more breaking of the fast

so, i was able to visit a few more of my friends in the last few weeks for ftour with their families. it has been such a neat time to spend with them and be a part of their lives. i am grateful for sure. check out the footage below! i had the great opportunity to visit my friend's family for ftour. i love going to her house cause it is just the ladies and it is so relaxed. before we got to the house though we got to stop by a few places to pick up some last minute items. we hustled around and made in the door right at the call. we had to hurry up and wash our hands and get the date in our mouth! her mom was so excited that i had fasted that day. she even made up this somewhat unique ftour (pizza! fried fish and some squash). of course we had the staples, too. but it was really fun and different. when i told my lang helper the next day in our session that i had had pizza at ftour with my friend (in Arabic, mind you:), my lang helper replied by saying--oh that was a healthy ftour! of course that wasn't the response i was expecting, but was very funny. after the ftour we sat around a bit, then went out on the town and visited the souk (market). it was bustling and was a lot of fun to visit and see the differences between the souk in her town and the one i live in (she lives in sorta a suburb you could say). then, we came back and watched a bit more tv and went to bed. early in the morning before the morning call, we got up to eat that meal. it was mainly leftovers from the ftour. i having been making this banana/date bread lately so i brought some with me to their home and they loved it--even mom gave the approval! i was excited. that has been my thing to bring from now on.
so, i have been house sitting and wanted to try and break the fast with the tv and all just like they do (they have a certain programming that comes on to let you know, besides the call going off). i have realized that i would most likely not be a very good preparer of the ftour just on my own as i was late in having it on the table at the call--whoops! oh well. it was good though--i did a bit of a twist by having tomato soup, grilled cheese, banana/orange bread, yogurt, apple, and water. yum!
later on i was able to visit my lang helper's home for ftour. it was a good visit. i finally was able to meet another one of her sisters. anyways, above is me with the whole family. her dad wasn't there right when the call went off--he was at the mosque praying. but we dug in and enjoyed! we started out with the basics: harira, dates, milk, shebakia, etc. then to my suprise we had pastilla! this is a dish that is kind of special and i had never had this particular kind before: fish. it was sooo good. and i was excited that they shared it with me.
here's a photo of the table before we started the meal. you can see my banana/date bread sliced up there on the left just beyond the blue bowl. i had let my lang helper see it before when i made it and she was to eager to try it. the whole family loved it! especially her dad. i was very pleased. it has been a really neat experience for sure. thankful for each friend and her family.

house.sitting

so, i had the extreme privilege of house sitting this past week for my classmate and her husband. it was a great time that allowed for some peace and quiet, fun gatherings, and of course--great food! :) here are some higlights: i had to pack my stuff over to the place and make a couple trips in doing so. one included my snazzy new backpack that my sister and mom got me for my birthday! thanks so much! and of course the binkster was along for the house sitting gig. the house has two floors and was a lot of fun to be in. it was kind of like a retreat in a way--so quiet!
one night we had a couple over to dine with us and later we made a fire in the outdoor fireplace! it was so nice. we were super-smoky afterwards, but it was worth it. for dinner that night we had blt's, oriental cole slaw, and fruit, cheese, and crackers. it was a nice night out in the backyard.
speaking of the backyard---here is one half of it. i took this photo from their second floor deck/balcony. one day i helped take care of a group of kiddos. we played in the yard quite a bit and enjoyed the grass. i even got to teach everyone how to play the lovely game of Red Rover--i couldn't believe the guy that was also helping watch the kiddos hadn't ever heard of it (he was raised in the States and all)!
another exciting discovery here in town! i walked around the neighborhood where this house was and finally got to visit a bakery that i had heard was really good. they weren't serving food, but were open selling pastries for folks to take home for ftour! i bought some yummy crusty french bread, then went to the other side to find these lovely creations! they were very good and made for a delicious breakfast.
overall it was a great time. it was interesting being in a place that was a bit out from the center of town (like where our apartment is). and having some ammenities were nice; like the dishwasher and washer AND dryer!! i was shocked at how quick the washer and dryer worked. i will be in for a pleasant surprise when i go back to the States, i think:)

what the streets look like at ftur

so, the other night i was finally at home for ftur and wanted to capture what it looks like on our usually very, very busy street.

the clock strikes time for the call and food consumption to begin. normally we can't hear the call to prayer at our house because of traffic and such, but since everyone is inside and waiting on the call, we can hear a couple of calls.

as you can see here--the last few folks getting home, otherwise it is empty!

in our class about Ramadan, we found out that mostly bad people are out at ftur. so, it isn't safe to be just walking around alone. it really was kind of eary how quiet it gets.

even our local hanut (store with grey doors there) is closed down for the next hour to hour and a half or so. truly an experience like nothing i have had before. and this is every night at ftur!

ftur with the fam

yum, yum, yum. more ftour footage! i recently was invited to a ftour with the family that takes care of our building. i was really excited to be able to share with them this special meal. they are very, very sweet and always great to practice language with. very thankful, indeed.

