Ramadan woes

It's Ramadan now. This year it started on September 1st. It lasts one month and Muslims fast during the day and only eat at night. We aren't Muslim but we have felt the effects of Ramadan. The kids and I arrived in Kuwait last fall just as Ramadan was ending so this is our first experience with it.

The kids' school hours are cut by almost 1 1/2 hours per day during Ramadan. It's great for them for now but it will be difficult once Ramadan is over and they have to attend school for the full time. They also have to be a little more aware in that many of their school classmates are fasting so come lunchtime our kids (and the other non-Muslims) tend to feel like they have to hide to eat so as not to tempt the Muslims.

The first day of Ramadan Todd and I happened to be out shopping for shoes and a bed. He left his black church shoes at his sisters' house in the States--oops. We went to a mall that had both a furniture store and shoe stores. Now this was a modern mall--just like you'd see in America. We got there about 3:30ish. It wasn't crowded in the parking lot which should have been our first clue. We went in and sure enough, all the stores were turning off their lights and shutting down. We knew that the "mom and pop" stores do this--shut down in the afternoon--for Ramadan. In Kuwait many stores like that shut down in the afternoon even when it's not Ramadan. Needless to say we did not get a bed or shoes as we had to just window shop and the windows were dark.

Tonight (Saturday) is our family's traditional pizza night. We called Papa Johns to order the pizza around 5:30ish so it would be here around dinner time. We were told that they couldn't deliver til Iftar time. Iftar is the evening meal that Muslims eat when the sun goes down. Iftar time meant our pizza wouldn't be here til about 7:30. Interesting though in that we were able to go pick it up a bit earlier than Iftar. They just wouldn't deliver til then. It was a good thing though we went to pick it up as we discovered Papa Johns has a great buffet during Ramadan. We'll probably take the fam to the buffet for pizza night next week.

We did take the fam to a Chinese buffet earlier this week. That's one of the good things about Ramadan. Many of the restaraunts set up all-you-can-eat buffets during Ramadan. You just have to wait til Iftar time to eat it.

Another plus about Ramadan is the grocery stores are less crowded in the morning as the Muslims are up late eating so they sleep in the next day. Or they get up before sunrise to eat then go back to sleep. Not really sure as I'm not a Muslim. All I know is that I can get my shopping done in record time.

This morning while shopping I ran into a Finnish lady I knew in Kuwait. She had a son in Critter's class at ASK. Critter had lost this boys' email and was trying to go through other common friends to contact him as Critter knew he'd moved here to Jordan. This other boy goes to a different school than the one Critter goes to. So this lady and I exchanged numbers and Critter went over to their house to play today.

Here's where the story takes a twist. Those of you who know me know I'm not the most outgoing, social person on the planet. It takes me a while to warm up and usually it's because Todd has taken the initiative to make social contact with a couple and by virtue of Todd and I being a couple, well, I have to at least be polite.

So when Marcus called to invite Critter over I got on the phone with the mom to get directions. At that time she invited me that if I had time I could stay a while and have tea or coffee with her. I panicked. Not because of the tea/coffee thing but to think I'd have to stay and make small talk with an almost stranger? Yikes! I quickly made the excuse that I had some unpacking to do so I'd just be dropping him off but I definitely wanted to make some time another day to do that. (Yeah, right.)

We found their place and again she invited me to stay. I don't know what came over me but I said I could stay a few minutes. We sat down and had a very pleasant conversation and it wasn't horrible at all. She did start making the coffee and I told her "none for me." She was surprised but I explained it was a religious thing but I'd drink water or something else. She had some juice and she brought out the shortbread cookies and this chocolate dessert thing. It was all very nice.

I came home and told Todd he'd be proud of me for the social graces I displayed. Then he dropped the bomb that if Marcus comes over here it would be impolite if I didn't ask her to come in and chat. Guess I'll have to stock up on the tea biscuits and apple juice.