A Hard Month

Hi All! Just got back to Zinder, after almost three weeks of the village. It was probably up there has one of the hardest times out in the village. The Ramadan fast is hard! Let me explain... So I had originally planned to do the full 30 days of fasting along with my villagers, however that didn't work out because I wasn't in my village at the time the fast started. Not a big deal. So then I planned to fast along with my villagers the entire time I was out in my village. The plan had good intentions, however, once I got out there and started fasting, I quickly realized, I was definitely not going to be able to do it the entire time. When fasting the day starts at 4 am (my neighbor, Jummai, would wake me up everyone morning), I would get up and make myself some oatmeal and try to drink as much water as I could, after that I would go back to bed with the knowledge that I wasn't going to get anything else to put in my stomach until the sun went down at 6:45 pm. This is terrible! I am definitely one of those people, who has strict feeding times, and let me tell you I can get cranky really quickly if I don't get to eat. So not only was I not getting to eat, it was also well over 100 degrees out, I wanted to die! OK, so I'm exaggerating on the dying part, but it was terrible. As Washington couldn't tell a lie, nor can I, I did cheat a little, I usually broke down around noon and had to drink a little water, I have no will power. Still, those little sips of water got me through the day, which is what counts, plus whenever I stole a drink, I sent up a little prayer to Allah telling him I was sorry, so I drank with the heart of contrition. So far I have completed 14 days of fasting, and have one more to do. Luckily everyone is almost done, 5 more days! Despite the agony of fasting, there is a really awesome part of the day, that I think is greatly overlooked at most other times - dinnertime!! Everyday I go over to my family's house and bring along my water bottle and some delicious pankasou (fried balls of wheat flour dough, with squash sauce on the top - AMAZING!). My mom, my sister, and I would all just sit there and stare at each other, the look of hunger in our eyes - and every minute ask - "Is it time yet?!" It was the hardest part of the day, followed by such sweet bliss. Despite this, I am happy the fast is almost over, honestly fasting in the desert - crazy! Well I hope all is going well! Until we met again!

Cheers!
Ari