I’ve started drinking coffee irresponsibly ( like 4 cups at a time). I can’t seem to only drink one cup (like I should). I’ve never been much of a coffee drinker (save for the year where I worked at an elementary school. But I mostly blame that on Pam!) I usually save coffee for emergency situations, where I really have something important to do and no energy. Maybe Ramadan qualifies?
Here is the deal with Ramadan. I’m not Muslim, but everyone else in the Kingdom of Morocco is. Even if you don’t want to fast, you better buckle up, because you WILL have to adapt to Ramadan in basically every other way.
It started on August 2nd. I was at camp along with 15 other Peace Corps Volunteers, 80 Moroccan Youth and probably 20 Moroccan staff members. About 10 of the PCVs were fasting along with myself.
Ramadan isn’t a true fast. You just don’t eat or drink during daylight hours. You eat your first meal of the day or Lftur (break fast) around 7-7:30pm as the sun starts to go down. You eat dinner around 1 or 2 am, and then sometimes another small meal right before the sun starts coming up at around 4am.
The first few days of fasting all the PCVs I was around overdid it. Stuffing ourselves at Lftur so that we literally all felt sick. Food just tastes really good! Traditional Lftur consists of Harira (soup with chickpeas, tomato based broth, cilantro, celery, salt, pepper, noodles, etc.) spakiya ( a fried dough with honey and sesame seeds) dates, hard boiled eggs, juice, coffee, mint tea, bread, cheese, jam etc. Here is a picture of the break fast meal at my first host families house near Fes.
Everyone did really well the first few days of Ramadan at camp. There were some headaches, and muscle cramping but it was alright. Then around day 4 or so, literally like 6 people got really really sick, and most of those wound up going to Rabat to see the doctors. The combination of fasting and working at camp didn’t go over so well for a lot of us.
After camp I went to Rabat for a few days, then to my CBT site to see my awesome first family. I brought my brother and sister some gifts (for the holiday) and stayed there for 3 days. My host family is SO AWESOME! They gave me their only fan so that I could sleep, and they were so proud of me for fasting. They asked if I would fast the whole time and I told them I would probably start drinking water once I returned to the Christmas Village, and they were very supportive.
I love my family a lot. We made a special pit stop just so I could see these puppies. My family knows I love animals because of the whole… “No I can’t watch you slaughter the sheep because I will cry” conversation.
They are actually going to get a new volunteer! I”m so excited! Whoever they are I hope they are awesome and that they appreciate the AWESOME family they are getting placed with. Hi new volunteer! I’m coming to visit when you get to Ras Lma!
After seeing the family I needed to kill another day or two before I was scheduled to work at an orphanage( which got cancelled anyway) so I met up with my dearest friend Jo. We stayed at a hotel right in between Bab Boujeloud and a mosque that does the most epic calls to prayer I have every heard. The Imam is very spirited and I applaud him for his efforts! 
It was actually really hot in Fes but Jo and I braved the medina anyway. It’s a world heritage site, after all. I don’t really know what that means, but I think to qualify you have to be really cool, old and there might be a caveat about camel heads. Not sure.
I’ve been back in site for a while now, and I’ve been cleaning a lot, using a lot of fan power, taking cold showers, and planning things out for when the working season is back upon us.
I miss America, and it’s still hard to be back. But I want to be here! I’m going to Rabat in a few days for warden training ( there are wardens for every Peace Corps region and we help if there is a consolidation for security reasons) While I’m there I will turn in my travel paperwork for my upcoming trip to Germany! Oktoberfest or bust, baby!
I”m thinking about having a birthday party in Marrakech on Sept 21st. Or maybe the 20th in Ouarzazate? Time will tell.
All that prayer must be the only way to survive life, including fasting, in Morocco. Maybe you could have the call to prayer as your ringtone when you come home. Inshallah!
I’ll have to record a really good one. People in America would be very confusing by that sort of ringtone I think. I bet theres an app on the Iphone to have the call to prayer played at appropriate times.
Miss you Mom! Happy (almost) Birthday!
Invite me to that birthday party…will it have a Moroccon or German theme.
Combo theme for sure! I’m so excited for Oktoberfest! That’s going to be a crazy blog entry for sure
Hey you, don’t blame that coffee on me! That was all Shane! Glad to hear you are doing well.y assistant is also fasting. Seems crazy to have no water.
Haha, You are totally right. It wasn’t you.
I am drinking while I”m down in my site. But when I was in cooler weather, not drinking or eating was do able. It’s interesting to see how much the entire country changes because of religion. Can you imagine if you couldn’t buy any alcohol in America during Lent?
AHHHHH!!!!!!!!