting 4:30am til 6:00pm. And fasting means no-eating AND no-drinking! For over 12 hours straight! Hard to believe? Anyway, so, thats how it goes. to respect the said period, restaurants aren’t open until 6:00pm. Some are open but you can only order to-go. Supermarkets are open no worries. Since dubai’s an open city... they wouldnt let all the non-muslim expats starve to death. So we can still buy food and drinks, but we’d have to eat them inside. Behind closed doors if you will.
Wikipedia said the purpose of Ramadan is ---“Fasting is meant to teach the person patience, sacrifice and humility. Ramadan is a time to fast for the sake of God, and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramadan Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance into the future, ask for help in refraining from everyday evils and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds.”
But when IFTAAR comes(that’s 6:00pm onwards) It’s FOOD galore!! There’s so many food related promos! Dubai suddenly comes alive! All the arabs are suddenly rejuvenated and eat a TAD, no a TON too much! They eat until their bellies are overly bloated! They eat the whole night! if they could even eat the plates, i bet they would! haha! And when daytime comes.. they sleep until the afternoon and wait for IFTAAR again! Now that’s hard to believe! So much for being holy!! That;s what the insanely rich locals do here. Eat so much at night and sleep all day(coz they don’t even need to work)! They’ve totally created a work-around for the said fasting-period! Its fasting at day and feasting at night!
They have to pray first before eating during iftaar. During Ramadan, there are lots of Ramadan Tents put up everywhere, in the mall on the streets. So that the muslim could pray anywhere anytime. And the government gives out free food for Iftaar.
So how does this affect us? Aside from the closed restaurants? Well, our work hours are shorter. This is respect to the muslims who are working and who are really fasting. We only have to work halfday for the whole month of Ramadan!bwahhahah! that was super fun for me! Hahaha and I;m going to miss that, coz ramadan’s about to end! Imagine that! Halfday for a whole month!! And we don’t even need to fast! Har har har. Next Week, EID is coming up. EID signifies the end of Ramadan! Its a 3 day holiday! Which, totally works for us! Seriously though, try reading up on Kite Runner and A thousand splendid suns. Fantastic books! Definitely in my top 10 fave books of all time. Gives you a sneak peek of the muslim culture. My top book is STILL The Time Traveler’s wife! The top ten is still in works, i haven’t read that many books to create a worthy top ten.
Another good thing is the EID sale! Electronics sale, designer stuff sale.. and the best of all food sale! You can get a kilo of salmon for only 39 dirhams! OMG!! Haha
On the 3 day holiday, we’re planning to go swimming! And go to an island and go crabbing and camp out! Excited but much! Hehe
On to the story, so since Ramadan started, and i had more time on my hands, i decided to take up driving lessons after work. You see, here to get license, you need to take up driving lessons first, then take the license exam. If you already have a license in the Philippines, you only need to take 20 classes. If you’re a beginner you’d need to take 40 classes! Talk about tedious!
I started, and was super thrilled that it was a kabayan that will mentor me that day! Well i regretted that thought 2 seconds after i rode the car! First off she was a bitch. Okay, im kind of tired of typing. And im sleepy. So thats it. i don’t know if i want to detail the driving lessons incident. It wasn’t a happy event for me. I shoulduv ended this blog with EID.
No work for 3 days! Woohoo! Cheers!
