Looking at Old Stuff

I had a free day this week and my roommate asked if I’d like to go back to the Canyon. She wanted to do some hiking. I wasn’t up for hiking but the allure of being in a quiet nature spot with a chance to read and decompress tempted me. I almost didn’t agree to go for fear that I would go and be irritated by the fact that I was in this place and not my familiar Tennessee. I had ideas of getting away to a quiet place in nature to recharge but as it so often happens, this place can replace those serene pictures. I decided to risk it anyway.

She hiked and I read some C.S. Lewis and listened to a sermon. I think the day was soul-filling for us both. We each did have a moment that reminded us that "We're not in Kansas anymore." For her, the river she walked alongside smelled like sewer. So in this nice, out of the way, nature place, someone was dumping sewage in the river. Nice, right? For me, a local guy kept hitting on me. He approached me three times to ask me to go on a date with him. He just couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to go with him. So the time was soul-filling with a healthy dose of, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

After her hike we visited a nearby ancient city called Blandus. We have no idea what the significance of the city was. It seems like it was a Roman city and there were bishops there. There wasn’t much left standing. There were signs pointing to amphitheaters and stadiums and columned streets but those were hard to make out in the piles of rock. We were there as the sun was setting and so I was able to snap some nice pictures. 

Suffocating Hospitality and Rebecca Sandwiches

For those who keep up with me and follow the news, you know my country had lots to report this past week. I won’t get into all of it but let’s just say there was a lot of history making going on but it was short-lived. Peace was restored quickly and now we are living in the aftermath of what went down. Life has continued pretty normal for me outside of the nightly demonstrations. There were also a couple nights of horn honking (see video below) but those have ceased. Even though things seem back to normal, I sense that changes are coming. 

In light of the news, I spent a few days laying low to let it all settle. I did stop by and visit some neighbors. I met one neighbor at the end of last summer. She invited me to visit whenever I liked but with school starting back, I didn’t visit her. With the cooler weather keeping everyone inside, I didn’t see her again until a month or two ago. Since then, she has regularly been bringing me food. I eventually returned one of her dishes with some lentil patties. She insisted on giving me a headscarf in return. To be given a gift means you must give something in return. This non-ending gift giving wears me out. 

Anyway, I finally returned another of her dishes with some scones inside. She invited me in, all the while yelling something to the other person in the house. I then saw her husband wearing only a wife beater and underwear dart to the back to put some clothes on. Oops! We sat drinking coffee and eating fruit while talking of the recent news. Her husband went outside and was working on something. I finally realized he was making me a garlic crusher to take home with me. She also sent me home with more of her soup mix even though I insisted I still had plenty. After dumping a generous amount in a jar she decided it wasn’t enough and added some more. She also insisted on giving me two garlic bulbs to add to the soup. Sheesh! Sometimes their gifts and hospitality is suffocating. I will never eat all of that soup! 

Garlic crusher

Shelby’s mom is another one who is suffocatingly hospitable. I visited them this week. On that day I spent about 7 hours with locals and managed to drink a whole liter of water. That was an accomplishment since most locals don’t consider water an actual drink. Shelby’s mom asked if I would please stay for dinner. I agreed but told them I couldn’t stay late. She whipped up a pretty decent meal with what she had. It always surprises me how fast they can whip up a pretty good sized meal with several courses with what they have on hand. The locals are quite resourceful in the kitchen. As it was getting dark and I’ve been trying to be inside before it gets dark due to all that has happened here, I rushed out after dinner. Her mom didn’t feel that she had been adequately hospitable enough and thus chased me out the door trying to force feed me some watermelon. For the first time, I managed to escape her insistence. Between escaping the watermelon and drinking a whole liter of water, I consider that a culture win day. 

I went to the post office to send a package. I realized it was my first real package I have sent from here. I had sent one other package but it was in an envelope. I paid little to send it and didn’t have to fill out a customs form for that one. This week, they sent me to a different office. In that office, I had to pay way more for this package and had to fill out a customs form. I laughed as only one guy in the office had ever sent a package out of the country. The other gals had no idea what they were doing. 

