Here Comes Ramadan

The non-nuanced view I used to have of "the Arab of the Middle East" is fading away.

I don't feel particularly guilty that I used to have basically 1-3 pictures in my head of what a Gulf Coast Arab would look and act like, just like I don't feel guilty that my imagination envisions every Uruguayan as a male or female version of Diego Forlan or Luis Suarez - I've never been near "Uruguay," so if you say that word, I'm going to associate it with the few people, mannerisms, history-class notes, etc. that stuck in my memory.

I am pleased to be gaining depth to my understanding of people and customs in this region, and it would be pretty sweet if I can get to Uruguay one day soon and hammer away at my ignorance there.

My concept of the holy month of Ramadan, like so many things from Earth including the Yakuza and Robert Mosbacher, has long been shaped by one line from The Simpsons:

"Have a merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, kwazy Kwanza, a tip-top Tet, and a solemn, dignified Ramadan," Krusty the Clown tells his viewers, during an American holiday-season broadcast.

A solemn, dignified Ramadan...sounds a little austere for my holiday preferences.

Above is a picture of our apartment building to the right, and in the middle, the tent they have been setting up for weeks now, which I believe will serve as a festive eating and socializing place during Ramadan. Normally, that area would all be a walkway, where kids from our building often congregate to play soccer in the late afternoon (I haven't invited myself to join yet). It is quite the structure for a tent - it winds in the back and I'm sure it's more than 100 feet long in total - plus new items are set up inside it every day, such as that gigantic air-conditioning system you see in the bottom left corner.

Although I know qualities like self-control, humility and purity are connected with the essence of Ramadan, our tent does not look like a place people will visit simply to be solemn, dignified.

Ramadan begins on August 1 this year and ends on August 29 (it changes from year to year based on the moon), with Muslims fasting during sunlight hours. In the evening, there is a fast-breaking meal called Iftar. From what I gather from our Muslim friends, Iftar can be a very social meal, very family- and group-oriented.

For a guy whose favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, it's pretty appealing to imagine the type of food set-up that could fit inside that tent, but believe it or not, it's the socializing that interests me most.

One of my largest disappointments about my UAE experience so far is that people tend to be more distant and less inviting, but I'm also kind of a passive extravert, so I have to shoulder some of the blame. Still I was hoping that with a country of people from everywhere - most relocated to the UAE within the last several years - we would constantly be hanging out with new people from new places without having to try.

Maybe Ramadan will jump-start such experiences. I'll probably be shy about barging into someone's cultural experience, so I'll likely wait for a sign or an invitation to get in the tent.

But even if I don't end up in it, standing on a bench speaking to a circle of Brits and Filipinos and Arabs about the experiences of tailgating at Penn State or visiting movie studios in LA and then hearing about their backgrounds, all while a sweet old lady in an abaya tries to serve me more Ghraybeh cookies...I'm quite excited to at least learn about Ramadan through observation, and hopefully gain a slightly richer understanding of my surroundings.