Ftoor

As many of you know we are currently in the month of Ramadan.  Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting, the celebrates when prophet Muhammad received the first revelation of the Qur'an.  They fast from sunrise to sunset as directed by Muhammad in order to practice self-sacrifice and think about what others do not have.  Around 4:30 am first light appears and people stop eating.  During the day nothing is to pass their lips, food nor drink.  Around 7:15 pm the sun sets and people break their fast with a meal called ftoor.  Traditionally they break the fast with dates and milk.  Then you proceed to have lots of wonderful food you see here including soup.  They will then have another meal around 10 pm or midnight and then a small meal before 4:30 am when the fast starts again. I was invited to two ftoors this week. The first ftoor was with a few of my former students.  The parents ate in another room and I ate with several high school and middle school students.  It was really fun and free of any of the cultural pressures to try and finish everything put in front of me.

Imane, Dounia, Hasnaa, & Me

 

Algerian Ftoor

On Wednesday night I went to my second ftoor.  I was invited to another student's home with two other teachers.  The father is Algerian so we had an Algerian ftoor.  I really enjoyed it because Algeria has many more similarities to Turkey because Algeria was part of the Ottoman Empire, Morocco was not.  I also ate sheep's liver for the first time, which I did not enjoy.  I'm getting used to trying lots of new things!

Yaddir, Khadija & Dinah