Ramadan Karim

Not going to lie, so far Ramadan has been not my favorite thing in the world.

All of my favorite restaurants (Abu Nagi's) are closed until 6PMish, and even then they don't serve all of the food that they normally serve. The medical lab was closed until 9PM. The dar is only open 'til 1PM. The doctor doesn't do nights anymore so I run out there in the afternoons now. It's hard to find a decently priced kosheri.

Also, who wants to be around people that are hungry and cigarette-deprived and thirsty while it's hot?

But.

Yesterday I was invited out to break the daily fast by Fadhila. I was at the doctor's office, he wasn't there, I'd waited a long time, and finally decided to just bag it. The Egyptian concept of being on time means showing up sometime, eh, when you feel like it. I skipped my doctor's appointment, jumped in a cab and raced home to meet up with Michael, and we then grabbed another cab to meet up with Fadhila and Youmna, and then Abdu came to pick us up and take us the thirty kilometers to his house.

It turned out to be a nine hour party, and the best meal that I've eaten since being here in Egypt. We had some very good conversation, and I love when everyone speaks the same two languages so you can mix them. I value speaking pure English and pure Portuguese after all of the Portingles that we spoke on the mission, but this was fun because Abdu is a Spanish man that's lived here for about twenty-five years. He speaks Spanish to his children and his wife Hanna speaks Arabic to them, and they all speak English. A fun mix for me.

Another fun thing: An Australian gentleman must have assumed that we were also Muslim because he started speaking negatively about Christians and very specifically about Latter-day Saints. I immediately told him I was a Latter-day Saint and helped him pull his foot out of his mouth, and then everyone questioned me a bunch, which was fun. No one gets the not drinking tea rule.

We left with Abdu Halim and Hadaya and Youmna, and were subsequently invited to their home today to break the fast. I'm excited.