I visited Kadie and her family along with my summer roommate, Rebecca. They are seriously some of my favorite people in the city and I always enjoy my time with them and feel relaxed. This night was no different and we had quite a few laughs. 

I actually go by my first name, Rebecca, here. The locals had a hard time saying Candace and even harder time reading. According to my second language’s pronunciations, my name reads like “John-dah-jay.” My id card also says Rebecca so some people know me from my id card. With all those facts combined, I have switched to Rebecca. My first acquaintances still know me as Candace and so it sometimes causes confusion. Anyway, that night, Kadie wanted to get a picture with myself and the other Rebecca. We said she was in a Rebecca sandwich. We laughed about that and learned that if a person is between two people with the same name they get to make a wish. With this new knowledge, we let everyone be a Rebecca sandwich and make a wish. 

I have a good friend who has recently made some bad financial decisions leaving them with deep, hard consequences. As I prayed for them, this thought came to my mind, “They sold all they had to buy a treasure-less field.” In other words, their idol has been exposed for what it was. That thought has stuck with me. What treasure-less fields am I attempting to buy? What idols of mine need to be exposed for their weaknesses? I’m still chewing on this one. 

Art, Village Picnics, and the Dentist

One day, my friend Evi’s little girl asked to come over and do art with me. I’m not sure why she got this urge but I agreed to let her come. I figured she just wanted to paint but when she arrived she said she wanted to watch me and mimic what I did. We worked on some black and white drawings and I showed her how to draw shadows. She became bored with that soon so I suggested we do a joint painting of a guitar only she would paint one side and I would the other. She liked that idea. 

After that she asked if we could play Uno. We played about 10 games and I only won twice. She told me she wanted to try my sushi and asked if I would make it for her. I happily obliged. We ended the night playing Ticket to Ride and eating chocolate chip cookies. All in all it was a fun day and I was thankful the Lord used her to speak all of my love languages.

I stopped by to see my carpet store friend and his wife one day. She wasn’t at the shop but he invited me to go on a picnic with them that coming weekend. I kind of dreaded going and hoped it would not happen. I realized that I was culture shocking a bit. That combined with the fact that I’m only now getting to know them made me wonder if my time would be awkward. 

I arrived and saw a couple that I had met once or twice through my art class. It was nice to see familiar faces. I spoke with them and the others before the wife called me away to walk with her. We went behind the small building and sat on the short walk bridge with our feet dangling in the creek. I eventually learned that she is a stranger to all of these people and I was able to make her first meeting with them more bearable. We were able to keep each other company since we were both outsiders. 

The carpet man, his wife and I. P.S. I love
the face of the woman sitting on the ground.

A fun way to keep cool on a hot day. Also note the
lemonade bottles also being chilled on the hot day.

After the cooling break, it was time to get food ready. I helped her wash and chop vegetables for one of the tomato and cucumber salad or “Shepherd’s Salad.” Another lady made my favorite picnic salad. It’s called “Eggplant Salad,” and made with grill roasted eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers. Those are peeled, seeded, finely chopped and seasoned with garlic, salt olive oil, and lemon juice. This fresh salad straight from the grill is delicious and I highly recommend it!

We ended with a nice spread of food. I ate so much that I had no room left over for desert. After dinner, I helped my friend wash the mass of dishes. I’m not used to being hunkered over washing dishes and the next day, my leg muscles were very angry. After dinner, she asked me to walk with her. I learned that she is a closet smoker. Her husband has forbade her to smoke so naturally she sneaks and still does it. He can’t smell so he is still none the wiser. After our walk, we sat around in the dark drinking tea. In the end I was glad I went. It was quiet, peaceful, and green. In the dark, I drank in the beauty of the stars which I rarely get to see. 

Preparing the salads. This was the same
low dishwashing station.

All the older folks were sitting in a line
waiting on the food to be served.

Our spread of food.

