This morning, my thoughtful alarm went off at 4:40 instead of 4:30. It's always the lack of sleep that gets you during Ramadan. But, it is such a joy to wake up in the dark, knowing that all our neighbors are awake with us. I wake up first for those quiet moments to myself, when I drink water and nibble banana bread while I warm up some "breakfast"- usually dinner food. My favorite is re-heated rice and fish sauce! mmmm. What does that say about me? Then, I wake up Cheikh (and today, Karim James popped his little eyes open too, groan.) and we eat a bit and drink as much as we can. No water either, remember:) while the sun is up.
Through the open window, we hear mosques all around us calling everyone to wake up to pray. That sound was among those that I missed most when I left West Africa. There's just something ethereal about it. The rooster next door called us too. We pray in our living room, but the prayer itself is called out and we hear it through the window as well. Then, the tough part is going back to sleep for two hours before getting up to start the day. That is the deepest sleep of all during Ramadan. Then, from about noon till four pm is a fog. Imagine jetlag because that's what it feels like. Everything is slower, quieter and warmer than usual. What surprised me the first time I fasted is that it doesn't make you "hungry," just groggy. Hunger changes a personality and makes ambition or urgency less possible. Fasting is something I believe everyone should try at least once. It really gives you a sense of what hunger is like and the damage it can do to a child, a community, or even a country.
I went to the Grande Marche this morning to buy sheets and curtains. I wandered for a while, but nobody said much to me. When I found what I wanted, I hardly had to bargain for it, since the prices were reasonable. Neither the boutiquier or I felt like playing that game today. It was a 2 hr process to have everything cut and sewn, but a pleasant one. While I was there, I was thinking about how I would describe the market. It's not insane like Sandaga in Dakar or spread out like the market in Bamako. It's a labyrinth that's contained, with labeled entrances, an acutual structure and interwoven paths which will take me a while to learn to navigate. All of the markets in Niamey are much cleaner than to be expected thanks to Mercy Corps' "Cash for Work" program which employs people to clean up the markets for the improvement of community health. Even the government has started employing more city clean up crews so as not to be shown up by Mercy Corps:)
Karim was excited to find construction truck curtains on his windows when he got home from school! And Cheikh was relieved to find beautiful curtains in our room, rather than the nigerian pagne fabric I'd teased about.
Love to all. Our thoughts are with you.
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