ramadan

today begins ramadan -- 30 days of fasting (no food or water) between sunrise and sundown.

i'm not a muslim but i will be participating in the fasting when i am at the village. why? part of the reason is that my villagers kind of just assumed i would be fasting alongside them and secondly, it wasn't until a few months ago that people truly started treating me like an adult. children are exempt from fasting so i don't really want to take a few steps backwards and be treated like a kid again.

since i'll be fasting, i'm going to try to use this time to reflect/meditate/pray on certain things in my life -- lots of things regarding my future (aka post-Peace Corps life) and my work here.

so we'll see how things turn out. since i'm not religiously bound to fasting during ramadan, i figure that if after the first few days or so i am truly miserable i'll stop. wish me luck. this should be an interesting/enlightening experience.




in other news, my dad bought me a plane ticket home for thanksgiving! i'll be home
from november 22 to december 7. i'm so excited!

also: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEANNE!