Ramadan

The holy month of Ramadan started on Friday, August 21st at sundown. Until the next new moon Muslims will be fasting during the day. We get up every morning at 5 am and eat a quiet breakfast of beans, bread, leftover rice and tea. Breakfast stops when the morning prayer starts. Then everyone goes back to bed for three or four more hours.
The rest of the day passes pretty slowly. People are supposed to continue work as usual, but by 2:00 everyone is pretty tired. Not eating or drinking puts a strain on people. So the afternoon is usually spent napping, chatting and generally not moving. I’ve been reading a lot of books in my hut.
Every day or two the rains come, and I sit with Pondo and watch the rain fall. (My poor beans grew but got beat down by the heavy rain we had!)
Around 5:00pm the cooking starts. Delicious smells waft through the air, and I notice how hungry and thirsty I am.
Finally, at 7:20 it is time to break the fast! After the sundown prayer we break fast with tea, beans, rice, churro, and water.
Everyone will have another meal around 9:00, but I’m full for the rest of the day.
After dinner people stay up late and snack until 1 or 2 am! They’ll be up at 5:00 the next morning to start the again.