Celebrating Ramadan in Jendouba

"Ramadan is a holy month of fasting, introspection and prayer for Muslims, the followers of Islam. Fasting is one of the five fundamental principles of Islam. Each day during Ramadan, Muslims do not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. They are also supposed to avoid impure thoughts and bad behavior. Muslims break their daily fasts by sharing meals with family and friends, and the end of Ramadan is celebrated with a three-day festival known as Eid al-Fitr, one of Islam’s major holidays."

(History.com / The History Channel)

The Islamic world, which I entered on the second of June, utilizes the Lunar Calendar which means that the precise dates of Ramadan vary over the course of several years. This year Ramadan falls from May 26 to June 24 and began just as Tunisian public schools were closing for their summer break.

According to my students, the holy month of Ramadan is a time when they are reminded to pray and thank God for his blessings. It is also a time when their fasting from sunrise to sunset helps them focus on those who are poor and in need of help.

In Tunisian cities such as Jendouba and in villages throughout the country, many businesses almost come to a standstill during Ramadan - at least in the mornings. The reason is that from sunset until early morning Tunisian families are celebrating the breaking of their day-long fast.  They fix elaborate meals, invite family and friends to join them, go to the mosque to pray, and then gather at cafes or in public areas to talk and play and enjoy one another's company.  This includes entire families and it is not uncommon to see parents with very young children enjoying a cool evening at 11pm, 12pm, and even 1 or 2am. Such late night activity makes early rising the next morning difficult. In fact, several of my students would tell me that they had not slept at all but had just come to class following their previous evening's time with friends.

One of my students invited me to his home on Thursday evening to celebrate iftar, the breaking of the fast. I was honored by the invitation and so on Thursday afternoon, Chris & I drove to his village 18 kilometers outside of Jendouba. He and his father and young sister were standing on the side of the road when we neared their village. His father asked Chris if I'd like to see the Roman ruins of the ancient marble quarry nearby?  He did not have to ask twice!

As we walked through recently harvested wheat fields (the Jendouba area was known as the "Bread Basket" of ancient Rome), I could not help but marvel at the remains of Roman buildings, ancient stone roads, and an intact yet crumbling amphitheater.  I was walking in history! A history that is just everyday life for Baha and his family.

We walked to a small river which Chris said is the only river in the region that never dries up in the summer and flows from Algeria in the west.  A few pillars of an ancient Roman aqueduct still stand guard in the distance.

When we returned to where Chris had parked his Peugeot minivan, Baha's father asked if I was tired or would I like to climb up the marble mountain and see where the slabs were quarried?  Tired? Not a chance. So, following him on a relatively steep gravel path, we made our way up a couple hundred feet into a break between two marble towers. 

 

The view from the mountainside was marvelous.

We spent about 20 minutes in that marble world in the sky - awed by the amount of time, effort, and physical labor it must have taken to slice away slabs of marble, manouever them to ground level, transport them to the river a half-mile away and then float them to the coast for shipment to Italy and other Mediterranean ports.

(This is a shot of Chris. Striations from the drills used to separate the marble into slabs can be easily seen.)

According to Chris, the marble from this quarry (a yellow/putty/khaki color) is found only here and nowhere else in the world.

As we returned to ground level and left the marble mountain we passed this monstrous hunk of stone. I could not help but wonder what Michelangelo and his chisel could have done with this abandoned rock.





While that was a wonderful experience, the best was yet to come: Iftar with Baha and his family! We drove about 5 minutes from the quarry to the village where he lives with his parents, younger brother and sister, and his grandfather. Chris and I were invited to sit on the covered patio adjacent to a walled interior space. Bottles of water were on the low table but as it was not sundown and the family would not partake, neither did we.

Baha asked if I'd like to see his pigeons and took me around to the rear of the house to see his flock of 10 birds - strictly pets. Then he and his sister took me to see his grandfather's farm - a acre or two across the road from the village houses where there were patches of tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins, and a couple of plants I couldn't recognize and which Baha did not know the English names for. There was also a monstrous green fig tree - and this man loves figs!  There was also a very large pomegranate tree but the fruit will not be ripe until Fall. (I had left my camera in the van because I was uncertain as to whether it would be appropriate to take photos. So no farm pics.)




The three of us returned to the house just before dusk and sat around the table awaiting the evening "call to prayer" which signals the end of the fasting day. Baha's mother is a wonderful cook and had prepared a variety of traditional iftar foods.

I asked if I could take a photo of the family before we ate and everyone agreed that this would be a great idea.

Baha's mother did not eat with us, as is custom, but did join us after dinner when they wheeled the TV onto the porch to watch a popular Tunisian game show.

We stayed until about 10pm and then thanked the family for their invitation to share the iftar, their gracious hospitality and the delicious iftar meal.

A wonderful day in Jendouba, Tunisia.