After DG left to go home from our trip, I stayed behind in the big city. A few months back I was pretty sure I had chipped a tooth. My American friends told me they don’t recommend dentists in my city but had heard of an American guy in this nearby big city. I had been to the big city twice since then but wasn’t able to get an appointment with him. Since I was already going to be there with DG, I decided to make an appointment. I’m not a fan of dentists so I forced myself to not think about it. 

This is my scared dentist face. Also,
check out the crazy hair, just an hour or
so after a shower.

I arrived to the super clean and nice office. The assistant/secretary only spoke Turkish but thank the good Lord, the dentist spoke my own language. That factor alone eliminated so much stress that would have otherwise accompanied my first overseas dentist visit. It turns out an old filling had chipped and needed replaced. Lucky for me, he had a cancellation after me and was able to do both the cleaning and filling in the same day. He was quite the perfectionist and struggled to make the tooth and me as comfortable as possible. He also did the cleaning himself. He was quite attentive and had his assistant call the next day to verify I was not having any problems. 

As I left the dentist, I wondered if I could be so lucky as to find a Subway to eat at. I had spotted a Starbucks on the way so figured I could find at least some kind of American fast food place. Wouldn’t you know that I found a Subway right across the street from the office. It was a nice reward to my first overseas dentist experience. 

Post dentist smiles. Well partial smiles due to the
cavity filling numbing. Also, we were glad to sit in
front of that air conditioner.

Bussing back home. Check out that
empty seat! It's always a great day to
have an empty bus seat!

A Cultural Beach Trip Part 2

My last post covered the first day of my trip with DG. I went to bed and heard DG come in at some point in the night. We woke around the same time and went to breakfast. The worker man was quite chatty and I noted jealously in my heart that DG had no problem carrying on a conversation with him. 

There were two American gals who lived in my city last year. I asked them before they left how living here had changed them. One of them said that in some ways she has grown in confidence and in other ways she has grown more insecure. I thought this was an accurate description of my life. There are things that I do regularly that I would have never had the courage to do in America. In other ways, I feel way more insecure than I did before. I felt very insecure with DG as our time together progressed. It came out most in my Turkish. My competency diminished over the two days with her. I couldn’t get out a single sentence correctly or with proper flow. This made it even harder to try to talk to her. 

As we hit the beach after breakfast and she immediately put in her ear buds, I finally decided to embrace that my time with her would not be spent in conversation. I regrouped, read the Word, and prayed. Then I went to my book and enjoyed the sound of waves crashing as I sat in sunshine. After two hours, she suggested that we go back, shower, check out of room and head back to the big city to do some sightseeing there. Didn’t see that one coming but I rolled with it. I was dreading it though because I had a heavy bag I’d have to carry around. I wondered aloud if there might not be a place to store the bag in the big city. She seemed to think there was. It turns out the bus station has a whole room. You can pay about $4 to store it in the room for the whole day. That was a win in my book!

Part of the stress of the whole trip was not knowing really what to expect at any and every turn. I didn’t know what time our bus would leave. I didn’t know where we would stay. Once we had a hotel, it changed to a different one. I didn’t know how long she wanted to stay at the beach. I didn’t know she wanted to spend so much time on her phone. I didn’t know why we were resting after swimming. I didn’t know how far the fish restaurant would be or how to order fish once we arrived. I didn’t know she wanted to get drunk. I didn’t know she had a friend there. I didn’t know how long we would stay out at night. I didn’t know how late she would sleep. I didn’t know she only wanted to spend two hours at the beach the second day. I didn’t know she wanted to sightsee in the big city. All of this not-knowing was building up inside of me. 

From the bus station, we took a mini-bus to the touristy area. It was a long, hot, 1-hour ride across the city. I didn’t know it would be that far. After we finally got off the bus, we walked for a minute before she detoured into a store to buy a new shirt to wear. This was another, I-didn’t-see-that-one-coming moment. 

