Ramadan and goodbye

Ramadan Mubarak!

It's the beginning of the lunar month of Ramadan, the month where Muslims around the world fast between dawn and dusk.

I'm doing it too :) It involves waking up at 4am to eat a good breakfast (called Suhoor), and finishing off a litre of water or so. If you like, you can go back to bed - the more industrial folks start their day from there.

Then it's no food, water, smokes, sex or anything else until after sunset. Then it's time for Iftar - the breaking of the fast. Traditionally begun with three dates and a glass of water, the practice has evolved into big family gatherings with crazy amounts of delicious food.

So what's my experience so far?

This is only the second day, but I'm enjoying it so far. There was a fair sense of community in the dorms yesterday morning, there were a lot of girls all up together cooking breakfasts. The day went well, I didn't do too much, so I didn't notice anything really different. As it got closer and closer to 8.30pm, when I knew I could break the fast, I got hungrier and hungrier!

I bought some dates from a street seller, in preparation. I was still out in the main street of Karaj looking at perfume (of all things, and not for me!) with Sepehr, Floor and Renee. Sepehr asked the fellow if the time was over, and he said it was. Then he called his friend over and asked him to get me some tea!

So I found myself standing in the street, being given tea, croissant, chocolate cream (yum!), bread and dates. It really was lovely, and very unexpected!

This morning's Suhoor was eaten in the car on the way to the airport. We had to drop Floor there so she could catch a 7am flight home to the Netherlands. Floor's an amazing girl, she really had an impact on all of us. Thankfully, she is returning to Iran in about 3 weeks, to continue working with AIESEC, mainly focusing on External Relations. With luck, I'll be sharing a dorm with her, and that will be perfect.

Dear Renee goes home next Monday also. This is the true peril of AIESEC - we send people all over the world in order for them to get to know each other, and then the internship ends and we send them home!! It's a heartbreaker every time, but knowing I'll see most of them again next year in Germany (woot) makes a massive difference.

Well, I'd better drag my thirsty butt back to work.

xoxo