Observing Ramadan
August 26, 2010
I’ve made it just past the half-way mark of my second Ramadan here in Morocco now. So far the month of fasting (no food or drinks from before sun-up until sun-down) has been going pretty well. Most of the first two weeks was a breeze because the weather was nice and cool. This week it’s turned hot — 105+ degrees, with no air conditioning. I’m afraid I sweat my night-time water sips almost as soon as I swallow them. But I’m making it through and I feel physically much better than I did last year. One learns how to handle the fasting, developing strategies and (hopefully) the discipline to resist too many sugary and fried goodies come time to break the fast.
Thinking back on the first 15 days of fasting, one evening in particular comes to mind as my favorite Ramadan experience of the year (which is, by the way, 1431 in the Islamic calendar). This past weekend I was lucky enough to make it to Marrakesh for a couple days to do nothing but relax. Fauve and I literally lounged around our hotel during the days, chatting and reading, to wait out the sunlit heat. Marrakesh is the sort of place that is HOT when it’s hot and COLD when it’s cold. This time of year it’s just plain scorching.
Saturday evening as sunset approached we ventured out to prepare ourselves for breaking the day’s fast. Our plan was to start out with milk and dates before enjoying the delightfully cheap and delicious soup found at the food stalls in Djemaa al Fna, that magical square filled with food, performers, animals, and peddlers of all sorts. Once we’d rejuvenated ourselves with the first two courses, we planned to move on to grilled meat of some sort.
We found a nice spot in the northwest-ish corner of the square, near an orange juice cart and a date cart and on the very edge of the food stalls. From where we stood we were able to ignore the tourists streaming behind us and simply watch the pre-breakfast preparations of this corner of the square.
With the clouds in the sky changing from orange to grey as the sun moved lower and lower, we watched the men working the juice and date carts set up an overturned crate as their dining table. They placed chairs around it, bowls and glasses on top of it. A teapot made an appearance, of course, along with dates and eventually the soup itself. I was glad to see a large bottle of cold water show up, too.
To our left, at the food stalls themselves, we realized we had set ourselves up next to the corner that only Moroccans seemed to notice. Not a single foreigner sat at any of the several tables surrounding the soup stalls. Rather, every place was taken by a Moroccan. I was excited to see that people take advantage of the presence of the food stalls to break their fasts rather than always sitting in the privacy of their houses. Anything that regains the Moroccanness of this very touristy square makes me happy, honestly, and the atmosphere of the square seems like it might make breaking the fast feel a little more exciting. Fauve and I watched as more and more Moroccans sat down and began to set their places for their breakfast. They didn’t just bring themselves, their thirst, and their hunger. Most of them also brought large bottles of orange juice and other juices that they had just bought at carts and stands throughout the square. I had wondered what the orange juice sellers were doing when I saw them start filling empty water bottles with juice a little while before. I’d never seen them do that in my other visits to the square, but during Ramadan it certainly makes great business sense!
Behind the tables of the soup stalls there was a small table where a man was selling hard-boiled eggs and bread. While the table saw a steady stream of Moroccan buyers, I don’t think many if any at all of the tourists in the throng passing by took much notice.
The preparations basically complete, Fauve and I watched the expressions on the fasters’ faces. Some seemed quite worn out, while others managed to crack a smile or two and offer up some laughs. Some fidgeted in uncontainable anticipation. For our part, we just enjoyed standing and observing. It really was a magical sort of experience for me to see this Ramadan ritual in such a dynamic place as the Djemaa of Marrakesh.
Before too long the air filled up with the simultaneous sounds of the signal siren going off and the call to prayer coming from mosques in all directions around us. Not minding a few more minutes of fasting (after about 14 hours, what’s a little longer?), Fauve and I continued watching as the men working the juice and date carts immediately drank two glasses of water each — you could tell what their priority was. Over at the tables a few men were chewing away at dates and soup while other fasters were being much more leisurely about setting to. A glance back at the cart workers showed them already getting down to their dates and soup as well.
After a few minutes we finally decided we might as well break the fast ourselves. We took out our metal cups that we had bought just for the occasion and set to work drinking the half liter of milk that we’d bought to share. Nice and easy, still watching the other fasters and enjoying a chat about what we were experiencing together, we got a slow start to our night of eating and drinking.
After finishing our milk we moved on to a bit of much-needed water. Sipping that slowly, Fauve was approached by a young Moroccan man who needed a sip himself. She passed the cup his way and we found ourselves drawn into a conversation that took place half in Arabic and half in Tashlheit, as the two of us Americans don’t share a common Moroccan language. We ended up finishing our breakfast with our new friend Othman and several of his friends, most of whom were very nice. A long story short, we enjoyed two bowls of soup, shubekia (fried Moroccan sweet dough), and dates on the guys and then moved on with our night.
Other stops on our evening expedition included a long sit at our usual table in our favorite cafe on the square and, eventually, a real dinner of shwarma sandwiches in a side-street. We finished off the night with Ice Legend ice cream — the second night in a row, trying to beat the heat! On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a shop to get supplies for our early morning pre-dawn meal. In addition to the usual bread, egg, and cheese sandwiches, we decided we’d spice things up with… a Snickers! Very exciting. And with that, we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before 3:20am rolled around.