After the shirt buying, we walked for a while. I was hot, sweaty, tired, irritated, and hungry. I eventually realized that after the 1 hour bus ride, we had not reached our destination. We still needed to cross the sea by ferry. We boarded the rocking ferry with people bumping into me on all sides and she wanted to go stand in the hot sun. This was a breaking point for me. Since she still was on the phone talking to someone, I decided to text my best friend in my city to see when I could see her next. She replied that she was leaving just before I would be back to go stay with her mom for a month. I had to fight back bitterness that DG had taken away the opportunity to see my good friend for the last time for a while. Like I have learned, I took it to the Lord in prayer. I began to sense that maybe the enemy was trying to pit me against DG. I prayed against that and asked for strength. We got off the ferry and took the requisite picture in front of the clock tower. The picture below shows me all smiles but as my tale indicates up to this point, things aren’t always as they seem. 

We walked through a crowded outdoor shopping area for a while before we finally found some food places. She wanted fish again so we sat down at a little place. I ordered a fried version of some type of fish. I’m still not up on all my fish type names. The fried crispiness was great but the fish was full of tiny bones. DG ate the bones like no big deal but after my fourth piece, I was done. I decided to order a local salty yogurt drink to add to the fullness of my stomach. She wouldn’t let me since supposedly it is poisonous to have fish and salty yogurt water together. I didn’t push it. It’s amazing how much a meal and some prayer changed my attitude. And as we were sitting, we actually talked with each other. 

After the meal, she wanted to do some shoe shopping. We did that for a short while and then walked along the sea edge to a grassy, shady place. We each got an ice cream and cooled off in the shade. While we were sitting there, a fortune teller came up and DG offered to let her tell her fortune. I didn’t see that one coming either. 

We ferried back to the other side and got on a free shuttle to the bus station. This is yet another example of how different this place is from America. I didn’t have a bus ticket since I was staying an extra night in the big city but yet I was able to take the free shuttle back the 45 minutes to the bus station. 

We picked up my bag from the holding room and then waited on her bus. The bus was late. She offered to let me go ahead and go but I knew that culturally that was not what was expected of me. The bus finally came and I sent her off. I bought a can of Pringles for $3 in celebration of finishing my “vacation” with DG. I taxied to my friend’s house hoping to take a shower to wash away the grime and stress. As luck would have it, her apartment didn’t have water. I ended my day with a wet wipe bath and hit the bed for a long, solid night’s sleep, glad my “vacation” was over.

Check out all those buses. Bus travel here
is a serious business. And I love it!

A Cultural Beach Trip Part 1

A few weeks ago, DG asked if I wanted to go to the beach with her. She said she only had one day off and usually takes a bus there and back on the same day. This seemed like a fun way to go deeper in a relationship with her so I agreed. When the time came to go, it turns out she had two days off due to the holiday. She said we could go down one day early, stay the night, and then come back late the next day. This seemed a bit more of a commitment but I agreed. I began dreading our trip as it approached. I sent a message the day before we were to leave asking if she had found a place to stay. She had not but said she would that night and could she come to my house after work. She generally gets off work around 10:30 or 11pm. As it approached 11:30, my eyes were growing droopy and I still hadn’t heard from her, I asked if she was coming. She said it would be about 12:30 before she came. Not what I wanted to hear. She then offered for us to meet up in the morning at the bus station instead at 7:30. That idea sounded better.

The following morning I woke up and rushed my way to the bus station. I made it around 7:30 and eventually called to see where she was. Late is where she was. She arrived almost 45 minutes after I did. We went to buy tickets at a cheaper company than the one I usually use. The next bus wouldn’t leave for another hour and there were only 2 seats left on the back row. She said we would take them and haggled the guy down 25%. It never occurred to me to haggle over bus tickets. Since we had an hour to wait, we got breakfast together.

I was a tad bit irritated by this point. I could have slept another hour and a half had she had a plan for bus tickets in advance. We didn’t have a hotel either so she was searching around for that. When it came time for our bus to leave, we went to the check-in counter. A man met us and told us we would catch the bus on the “other side.” I didn’t really know what “other side” he was talking about. We then proceeded to walk over a half-broken down fence and across 4 lanes of traffic to wait for our bus at a gas station. Charming.

