Ramadan

Ramadan (or Ramazan, as it is pronounced in Turkish) began last week. So far, it hasn't had much impact on me. I guess the majority of the adults fast and some young kids as young as 8 refrain from eating from sunup to sundown. I could eat with the little kids in the cafeteria but I'd feel bad so I'm giving it a go also.

The funny difference is that at 4:30 AM there is a big flatbed truck which drives around the neighborhood with a bunch of guys beating big drums. This is to wake people up so that they can eat a big breakfast before dawn, then catch another nap until they have to get up. For me, it is already starting to fit into a dream.

Today was the first day of school (more about that later) and we will stay around the school until 6:30 when the school is sponsoring an "iftar". Iftars are the dinners that break the fast so they mostly involve heavy eating. The one t the school tonight will also have a little student show to entertain us while we gorge ourselves. The hard part is that we got out at 2:30 PM (first day) and must sit around for 4 hours waiting for it since the bus won't take us home until 9:30!