Eid-al-Fitr

...I'm the worst blogger in the history of the world. For the amount of time I spend on hall doing nothing, you would think that I could blog more often. I think that I'm going to try to write more short entries instead of a few really long ones. Hopefully that will help! But then again, who knows.

So, flashback to over a month ago. October 1st (Wednesday) was Eid-al-Fitr, a Mulsim holiday. It celebrates the end of the month of Ramadan, which is the month of fasting for Muslims. It is based on the sighting of the moon, so the date on the Gregorian calendar changes every year. We got up early that day to go to a nearby Eid-al-Fitr service with our professor and a friend of his. It took place on a playing field, due to the number of people participating. They lined up standing shoulder to should and facing east- Mecca- with the men in the front and the women and children in the back. We watched while the service occurred. It was really cool to see so many people united by their faith. They said their prayers and then there was a sermon. It was all in Arabic, so we couldn't understand it, but it was still neat!

After the actual prayer service, food and drinks were served to celebrate the end of the fast. We had doubles, which were so good but super spicy! ("Doubles is a common street food in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a sandwich made with two flat fried breads, called "bara" (hence the name "doubles"), filled with curried chick peas or garbanzo beans, commonly called channa (from Hindi/Bhojpuri "chanaa"). Topped with a variety of spicy chutneys (mango, cucumber, coconut, tamarind) and extra pepper sauce (ranging from a dash "slight" to much more), this delicacy is undoubtedly the most popular fast food in Trinidad and Tobago. It is usually eaten for breakfast, but can be a late night snack as well." -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubles_(food)). We also had ice cream, pastries, cheese sandwiches, and treats. There was also this really sweet drink/noodle thing- I wish I could remember what it was called!- that was really good.

We had the opportunity to chat with the imam, the Muslim spiritual leader who led the prayer. He was very nice and answered some of our questions. We also met a few other people, who were all very excited to share their religion and chat with us.

Overall it was a really nice experience. I don't have any pictures because it was a religious service and I didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures. I think Kismeth has a few from the little celebration after but they aren't on facebook, so I can't get to them right now, haha. I've been really bad at taking pictures here, mainly because it makes me feel like a tourist and I don't like that. We're all going to try to exchange pictures at the end of the trip, so hopefully I will still have some to show you when I get home!!

Love and miss you all!
xoxo