An hour into our trip, we stopped for a thirty minute break. Had we used the company I typically use, we would have been 2/3 finished with our trip by the time our break finished due to earlier departure times and no breaks. I was a bit more irritated but relaxed a little after remembering this is vacation for her and we had no agenda. I did manage to sleep for a while on the rest of that trip and some of my grouchiness faded. 

View from the back of the bus

We changed buses at the station and made our way to the beach city. We sat down for some lunch at a place. While eating, she spotted a hotel across the street and went to ask their prices. It was about $5 cheaper for the night but one street away from the beach we wanted to use. She then called and cancelled our first hotel since she found a better deal. I was shocked. In America, you couldn’t cancel a hotel the same day you planned to stay there without some sort of large fee, much less one that you had booked just hours before you intended to stay there. Welcome to my country. 

View of our lunch place from our hotel.
The sea is on the other side of those buildings.

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel. Did I mention I was glad we were at a hotel? Some of my apprehension was not knowing what her idea of a vacation was. Since she is a college student on a budget, I thought we might be staying at a hostel somewhere, in a big room with a bunch of other people. I have never done that and it made me feel stressed to experience yet one more new thing. I also was dreading having to tote all of my things to the beach since we wouldn’t have a room in which to lock things up. Having a hotel put some of my fretting at ease. 

We made our way to the water. It was beautiful. Just two weeks ago I had been on a Mediterranean Sea beach but this Aegean one was so much more beautiful. I used filters on the picture to make it look closer to the colors I was seeing. The pictures just did not do the place justice. 

We rented an umbrella and lounge chairs. We went for a swim in the sea. It was a sandy beach but there were rocks as you entered the sea and then sometimes a patch further out. These were not smooth stones, these were jagged ones that made my feet hate going in the water. After a swim in the sea, we sat in the shade. I tried to make conversation with her but she wasn’t in a talking mood, at least not with me. She kept talking to people on her phone, taking a thousand pictures, sending messages, and posting things to social media. I took the hint and decided to do some reading. 

After a while, she suggested we go back to the hotel and shower then go out exploring. After our showers, she asked if we could rest for a bit. I didn’t really understand why she wanted to rest until I realized she really just wanted to wait on her phone to charge. I was beginning to grow tired of the phone. I went back to reading until she suddenly decided it was time to go. I learned we would be meeting a friend of hers. We hustled out the door and met her friend E and went to the cafe where he worked. He wanted us to eat dinner there but DG had her heart set on eating fish. E asked some folks about a good fish restaurant and they gave some general directions. DG asked if E would take us there so we wouldn’t get lost. As we walked, E began the normal local questioning of me, the American. I was growing more and more irritated about everything by this point. We had to take pictures of everything we were doing and I didn’t really feel like dealing with an interested guy. We made it to the hole in the wall place and E left us. 

Since the restaurant looked like a tiny, run-down, hole in the wall place, I figured the seafood would be amazing. It was not. The food was mediocre at best. DG was still spending more time on her phone than talking to me and I was reaching a point where I needed a break from her and from her wild whims. I was also a little hurt that she seemed to care more for the people on the other side of her phone or for documenting our time together than actually spending time with the person beside her. The view from where we ate was the highlight of my evening.

That's a blanket wrapped around my shoulders.
Only in my country do they have blankets on
hand to protect from the wind and cold.

We made our way back to the cafe where E worked. DG decided to have a beer. Then she had another. She made grimacing faces with each drink. She said she hates beer but wanted to get drunk. Great. She also smoked a water pipe. Again she said she doesn’t actually enjoy it but wanted to do it anyway. I find that she is just at a point where she wants to do all the bad things she’s not supposed to do. 

Since I don’t drink alcohol, I had a lemonade. E was working but when he didn’t have things to do he would come and chat with us. He told me that if I came back to the town, I must be his guest. I quickly told him that I can’t because I can’t stay alone with just a guy. He quickly told me I was thinking wrongly and had only meant for me to stop by for tea or something. Whatever his intentions may have been, it was a good establishing point for what is acceptable behavior with me. 

