This time of the year does remind me that I am definitely in a different land. It is such a strange phenomenon to observe, this whole Ramadan thing. Tonight Mike and I were able to go out on a date, thanks to some friends who volunteered to watch our kids for us. What a blessing! So, we went out to a popular restaurant here that has great Arabic food. Well, going to a restaurant at Ramadan is always interesting because you have to wait for the call to prayer to start eating. I imagine that being foreigners, we don't really have to wait, if we don't care about being sensitive to everyone around you, but then you may have people staring rather unfriendly at you. So anyways, we got to the restaurant a little early, because we had to make sure to get a taxi before the streets cleared out of any cars in sight. Really, it turns into a ghost town for a good half hour at least. I will have to get some video footage of it. It is wild! We went to the grocery store the other day too during that time and it was the best time to walk with the kids, because there is not a car in sight.
Anyway, back to the restaurant. Every table has a plate of dates on it, and some fried pita bread with half a lemon on top. When the call to prayer sounds, everyone breaks their fast by first eating a date. We both were so hungry, but we sat and waited for about 20 minutes until the call to prayer sounded and we could eat. I did sneak a fried pita chip, but had to try and hide and eat it, because I saw a man watching me. Oops! But once that call sounds everyone digs in.
We had a great evening and always enjoy getting out and watching people.
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