Surviving The 1st Day Of Ramadan

Yesterday was the start of the month of Ramadan in Libya .What a start I got off to, let me tell you! First off I woke up early so that I could go to the store to buy fresh ristah pasta (this is very similar to angel hair pasta, nice and fine, that is steamed and served with a tomato sauce on top of it) that almost everyone in Libya has the first night for dinner.

Moe and I went down the stars in a silent building. I was thinking to myself HOW quite it was with all the men at work, when we walked outside the building to find that every single car was still parked. It looked as if no one had gone to work. Now that was odd. Sometimes during Ramadan the government and some private businesses will allow their employees to come in an hour or even two later than normal because of the custom of staying up so late during Ramadan. But even so, 11:30 A.M.? No one was at work yet? Hum? Then Moe said maybe since this was the first day, just maybe, everyone had the day off from work.

We got in the car, drove down the deserted street. It was so eerie! Not ONE SINGLE SOUL IN SIGHT!!!! Not a one! OMG! What was going on here? Had the Rapture come while we were asleep? Some Christians believe that before Christ returns to Earth in the Second Coming , all the true believers will be taken up to Heaven and only the wicked people will be left on Earth to suffer through the trails and tribulations of the Anti Christ's coming .I was beginning to think they might have been right after all since no one was outside but us ! We drove down our street, then another before we saw one other car besides our own. Ok, so there were some other sinners left on Earth besides Moe and me. I wasn't too sure whether to be comforted by that thought or not.

We made it to the store with out seeing another person until we saw the clerk inside the store. Get this; there weren't any other customers inside the store. Now, this is getting down right spooky! We bought our pasta and drove on over to down town Tagura where little boys sell bureek skins. They are made from wheat and are similar to wanton skins. You put a stuffing inside, roll them up and fry them like an egg roll or a spring roll. So GOOD! Their mothers make the skins for them to sell. That done, we drove back home, only seeing a few more cars on the road. Then brilliant Moe looked at me, started to laugh and said," you know don't you that today is Friday?" In Libya Fridays are like a Sunday everywhere else, a week end day.Oh, thank God! That mystery solved, we came home where I went into the kitchen to begin cooking.

Later in the afternoon our son and his wife, with Haroun came over. That's when most of my troubles began. I almost burned the onions that go on top of the pasta sauce … twice. The sauce was the next victim, it nearly scorched beyond saving, but I rescued it after all. As if that wasn't enough near disasters, I burned the coffee grounds as I tried to preheat them before making the coffee. THEN ….. I compounded that mistake by dumping the very hot smoking coffee grounds into the plastic garbage bag in the trash bin slamming on the top to keep all the smoke fumes trapped inside the bin, so I thought. My daughter in law helping me in the kitchen opened the trash bin to put trash in the bin, what else? LOL! Only to discover that the trash bag was on FIRE! OMG!!!! Dare I ask what next?

I just proceeded to go down hill from there. The oven was called the refrigerator. The TV I called the oven. I won't tell you what I called the refrigerator! I was fasting, NO COFFEE, trying to speak comprehensible Arabic, and think all at the same time, a very dangerous combination! We made it the time to break our fast all in one piece, without me burning down the Condo.

Today before I went into the kitchen to cook, I sat and read the Quran for an hour .I felt a sense of calm before entering into battle. Hum, maybe I spoke too soon, I think I smell something burning. Gotta go check it out!