When I learned that DG’s plan was to get drunk and then wander around the city until the wee hours of the morning, I told her that I was tired and wanted to go to bed. She was disappointed, stating that we had to make the most of the two days. E suggested I go back to the hotel and let DG stay there with him that way we both would win. He also insisted on escorting me back to the hotel even though I could see the entrance from where I was sitting. He was going to get the key from me so that way DG could get in the room later without waking me. As we walked I realized he would walk up to my hotel room with me. Locals have all kinds of opinions of American women and most of them come from the movies. I cringed at what those watching would thinking as I went up to my hotel alone with a guy. E then surprised me by suggesting he would let me walk up alone and then I could drop the key to him from the balcony. Maybe he was a gentleman after all. 

Discouragingly Hopeful

Discouragingly hopeful. This is a good summation of how I feel most days. I debated on whether I was discouragingly hopeful or hopefully discouraged. Some days I start out hopeful and end discouraged. Someone once said this place where I live is disheartening. I find that I'm hopeful that someone is interested in hearing more or my day to day activities and conversations are actually making a difference only to be disappointed in some way. But, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, I do not lose heart. Why? Because my hope is anchored in a glory that is unparalleled in its glory, in a God who enables me to do this work, in the reality that results and fruit are on God, not me. So I fix my hope and my gaze on what is not seen. 

Here are my other thoughts from 2 Corinthians 3&4

*What is this ministry makes us not lose heart? Verse 6 in chapter 3 says that God has given us the ability to represent Him in a new covenant. 

*What covenant? In 3:10 he says that this covenant has so much more glory than the old one. The old one was so glorious Moses had to cover his face because the glory was so powerful. 

*This new one is so glorious that the other one's glory has faded into nothingness. 

*This amazingly glorious hope makes us bold. (3:12)

*We are slowly becoming more like the most magnificent Being in all of Creation. (3:18)

*In light of all of this, we do not lose heart. (4:1)

*In light of this incredible glory, we don’t water down or change the message. It would be like finding healing water and then telling people you found normal water so they don’t think you’re crazy. (4:2)

*People will reject what we share because they are blind, deaf, and dead not because of what we share or how we share it. The power to change those conditions belongs to God, not us. Our job is to do the sharing not the changing. So again, we don’t lose heart even in rejection.

*It’s ok that we are weak. We’re meant to be so we will know the power comes from God. (4:7)   

*We will in fact suffer greatly as we share but we won’t be crushed, despairing, abandoned, or destroyed. (4:8) 

*Not only will we not be destroyed, we will be raised to a gloriously immortal life. (4:14) 

*We look to things not seen rather than the seen things that would cause us to despair. (4:18)

So to recap:

1. We are adequately equipped to share Good News. 

2. We have the most gloriously beautiful news to share in all

    of history. Nothing will ever have this much glory.  

3. The glory makes us bold. 

4. Not only are we equipped, we’re becoming more like God. 

5. We do not alter that gloriousness as we share.

6. We don’t lose heart when people reject.

7. Our weakness means God’s power.

8. We won’t lose heart when we suffer because...

9. we know our immortal resting place is secure.

10. We don’t lose heart because we’re looking for the unseen

      things.

Recent Thoughts

Between the bombings and the shootings and the ever increasing violence, my heart is so very heavy. In July alone, there has been a bombing in Istanbul, a bombing in Baghdad, various tragic shootings in America, an attack in France, and now a coup in Turkey. 

After the Baghdad one, I sent a message to my friend Harry asking if his family was ok. He said they were for now but he has lost lots of friends. He sounded as if death was commonplace to him. I did a little research and realized that it is normal for him. From January to June, there were close to 5,000 civilian deaths due to war or terrorist activities. 

