Ramadan Part Two

Dear readers,

More cool Ramadan things have happened since I last posted, and therefore a short post about those things -- some of which involve food -- is in order!

Firstly:
A few days ago, those of us in Advanced level were invited to our professor's house for Iftar (i.e. the meal for breaking fast after sundown). And it was wonderful!! Duktuura Iman is a wonderful person, and her family was very kind to us as well. She had made us really, really delicious food -- without a doubt one of the best meals I've had here.

From top to bottom: Stuffed vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, bell pepper); fateera (Turkish meat pastry); curried chicken with potatoes and tomatoes.

On the left: Pastry with honey and nuts. On the right: Pastry with honey and more honey.

Seriously, though, this was such a wonderful meal, not just because of the food itself, but because of all the wonderful people I was eating with, and because we actually takellemna bil-Arabeya (spoke Arabic)! (We also spoke almost exclusively Arabic to them while we were there, which was SO rewarding. After spending six weeks studying intensive Arabic in Egypt, I'd like to think that I can have a conversation with an Egyptian about something besides who I am, where I'm from, and "where's the bathroom?".) 

And while we were speaking Arabic together, I had an interesting conversation with Duktuura Iman about Alexandria compared to how it once was, with an emphasis on education. The university where she teaches -- i.e. where I'm going to school -- has over 150,000 students(!), and Duktuura Iman told me that she has taught classes of over a thousand people before. When she told me that, I went "But... but... in a room??" and she said "No, out in a large, open space. I used a microphone." You know that a country's university system has issues when stuff like that happens!!

Secondly:

Another thing that makes Ramadan like the Christmas season -- besides eating with your family, putting up festive lights, etc -- is that, even if you didn't do a lot of charity work for the rest of the year, now becomes the time to give to the poor. (For example: you may never give toys to kids without toys, except at that Christmas tree in the middle of your local Sears.) Same thing with Ramadan! And last week-ish I went with a couple of other American students from my program to take part in that Ramadan tradition. 


And... surprisingly, it was not all that different from its equivalent in America. We went to a little storefront-type place -- kind of a hole in the wall -- and put food into bags to distribute to poor Muslims who are fasting but can't afford Iftar. Then we put those bags into trunks of cars, to be distributed. We didn't do a lot of talking, but it was nice to be helpful. It was especially nice, since I do service work with the Episcopal ministry at Georgetown, to do service work with people who, though still motivated by religion, are coming from an entirely different religious mindset. We were united by a desire to help the needy -- and that mindset transcends cultures, borders and languages.


That's about all the news I have for now. Thanks for reading, folks! Tune in next time, when I talk about field trips. :)


- Beth C-C