Waiting to Ramadan

Yesterday I packed a little bag and headed to a friend's house in the old city to await the announcement of the start of the month of Ramadan. We prayed the sun down prayer and the late-night prayer in the neighborhood mosque, but there was no announcement of the sighting of the moon. As we walked back to her house she said that there was no sense of Ramadan on the streets, in that there were no people blowing trumpets and the such although there were plenty of people running around to get their Ramadan food staples ( mostly fried doughy treats dipped in honey and topped w/ sesame seeds ).
We went back to her place and finally caught a little announcement that went past at the bottom of the screen of one of the national television stations that Ramadan would begin on Tuesday and not the next day which was Monday.

But today, Monday, sure felt like Ramadan, I think people were so ready for it to be announced as starting today that it was hard for them to get into eating. As I ate a group breakfast with my friend's family we commented on that, it just felt kind of weird to be eating. We were all happy though that the Moroccan government had decided to repeal Daylight Savings time as of this morning,in order to make Ramadan a little easier on everyone ,they said. So we put our clocks back to how they were before and gained an hour. 10 am became 9 am. Sunset is now at 7 instead of 8, Alhamdulilah.

With the extra hour at our disposal,my friend's sister, who is a traditional tailor and I descended down into the bowels of the old city to buy some fabric and silk thread and things. I was on a special mission that had to do with the Qarawiyin mosque. Recently, a place in the Qarawiyin had been opened for women to get ablutions for prayer (wudhu), unfortunately the room has no door or curtain so there is little privacy. I had repeatedly asked the men who are the attendants of the mosque about this. One just kind of ignored me, but another said to me " Well , May God bring us some righteous woman who will donate a curtain." I said to him, "So - you're saying that if i bring a curtain, you will put it up?" He shook his head in the affirmative.

So, my friend and I went to look for some good fabric that would be worthy of the Qarwiyin and that would also stand up to the heavy traffic and dust of the old city.
Having gotten the fabric , we headed back to the Qarawiyin and I draped it over the opening and used a pin to mark where the length should be.
The attendant on duty asked me if i intended to hang that curtain in the mosque. I answered in the affirmative. No , he said. You can't hang it without permission from the Ministry of Islamic affairs. He told me " this is the Qarawiyin, we cant even put a nail in the wall with out official permission." I pointed out the fact that people could clearly look in at women washing for prayer and that that was inappropriate. He said that i needed to go to the Ministry office and get permission to hang the curtain. So that is my task for this week,God willing, although somehow i don't see it only taking a week.

So tomorrow, Tuesday is the first official day of fasting here in Morocco. If you were here with me in Fes, I would say to you, " Mabruk al-Awashir, bash tamannay, shi hajj inshAllah"
but instead I say to you all out there in the world beyond,
Ramadan Mubarak Sa'id to all the Ramadaners!!!!!!! May your fasts and prayers be accepted! Ameen.