Fasting for the whole month of Ramadan was a very good experience for me. I am proud of myself for having succeeded, and people were also very proud of me. I really appreciated the sense of sharing from the neighbors and the culture of generosity.
By Marius Bordat
Rabat – When I decided to try to fast during Ramadan this year, I didn’t think that I was capable of lasting the entire month. I didn’t even plan to complete the whole month of Ramadan, especially since I had never fasted before. My idea was to try fasting for the first few days and then stop. As a 16-year-old French-American, born in Morocco, I am going to talk about my experience of fasting for the first time.
I first decided to observe Ramadan in solidarity with my friends. I also wanted to live the experience of fasting.
The first day of Ramadan fell on a school day. Some of my friends presumed that I wasn’t fasting. But when I explained my intention to try it, at first they didn’t believe me, and then they were very surprised and proud of me.
What’s more, on that first day I had sports. It felt a little difficult at the time to not drink but it wasn’t impossible. For the breaking of the fast on my first day, I went to the Rabat medina to have a traditional Moroccan iftar.
The first few days were the most difficult for me. My body had to get used to not eating and drinking during the day until sunset – about 7:30 at night. They were also the hardest because, at the beginning of Ramadan, I only drank water instead of eating when I woke up at three in the morning for the last meal of “suhoor,” before the sun rose. That made me a lot hungrier during the day. It was also harder for me during the first few days because I didn’t have a complete iftar.
Since I was the only one in my family fasting, sometimes I waited until 8 pm to eat when my family had dinner, or I ordered food in advance. The problem was, it wasn’t Moroccan food.
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One week into Ramadan, my neighbors heard that I was fasting. They called me and told me to come to their house just before the iftar to come to try traditional harira soup. When I went to their house, the family gave me a tray of homemade Moroccan food with harira and some Moroccan sweet and savory pastries.
They told me to come every evening and get my tray of iftar. At first, I didn’t want to because I thought it was impolite. But they said that I had to come each day or they would be mad at me. So each night I went to my neighbor’s house and discovered something new on my tray.
They even included some extra cake for me to eat at three in the morning. That helped me a lot during the day, and I was less hungry.
After that, the whole neighborhood knew that I was fasting. Each time someone saw me, they told me that they were all proud of me.
Because of Ramadan, the school schedule changed and I got to get up a bit later. Even with Ramadan I didn’t find school more difficult or feel more tired. I found it a little bit challenging at the end of the day, one hour before breaking the fast. So I usually took a nap or rested after coming back from school.
One thing that I noticed is that Moroccans go out a lot after the sun sets and nighttime is very lively. A couple of times during the month I went out to have dinner at 10 pm with my friends, I also went many times to play soccer with them until 1 am.
One night I went to my girlfriend’s house to break the fast with a lot of delicious Moroccan food. I was very lucky to share the iftar with her and her family. Having an iftar with a Moroccan family was a very meaningful experience.
The next night was the Champions League Soccer Final, so I invited three of my friends to come over to watch the game and break the fast together. My friends brought some sweets and pastries to eat and my mother made us a lot of different Ramadan specialties.
Fasting for the whole month of Ramadan was a very good experience for me. I am proud of myself for having succeeded, and people were also very proud of me. I really appreciated the sense of sharing from the neighbors and the culture of generosity.
This experience also made me learn how lucky I am to eat every day when so many still go hungry. I didn’t find it as difficult as I had expected, and I practiced self-control. I am happy that I’ve done it and look forward to next year.
Read also: How El Baraka Angels Helped the Needy During Ramadan for the 4th Year in a Row
