Ramadan

Last year, I arrived on Pemba just a few days before Ramadan ended.  We're now a week into this year's holy month, and it feels like a definitive halfway mark in my service.  I've finished two terms of teaching and have been through one year of the Islamic calendar.  I've reached a new plateau of feeling settled into my community.  Everything about my town an the island feels excessively.... normal.  Not mundane, but life here has come to feel no more exotic than life in the States.  It's just life.  Highs and lows, work and play, like anywhere else.  I guess this is what it means to feel at home!

The holy month of Ramadan is an interesting time to be on the island.  Everyone abstains from food and drink from sunrise until the 6:30 pm prayers.  All the schools are closed, and many businesses have reduced hours.  Things slow down.  The streets are quieter than usual during the day, especially at prayer times.  But the town is vibrant in the evening, as lots of people go out for coffee and street food.  It's a time when worship and community are prioritized over work.  It's a level of piousness I haven't often observed in the U.S.; it reminds me how much our lives are driven by schedules of work and making money.  Taking a month out of every year to be "unproductive" is somewhat antithetical to our Western work ethic.

I'm not participating in prayers or fasting, but my life has a very different pace this month.  To be respectful I don't eat or drink in public until the evening.  If I'm out and about, perhaps on a bike ride, this often means sneaking into the bushes to secretly gulp down some water.  My schedule is very open.  I still teach my twice a week English club, but I have plenty of time to relax, read, enjoy sunsets, make good food, and take care of all the little things that usually pile up to stress me out.  It's been a wonderfully calm and stress-free time.

Also, I'm luck to have a visitor:  Kenzie, the volunteer I shadowed a year ago in Iringa, has finished her two years of volunteering (Click here for the post I wrote about visiting her - feels like a long time ago!  Here are pictures I took in her village).  She decided to come visit me and see the island before going home.  We're having a great time, and seeing someone I met while in training has reminded me to appreciate how far I've come.  My house is comfortable and ready for visitors, my kitchen is complete, my Kiswahili is coming along.... it's a good to notice how well things are going here.

Some pictures of fun times and shenanigans from the last month:

Fellow volunteers Dave and Doug on the night of our wine and beard competition (yes, beard, not beer).  Doug has decorated his "bar" with the Peace Corps Tanzania 50th anniversary Khanga.  We have fun.

4th of July at the beach!  We went out there to celebrate with the two American families who live on Pemba.

Nom nom!  4th of July kebobs.

Our friend Justin made delicious (and well arranged) cookies!

An excellent breakfast with my new friend Scott, a UN worker who lives on the mainland.  Chapati (Tanzanian-tortilla-thing), mango, peanuts, dates, and coffee!

We went to a protected jungle preserve on the North end of the island.  Big centipede!

Ngesi Forest

Walking the paths in Ngesi.  I'm sporting a big beard these days.  I am fully aware that it must look ridiculous to those of you in the West, but everyone here loves it.  =)

Monkey!!!!  Saw a whole family of them.

Kenzie and I chilling at the beach.

Storms and sun alternated throughout the afternoon

Captain Peace Corps to the rescue!  

I'm babysitting my friend Dave's kitten.  She probably has the easiest life of any cat on the island.  We feed her fish.  But that doesn't mean she has to be happy about wearing these damn glasses!