Ramandan

Ramandan began August 10th. This creates a whole different shopping system for a month. Shops are either closed down entirely during the day or are partially opened in the mid afternoon for a few hours. Once sunset arrives and people eat the evening Iftar meal, afterwards shops will open again. Trying to shop off campus becomes limiting.



We went into Rahima, right outside our village to buy abayas, sims card for our phones, and get more passport photos. (I already submitted 30 passport photos when we arrived. Guess that wasnt' enough). We went to dinner at the East-West Indian Restaurant.  There are two sections to most restaurants. One is for males only. The other is called the Family Section where men can eat with their wife/wives and children. If the women want to take off their veils while eating, some restaurants have curtains that you can pull around your table so the females are not exposed to the other males that are present. While we were there, prayer call occured, which meant we could not leave the restaurant. Oh, well we were satifisied eating and drinking our Saudi Champagne, orange juice and 7-Up.

Phil showing us the entrance to Family Section

Afterwards, when the stores opened at 9:00 we shopped for abayas. I never in my whole life thought I would care about the style of an abaya. After searching through the racks and trying on many, I finally decided on one. It was too wide so the male attendent took in the sides and measured the hem length. The hem has to cover most of your feet, which have the potentail to expose your ankles while walking. Once we-all the new teachers-were decked out in our new black abayas I asked Phil to take a picture of us. At the same time two local Muslim women came in fully covered. One looked at us earnestly and we invited her into our picture. She gladly accepted, giggling the whole time. Her friend did not join us. Once the picture was taken I showed her the picture on my camera. She laughed and giggled some more. Our other male escort for the evening, Jonathan, said, that was like a wild night out for her! I was completely taken back because I had come to understand that it was forbidden for women to be in pictures.

First Abaya Shopping