Breaking the Fast

We have just broken the fast for the day. See how happy we are?! This is my Palestinian friend who teaches at the University, my German friend, and my old roomate.

Ramadan is a month of discipline. Fasting. Letting go of the physical needs in order to cling to the spiritual.

I was able to experience these things the last two nights. I let go of my selfish, physical desire to simply stop eating when I am full, and I continued to scoop food from the piles of rice and chicken on my plate as the cook added heaps.

Luckily, I was not alone with my dear Arab friends because my vegetarian roommate was with me. I got to sneak her meat onto my plate and eat it for her.

I could feel my face begin to heat, and sweat dropped from my forehead and I concentrated on eating more... and more... and more. Whenever I looked at my plate, there was still so much left. I began to push the food off my plate and let it "drop" onto the table and floor around me, hoping no one would notice.

Somehow we finished, but my plate was never less than half-full. Little did I know that next there would be 3 desserts brought out, one after the other.

The eating finally finished around midnight. Since I was spending the night, I told everyone goodnight and went to sleep while the rest of the family stayed up preparing for the next meal.

The next meal took place at 3:30am. I was awoken from my "nap" at 3:00am to the smell of fried food, very aware of the fact that none of the food from dinner had digested yet. We dragged ourselves to the table and then ate fried filafel and french fries until 4am. Once we heard the Call to Prayer, it was officially bedtime. 4:30am.

Everyone slept until 1pm. Then, we got up and the preparations for the next meal began.

Ramadan. Its kind of fun.

People

Friends from the University


Mount Nebo... where Moses looked over the Promised Land


Two of my favorite guys! Luke is a co-worker, and soon Austin will be one as well!


Friends from our Conversation Club out for lunch


Meet Cristine, my Arabic instructor and co-worker at CGE.

Visit to Zarqa

Strolling down the street with my friend...

She is one of my English students and invited me to her home Saturday to eat the national dish called Mansaf. I loved meeting her family and friends and just relaxing.

Evenings of smoking shisha

More Pictures

My roommate, my Iraqi friends, and me at Jerash!

The sunset over Palestine. (The sun is reflecting off the Dead Sea.)

New friends at the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus.

The amphitheatre in Jerash.

Ancients ruins of the southern most Decapolis cities (Jerash).

Do I look the same? (I would never dress this way inside the city- I am scantily clothed in this picture because we were hiking in a secluded area.)

Hmmm...

So much time passes, that when I sit down to write, I am flooded with choices. Do I write about how much I miss my family and friends- especially knowing they are enduring hard times?

Or do I share about the exciting vision that my company has for reaching out to students and how we are beginning to be flooded with young people wanting to dialogue, hang out, and learn English?

Or should I tell the story about how I lost 5 American college students AND my boss's little kids in the city for 2 hours when I was put in charge of them and sent them away in a taxi?

Maybe people would want to know that I had mass with the Pope when he came to visit. Or that my German friend and I were followed and circled by creepy Arab men the other night.

I have so man stories to tell, so much I wish those closest to me could see, know, and experience. But because its an overwhelming task, maybe I'll just post a picture...

This is the roof where I slept in Syria four nights, and probably where I picked up the bedbugs that followed me back home.