Ramadan Mubarak from Indonesia!

I am here in Cianjur, a tiny village in the main island of Java. Here, I am celebrating Ramadan and teaching English. Life here is so simple, quiet, and pure. This village is focused on family and community.

At Ersan English course, I am part of a very small team of teachers who are both foreign and Indonesian. We are teaching small children, which is a contrast to my time in Vietnam where I taught adults.

Here, the biggest challenge for me is immersing myself in Islam and Ramadan. Indonesia is the world’s 2nd most populated Muslim country. I am here during Ramadan, which happens on the ninth month of the lunar-based Islamic calendar. During this time, all Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk for 30 days.

I am not Muslim, but I am participating to respect my host community. In layman’s terms, We don’t eat or drink anything (even water) during daylight hours for the whole month. It is meant to remind us of the less fortunate and help cultivate more patience, gratitude, and virtue.

During this time, I find myself getting more irritable (HANGRY, anyone?) But also very self-aware. I am slower to respond, think before acting/moving to conserve energy, and generally have become more patient. It’s a challenge for sure.

There is a specific term for the activities you do while passing time before breaking fast, it’s a slang term called nabuborit (my spelling is probably so terrible).

During iftar, when we break fast, I typically eat nasi goreng (fried rice), dates, chicken, or something made by one of the kind women who invite me over for dinner.

I am enjoying myself and learning a lot!

 

P.S. My small group pf students and I are all dancers and we teach other moves. One day, we ran through our vocabulary exercises in the splits. So FUN!