Ramadan's Journal #2

The main advice people gave for the Ramadan's season was to not eat or drink in the public spaces, during fasting time. Even though, many of us are not fasting, it's a sign of respect for those who are.

Yesterday, it wasn't very hard, because I left home in the morning to meet a friend. Then, she gave me lift back home. Then I left again for a game's evening in the neighbourhood and came back home. I could easily avoid drinking water during my public appearances.

But today I wanted to backpack in the city, that is, to have a map in a hand and lot of curiosity to visit non-touristic places. Without water that was hard. And I was getting hungry, hungry... finally I end up in an until now unknown haven - an amazing bookshop, probably the best in town - and they had a clean toillet (very much like in Brazil, that's rare)! So I could refresh myself. And they had a garden, as well. So, I confess, I went to the garden to sneak some food I had brought from home.

If it's Ramadan, you end up fasting with everybody else - involuntarily. =) 

Ramadan's Journal - #1

Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting. You may ask why, if I'm not a Muslim, I am writing a Ramadan's Journal. It's because Ramadan isn't something you do if you feel like doing it. It's not like Lent, in Western countries, that you think you can even choose what are you living without for the season of fasting (like, eating meat, but not eating chocolate, because you are chocoholic and it's going to be much more difficult to live without cocoa in your veins than without meat - that's at least the excuse commonly given, if any is given). Ramadan is mandatory. Therefore, starting from today, the world have a large part of  its population, who is fasting. It may influence more our life than you and I ever thought of it. ;-)

Now, since I'm living in MENA, it is obviously going to influence, change and challenge my life in a daily basis - after all a whole country is fasting. Do you have any idea of what this means? I still don't, but I'm about to discover. And since the purpose of this blog is to share my everyday experiences, I thought it would be interesting to share with friends some insights, surprises, curiosities and whatever else happens. I will try to blog everyday for the next 30 days, so stay tuned.

If you got interested on the theme, you can read a quick article in Al Jazeera website. If you want some more information, try the Wikipedia entry for Ramadan.

To make it absolutely clear, it is not my aim either to attack or to promote Ramadan. Let's keep an open mind & heart and be open to dialogue & tolerance. =)

Have a nice weekend!

You're arriving at home after a long day exhausted, thirsty and hungry - and what is your reward for all that?

This... 

 

Enjoy your weekend! (No, it isn't wrong. Weekend here is Friday. People work from Saturday to Thursday, so my weekend is indeed tomorrow. =P) 

Days like this

It was Van Morrison who sang first:

When noone steps on my dreams

there'll be days like this

When people understand what I mean

there'll be days like this

When you bring out the changes

of how everything is

Well my momma told me

there'll be days like this. 

Days like this:

- you wake up late and starving of hunger, but you can remember all the verbs in the present and in the past in your Arabic class' quiz;
- you need to walk, to take a taxi, metro line 1, metro line 2, another taxi to get to lovely people who are going away. You arrive there and can't stop mixing German and Arabic, but leave energized. Now, it's time to come back all the way: taxi-metro-metro-taxi-walking and no taxi driver tries to cheat you; \O/
- you have just seated in the metro, but a mom with a baby comes in. You give your sit to her, people get moved (they always do, it's so sweet) and take your backpack while you stand. The baby has an eldest sister, the sister tries to talk to you and doesn't care about your "survival" Arabic (highlight of the day!). You buy nice biscuits for 50 cents (less than 0.10 USD) of the vendor who comes in your wagon and people even remember you, the station you want is the next... (at this point I was already daydreaming).

So, there are days like this. Sing along!!!

¡Viva La España!

Just to make sure, that I'm updated with things in the outside world. For instance:

CLUBE ATLÉTICO MINEIRO (the football team I support in Brazil) is now in the FIRST place in the National Championship. \O/ Gaaaallloooooo!!!!

Spain has won Euro 2012 and defeated Italy. Everything was special:


- Italy is a traditional opponent of the Brazilian football team; 
- Italy had defeated Germany, which I was supporting firstly; 
- they won the Azuris 4 - 0;
- I can celebrate with Taiana & Rober who are now in Spain and share of their happiness.

So, this is to recall the song I sang in their wedding's party (it's in French, but it's all about how Spanish mood is sooo cool) ;-)

Going around

When your cultural shock starts to pass (or you think it is), then you want to make choices more consciously.   You know people tell you to act this or that way, but something back in your mind insists you should try something else.

I love walking. But my liking contradicts all the advices I get. Since I can't drive, public transportation has to be used. For ex-pats that means going taxing everywhere - or until you can get to next metro station. Well, they aren't wrong in their choice: if you, like me, can't speak enough Arabic, don't know the place yet, when obviously have no idea where the buses and trams are heading to (because there is no signs written anywhere - not in the stops, not even in the buses' front), then what you have to do is go taxing.

Locals, on the other hand, go by bus or tram. Although taxis' charge here is cheaper than in any other world capital, it's not affordable to people go to work or school everyday by taxi. And then, they know how to use the other kinds of public transportations, which also includes tuk-tuks and open-in-the-back trucks.

Where is walking? Virtually nowhere. No one seems to be able to walk 10 minutes or 1 km. And certainly not my 40 minutes walking to Arabic school (to go and come back, 80'). That may cause problems - or give you a funny story.

I was leaving work at 18:00, when I realized I didn't have enough money for the taxi. After considering the options, I looked at the sky... sun isn't so strong anymore and I like walking. So I decided to walk back home and calculated I would take about one hour. I had never done it before, but I had a map, right? Yep, until I get to one roundabout with many streets crossing and I get confused which street I should follow (no, it was not just going straight ahead). And them people started to tell me to follow the trams' rail.

That's what I thought they were telling me. Each time I stopped to ask, the advice was always the same. Until the trail ended and I ended up somewhere totally wrong - and I was completely lost.

Luciana goes all the way back. And then decided to ask once more (after all,I was walking already for 1 hour and a half!). A family is sitting on the pavement and when I ask for directions, I cause a comotion. "Habibiti, that's too far! You can't go walking!" - said the mom. She stops a woman in the street, who could speak English and this one is also mortified. No walking - take the tram, she advises. Okay, now I understand. All the time, I shouldn't have followed the tram's trail but should have taken the tram. 

Well, I'll have to take the tram, then. It was getting dark... and it was a new experience, anyway. Then, I learned two things: how to get the tram and why ex-pats probably don't take the tram. You only get it by chance. I waited for half an hour and it took about 5 minutes to my stop. So, if it comes, take the tram. If it doesn't, go taxing. Or walking - I still haven't given up. =P

Outdoors

I wanted to post something of outdoors. Work is going fine and learning Arabic is much difficult than I have ever thought it would be, but still trying to find my own way and there are already some things that I love doing here.

One of them is watching the sunset - although I don't do this very often. Folks, it's the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life. I thought all the photos I had seen before had manipulated colours by software, but it is inexplicably true: the colours are magnificent, creating shades I never dreamed of existing. Just take the light... it's so powerful any time of the day, but during the sunset it seems to create some transparency. And the sun majestically setting in the horizon line always makes me speechless. Wonder. Astonishment. Never know what wish is stronger: whether I want to contemplate or to follow into the sun.

My photo is nothing. But I went to the desert yesterday for the first time I thought I wanted to share this with you. Had a nice time there, but hope to have lots of more beautiful sunsets for you. :)