it was fun to be able to sit with them prior to the ftour and see how it all goes down. this husband actually makes the mint tea for the family as he is just better at it the wife says! how fun! also i asked where the great pastries came from and hubby picked those up, too. he has got a knack for sure.

so, here is a photo of the whole family. i bawked when i found out the son is 17 (he looks maybe 14). it was his third year to fast and the younger sister's first year to fast. basically when the boys get hair in their underarms and the girls have their first cycle is when they start fasting for Ramadan. after the meal we watched Hidalgo (spoken in English with Arabic subtitles). i had never seen it before. it was pretty good and they enjoyed it--there is even Arabic in the movie and i could understand some of it! yeah!

ftur with classmates and teacher

alrighty! so, i am a little behind, but that is okay, right?

my brilliant and amazing classmate decided to host a ftour for our teacher who is without his family during Ramadan. i think you will enjoy the footage!

it was a lot of fun to help put the tables together all nice and festive. she had many traditional and not so traditional foods, so it was fun for sure. there were like ten of us i think. it was great for some of the folks to practice their Arabic with our teacher.

here you see many traditional foods: the harira up top being served, the shebakia (the best i have had thus far), msmin, dates, honey. then my snazzy classmate kicked in some quiche, fruit, banana smoothies to add her flair. it was a lot of fun.

each night at to signal the ftour there is a cannon that will go off, along with the regular call to prayer. we can't hear the cannon from our apartment, but you can hear it from my friend's house. that was kind of cool. i had just missed it as i was walking outside to hear it, the guys were coming in after the signal. all in all it was delicious and really fun to serve our teacher in this way.

here's my fabulous classmate and me at another fun gathering we had. i am just so thankful for her and her hospitality!

USA labor day in NA

so, we had to celebrate the American Labor Day here cause we hadn't broken in our charcoal grill yet and it was the day before Ramadan, which wouldn't really allow for us to be able to use the grill for the next month. so, i emailed my aunt to once again get the family recipe for German style potato salad. started by boiling the potatoes.

then cooked up the onion, bacon (yes some friends found a pork butcher here!), mustard, vinegar, and water for the potato salad.

oh, look at that grill in action. these weren't our burgers, but the burgers of friends. it was quite a smoky evening, but a lot of fun and full of good Labor Day-isque foods!

my plate was filled with the potato salad, bean dip, veggie bake, a BBQ, grilled pork chop, and veggies! it was a lot of fun. hope you guys had a great Labor Day, too.

my first breaking of the fast in NA

so, i had the absolute privilege of breaking the fast the first night of Ramadan. i was super stoked about this and the idea that my friend wanted me to be with her family. it was great. here family had just recently moved to a new area that has grown tremendously in the last few years. it was interesting. i had decided to fast as well to get the full experience and learn what and why they do what they do. below are shots from the roof. we watched some men lay down mats to offer a makeshift mosque for men (and women) to come and pray close to home. there wasn't a mosque built yet, but i am guessing this may be the location for the planning of one. they had speakers as well to broadcast the call. while on the roof we also took a few photos of me, my friend, and her sis. it was an incredible view for sure. many of these apartment buildings you see in the photo with the makeshift mosque. i also got to practice language a lot as my friend knows just some English. i was also really excited about the fact that my friend even let me help prepare some of the food. normally you are commanded to sit in the salon (living room) while they prepare the food and all. so, we waited until the early evening call (and the TV) to signal that it was time to break the fast. you can see on the table the assortment of foods that are prepared and eaten for the ftur (as they call it here). there are staple foods for this occasion that are served every single night of Ramadan. those being: dates, harira (tomato based soup that is really, really good), shebakia (a really sweet candy almost), boiled eggs, rif (flat dough which can be filled with sauteed veggies and fat--yes f-a-t) these triangle things that can be sweet or salty (and are amazing!), milk, coffee, and tea. some of the other things here vary from house to house. it was really incredible and interesting of course. we watched TV while eating and not a lot of talking happened, but we did comment on how good the food was and all. after this meal we went and walked about the neighborhood for like two hours! just trying to help that food digest. it was incredible though as the streets came alive! see, a lot of places are closed during the day--especially cafe's and such, so the folks are itching to get out and socialize.
some families literally switch from day to night. they will still eat their dinner (which is normally served at 10pm or so), but just a bit later, like at midnight or 1am. then get up before the early morning call to prayer for a morning meal. then maybe sleep late as they have been up later and up again for that breakfast meal. then, other families may not do all three meals. i got exhausted after the ftur and walking about that i asked if i could sleep a bit before the next meal. i ended up not waking up for the midnight/1am tagine (traditional dish) dinner, but was woken up for the 4am tagine (again traditional dish) leftovers. then went back to sleep for a bit before i had to leave for school. i stayed at her family's house. really, it was an incredible experience. i am very grateful! stay posted for more ftur updates!