After the recent shootings in America, a friend of mine wrote this:

“The trajectory of America will not be changed by a President, a political party, a hashtag or a million Facebook statuses. There is only One who can get inside the hearts of people and make a new creation out of hopeless sinners.” - Megan Clenney

In the midst of so much violence, I pray. I pray for the day when this verse become a reality because of the One who has renovated dead hearts into new creations:

I recently listened to a sermon in which an illustration was used. Seminary students were to go to a cemetery and tell the dead bodies to live. This action was equated with the act of sharing. Sharing Good News with someone is like trying to get a dead person to rise. I later heard this similar quote, “The radicalness of conversion, which is so extreme it can only be described as death and new life.” -ZP

There are of course other ways to describe this, almost as awe-inspiring as a dead person coming to life. A blind person gaining sight. A deaf person hearing. A cripple running. 

Look how you shine so

The blind can see

And how you call

How You beckon me

The deaf hear

The voice of love

You bid me come

And the cripple run

Death to life? The blind seeing? Deaf hearing? Lame running? It seems impossible. And yet it is the reality of regeneration. We get to be a part of that, of calling the dead from death to life. Of course it is only possible through the power of God but still He gives us a front row seat. And one day, as a result of our sharing, people will beat their swords into plowshares. 

The Fasting Holiday

The fasting holiday is wrapping up. During this season, for many people life becomes quite different. Folks begin fasting around 3:30 in the morning and don't drink or eat anything again until almost 9pm. That's 17 hours of no food or water in the crazy summer heat. A drummer comes around waking the faithful as well as the grumpy non-fasters like myself around 2am. Many folks get up at 2 to eat and pray and then go back to sleep. A lot of folks continue with normal life working all day. People aren't smoking. They aren't eating during the day and aren't sleeping enough. Needless to say many are on edge. It's a communal holiday so many people join together during the dark hours to eat and have fun. Parks are packed with kids and adults alike until the wee hours of the morning. A shot cannon ball is the indicator that people are free to start eating at nightfall. 

Here are some quotes from the season to give insight to how locals feel about the holiday. 

“I’m trying to fast but we’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping I can make it.”

“Do you see how respectful people are being? They aren’t smoking or drinking water in public. They’ll give up being respectful in a week or two.”

“I can’t do it. I can’t quit smoking and I have to give up smoking to fast. Maybe as I get closer to dying I’ll be able to keep the fast.”

“I’m watching fasting festivities in Mecca but I’m not fasting myself.”

“I forgot that today was the first day of fasting and I accidentally drank some water. I immediately asked for forgiveness.”

“You can’t fast if you have health problems and need to take medicine. You’re not allowed to drink water even to take medicine. My mom and dad fasted last year and didn’t take their medicine. They ended up in the hospital on the second day of the fast.”

“If you end up in the hospital and need fluids, the fast has been ruined. You then owe a debt of 60 fasting days to make up for the one you were unable to fulfill.”

“We fast for 17 hours a day starting at 3:30 am and ending at 8:30 pm.

“I can’t fast if I’m working. It’s too hard. If I were at home all day I could do it.”

“I can’t fast because I’m pregnant. I’ll have a debt of makeup days to pay. I didn’t fast last year either so after this year, I’ll owe 60 makeup days.”

“If you can’t fast because of health, you can give money to the poor in the place of the fast.”

“We fast first because it’s an obligation in our religion, second to be thankful that God gives us food, third to identify with the poor and hungry.”

“I’m excited about fasting. No one else is doing it with me but I think it’s a good thing. 

“I’m become angry faster because I can’t smoke.”

“My friends are staying with me because it’s more fun to eat together.”

“I’m not fasting today because it’s that time of the month for me. I’m kind of glad for the break.” 

“I think fasting is easy. It’s healthy to cleanse my system and it makes me feel more spiritual. You should try it at least one day.”

“It’s hard to fast. We do it for so long and it’s hard to go all day without water.” 

“If I eat even one tiny crumb, my fast is ruined.”

“I’m ten years old and this is my first time fasting all day. I’m only doing it some days because it’s hard.”