Over the years I have come to really love Ramadan in
Algeria. I love the totally different
atmosphere created by the fact that the vast majority of the population are
fasting from just before dawn to dusk.
This year it started on 18th June just in time for the end of
the main school national examinations, the Cinqueme, the BEM and the Baccalaureate, and for the
summer to really begin. Women start
stocking up on food weeks beforehand before the prices go up, and they also
restock their kitchen cupboards with pots, pans, crockery and anything else
necessary to ensure as easy a Ramadan as possible. I was pleasantly surprised, this year, that main foodstuffs did not noticeably go up
in price Alhamdulilah.
As I go out and about for my shopping I’m so amazed at the
good humour of most of the Algerians I have to deal with…..they almost all
serve you with good humour and more often than not send you on your way with an
‘Allahinourak’ or Allahiyahafdhak’ ringing in your ears. I love the way they ask children in the age
range of 10 - 12 if they are fasting and if they reply in the affirmative they
are always greeted with an ‘Allahibarek’ and praise, and sometimes even a small
gift. If they’re not fasting then that’s
ok too..’they’re still young’ is usually the opinion of many.
The shops are full of foods that no self-respecting Algerian
table would be without on this Blessed of all months – dried prunes and
apricots to make ‘laham halou’ (sweet meat), frik (bulgar wheat) or vermicelli and tomato puree to make ‘chorba’
(soup), vol au vent cases, different
type of cheeses, cold drinks, water etc . etc. and then the vegetable shops do
a roaring trade on all kind of vegetables for the various ‘jeu-ess’ dishes
(dishes with a lot of sauce/soup) and salads,
and there are always customers around the back of small lorries
selling huge water melons and cantaloupe
and melons that melt in your mouth straight out of the fridge. Then there are the small stalls that
suddenly appear out of nowhere, cropping up here and there on streets outside
people’s houses selling ‘mutalou’ (Algerian bread), ‘diol’ (the Algerian
homemade samosa pastry) and bunches of parsley, coriander, mint and eggs.
One of the most wonderful things to happen in Ramadan is the
closure of the coffee shops during the day – no longer do you have to walk out
on the road to avoid walking through a coffee shop which has spread out across
the pavement. I never cease to be amazed
at the number of men working out in the sun, fasting, from early morning until
mid afternoon. The workman who put the
protective covering on our wall said he actually preferred to work during
Ramadan, and he did work on our house all the way through the month last year. His brother was working with him for a little
while until, one morning, my husband
returned to the house with the workman and found him stretched out sound asleep
on the ground with his head on the doorstep! His wife had given birth to their first child
the night before….no surprise that we didn’t see him again for the rest of Ramadan!
My husband went to England at the request of the Muslim
community to which we belonged when we lived there. They invited him to be their Imam, leading
the Taraweeh prayers in the evenings, giving the Friday khutba and generally
leading them in the prayers throughout the month of Ramadan. So it was just the 5 children and me on our
own for the month and so many sisters said to me that it must be a lot easier
without him, not having to cook all the special Algerian foods. To be honest, neither here in Algeria nor
when we lived in England has my husband ever insisted on Algerian dishes, and
neither did I feel less restricted with him gone. I missed him….for himself…but I managed fine
without him Alhamdulilah due to the fact that my kids are grown and know their
way around all the convoluted systems of paperwork here.
We had a few sisters for iftaar and there wasn’t a bowl of
chorba or bourek in sight! It was lovely
to sit and sip coffee and cake in the courtyard outside under the star studded
sky with the Qur’an recitation wafting across the air from the nearby mosque. We also went to my mother-in-law’s and another good friend’s house another night
which broke the routine nicely Alhamdulilah.
But we had our own lovely routine throughout Ramadan – breaking the fast
at 8.20pm and starting to fast again at 3.30am left little room for anything
more than eating, praying, reading Qur’an, relaxing and breakfast. We all found it easier to stay up than to go
to bed and wake up a little while later, as this made it easier to eat and to
pray Fajir properly. So this meant that
we often slept until Dhuhr time. The girls
and I split up the cooking between us so that none of us spent a long time in
the kitchen each day, and whereas I preferred to get all my preparations and
cooking done between Dhuhr and Asr they preferred to do it afterwards. Having all day to cook one meal and some side
dishes meant that the day was free to do other things, and I felt a new sense
of freedom and serenity Alhamdulilah.
Jumuah (Friday) is usually a very busy day for me, and suddenly it was
as relaxing as all the other days.
One of the girls washed up after iftar while the rest of us
relaxed a little, and then the boys went out to the mosque for Isha and
Taraweeh prayers. The girls and I
preferred to stay at home and pray on our own giving us a chance to revise our
Qur’an and, for me, to understand what I was saying and so help with my khushoo
(concentration). The boys often bought
ice-cream on the way home from the mosque and then we sat down with snacks and
left over food to watch the Omar Ibn Khattab
series from MBC. It is in Arabic
with English subtitles and I absolutely love it – it brings up so many
interesting subjects to discuss, and it helped to boost my Iman no end Alhamdulilah. I have written my own thoughts on the series in more depth
which I will post soon inshallah. Then
we all went off to do our own thing, coming together for suhoor.
In the last
week or 10 days I baked various goodies and put them in the freezer for Eid day….doing
a little every day meant that I didn’t spend too much time on them, especially during the last 10 most precious
nights…the Best of All nights.
The days flew by so quickly and before we knew it the month
was up andI was sad to see it end. As my
kids are older now I have more opportunity to read the Qur’an, say dua, pray
Taraweeh and night prayers, and the peace it all brings is something unfathomable
mashAllah. Of course I didn’t do nearly
as much as I could have done, and the peace I experienced was just a
‘taster’, but I pray that Allah will
help me to continue at least one good habit beyond Ramadan inshallah.
As usual we went to my inlaws for Eid day and I must admit
that Eid has become more entertaining in recent years as my husband’s nieces,
their children and his sister-in-law come from England so now I have someone to
talk to in English, and don’t feel so much like a heap of clothes plonked in
the corner. Of course that is my own
fault…..it’s certainly not theirs that I STILL cannot speak their language. When
we first came to live in Algeria, Ramadan was a quiet affair at my inlaws, but
as my husband’s nieces and nephews have all married, it has become a busy and
social occasion once more with my husband’s mother and sister right as the
central pivot of it all. For me it is
wonderful to have dinner served up to me and not have to lift a finger to help
(I have tried in the past and there are so many other willing hands among the
younger generation who enjoy the chatting over the dishes, that I don’t even
pretend to argue any more). We left in
the early afternoon and came home to a lovely quiet house, a rest, a DVD and
some edible goodies. The next day we
were planning to go to the sea but….we were all so exhausted that we just
rested for the day instead. And then the
next day….we were all fasting again……
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