When Night turns to Day….

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It’s a very special month here at the moment – the holy month of Ramadan. This is the month where Muslims across the world fast during the day for 30 days. Usually we are quite unaffected by this in Australia… life goes on as usual for us non-Muslims, but here… well, it is a different story 🙂

As soon as Ramadan starts here, life turns topsy-turvy… For starters, no one is allowed to eat or drink in public during the day. This isn’t hard for the kids and I because we are mostly home all day, although I nearly messed up coming back from our sewing day… taking a bite out of a candy bar on the way home! Cameron is like – hey, you’re not allowed to eat that out here!! And I’m like, OOPS! Quick, swallow and put it away!!

For the men it is harder because they still have to go to work. Work hours are a bit different for most though. Cameron gets to work from 8 till 3 instead of his usual hours, so that helps a lot. We have been getting up in the morning and giving him a decent breakfast before he leaves, and then have a meal ready when he gets home. He is not allowed to eat or drink anything at work either. It took a few days to get adjusted, but he is fine now. The main thing he missed was his morning coffee on the way to work from his favorite coffee shop!

For those who fast, they cannot have anything to eat or drink from sunrise to sunset! So they have their “breakfast”, where they literally break their fast, at sunset… this is when all the restaurants (which have been closed all day of course) open and things get really busy 🙂 Most shops open at around 9.30pm and stay open till early hours of the morning. The roads… well, they are bad enough in Riyadh during the rest of the year, but during Ramadan it can take you hours to get somewhere that normally takes you half an hour. Needless to say, we avoid going out at night 🙂

The big supermarkets are open during the day and if you go in the morning during this month, they are nice and quiet because most people are still sleeping. Yes, day turns to night as well, with a new routine emerging… a lot of people don’t go to sleep until anywhere between 2 and 4 am, so of course they sleep in. Which makes the roads nice and quiet until about mid afternoon.

I have to say this month has been nice and relaxing for us. We have slowed right down, don’t go out a lot, and are enjoying spending time together at home. We’ve been catching up on some school projects and gotten into a nice routine really. In another week it will be school holidays for us (yay!) and I don’t know who is looking forward to that more, me or the kids, lol! I haven’t been able to spend much time with Emmie G at all… but come holidays, look out!!