Ramadan Kareem!

Ramadan Kareem everyone! That means have a blessed or generous Ramadan and is the typical greeting used here before and during Ramadan. The last week has been a fairly busy one.

The end of last week we went for our medical testing. That was quite a unique experience. It's no where near as organized as a US hospital, although it was pretty much strictly set up to do the medical tests needed for a residence permit. Men and women are split up due to the restrictions of Islam. We then had chest X-rays, blood drawn to run tests for communicable diseases, and a quick medical exam. Overall it didn't take too terribly long and we at least met some new people who are in the same position we are!

The weekend was also fun. We went to a party and again met lots of new people. I also may have another option for a job! I talked with several people who work in the Chemistry department at Texas A&M and they were very excited to hear that I had a Chemistry degree and that I had also worked in a lab for 4-5 years. I'm still keeping my options open at this point, but it's nice to know that I have options. We also got all the stuff we shipped over on Saturday! It's been great going through our stuff and really making our place feel like home. I especially love having all the kitchen stuff we sent over, I was tired of using the "butter knife" aka chef's knife they provided us. It was nice to get the other things in our shipment as well, having some extra clothes is also very nice, but the absolute best thing is the mattress pad we shipped over! The mattresses here are TERRIBLE. They only put about 1/8" of padding on top of the springs, so Rachel likes to say that she worried about one poking through and piercing an organ. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it may not be too far off!

As for the beginning of this week, Ramadan has been the biggest thing. For those who don't know, Ramadan is the holy month in the Islamic faith. The timing of Ramadan is based on the Lunar calendar so the start of Ramadan shifts every year 11-13 days. It's also dependent on the exact sighting of the moon, which can vary by a day or two in different countries as it is done by a designated person (typically) in each country. From sunrise to sunset Muslims fast during Ramadan. They don't eat, drink, smoke, or indulge in anything that is in excess or ill-natured. The fast is broken after sunset prayer with a meal called Iftar. The food served varies from place to place, but typically opens with sharing dates, tea, and water with family and friends at the dinner. It's then typically followed by a traditional dinner. The fasting lasts for a lunar month and is followed by Eid ul-Fitr, which is a 5 day holiday that involves lots of eating and partying. There is a second Eid 40 days later which is also a large holiday in Muslim countries. One of the problems with being in a Muslim country during Ramadan is that driving around sunset is extremely dangerous. People are not only rushing home to get before sunset to pray and break the fast, but they haven't eaten all day and are typically grumpy and high strung. We avoid driving between 5:30pm and 7pm during Ramadan since being passed by Toyota Landcruisers who are going 130kph when you're going 80kph is scary. The only other issue we've run into is that most restaurants are closed during the day during Ramadan either on their own accord or by government decree. Some takeout places are still open during the day, but it's hard to know which ones. The next few weeks should be lots of fun though, since there are plenty of parties and Iftars around to go to!

I hope everyone is still enjoying hearing about life here! Please please please post questions in the comments that you'd like answered and I'll try my best to answer them! Ramadan Kareem!