froginmythroat (FIMT)

Once the rain had abated and the frogs had come out to sing, I left the office and caught a labi-labi (an incredibly regular and comprehensive form of public transport that puts Auckland’s system to shame) to the shopping district down the road. I needed to return a rented VCD to the local video store. The video store has middle to upper class customers and from my random population sampling I have concluded that the incidence of English speaking persons in the video store is higher than the general Acehenese population (std dev 2.4, r co-efficient > 1, sample size 2). It may be the place to meet the local movers, groovers, and schmoozers.

On my way home I grabbed an ice-block from the supermarket to eat whilst walking back to the labi-labi stop. It was then that I started to get bad vibes. Like people really didn’t like me or something. Like I had done something wrong. What happened to all the ‘Hello Mister!’s? Instead, I was getting the ‘No’ hand shake and strange stares. Did I smell? Probably just the usual smell of hand washed clothes left too long before drying. Maybe Acehenese people become less friendly after it rains?

And then I realised what a goof I was! I was eating an ice-block whilst waking down the road during the holy month of Ramadan in an Islamic society where everybody else was fasting. It would probably have been less offensive to call a moderate bearded Muslim man a jihadist.

Ramadan runs roughly from the beginning of October till the beginning of November (check your moon calendar for exact dates). It goes out with bang in a week long festival called Eid ul-Fitr (meaning “becoming holy again�). During this holy month, Muslims strive towards being more spiritual and righteous through several practices.

The key practice is fasting from sunrise till sunset. This means rising about 4am, eating and praying, and not eating again until around 6:30pm. If we consult the book of holiness (the Koran/Quran) in the parable of ‘The Cow’ we find:

“[2:187] You may eat and drink until the white thread of light becomes distinguishable from the dark thread of night at dawn. Then, you shall fast until sunset.�

Not everyone is obliged to fast, specifically the old, sick, travellers, pilots of planes or carriers of bombs heading for Western targets (mujahideen on the battlefield are certified fast exempt) and women during menstruation – which makes it quite obvious when a women is having her period. Missed days can be made up at some other stage.

Sex is prohibited during the fasting period. Again, another quote from one of the 6666 verses of the Koran/Quran taken completely out of its context:

“[2:187] It is made lawful to you to go into your wives (sic) on the night of the fast during the nights of fasting.�

If this rule is broken the transgressor must fast for 60 consecutive days.

Furthermore, smoking, bad habits, bad thinking, or anything considered impure is undesirable. No anger, lust, desire, greed, backstabbing, romance and all those other things that make otherwise mundane life interesting.

How would you fare? Can you obey those rules for a month? Surely a billion people can’t be wrong? If not for yourself, then for the chickens and cows that will be saved by following these rules for a month. Ok so I can’t, and if you are like me there are a handful of restaurants in Aceh that are open during the day, but not many. Those that are, have curtains or sheets wrapped around their windows and doors so the diners cannot be seen.

The fast is broken (buka puasa) in the evening and is a social time spent with friends or family in the home. At this time the streets are completely dead. We have received several invitations to join our colleagues in their houses when they break their fast (breakfast?). This is done with a special selection of pastries and sweets before the main meal.

Another aspect of Ramadan is developing an appreciation for the lives of those less fortunate than oneself. As well as being a devotion and act of spiritual cleansing, fasting also allows an appreciation of the lives of the hungry poor. Ramadan is a time to provide for the less privileged and may involve doing such things as donating money. I was invited to join a friend’s fast breaking meal to which they had invited a group of orphans into their home to share the meal with them. It was an interesting affair; the group came with their guardians, ate and left quickly without much interaction from either side.

Breaking the Ramadan fast together with a group of orphans