Friday, September 11, 2009

Ramadan It! - Day 22

Today I got to talk to a former student who happens to be a Muslim. She's doing the full-on Ramadan, and she's not even drinking any water. Basically, I feel like a complete wuss that a 15-year old can do this, but I have to do a half-baked version of it because I'm afraid of getting headaches. Good thing I believe in Odin, who doesn't require all of these dietary restrictions. (In fact, I'm pretty sure he actively encourages the eating of pork.)

Speaking of pork, I just might have to break that rule. The thing is, I have to defrost my refrigerator. No, it's not some old fridge, but it's a long story to explain why I have to do this, and "defrost" is as short and concise a way to put it as I can come up with. What's the problem? Well, I have some pork products that are in there, including some hot dogs that I got at IKEA (and those seafood sausages in the pork casing I mentioned before).

So, what's worse? Breaking the rules of the experiment or throwing away food? Ironically enough, this whole thing has made me feel even worse when I waste food, so it's actually going to drive me to eat pork. I suppose that I'll remove the casing, but I don't know how to just eat the beef part of those hot dogs.

One way or the other, a lot of food is going to go to waste, which really is a shame. What's worse is that we're going out to eat Sunday night. It's for my father-in-law's birthday, but it feels really wrong to be buying food when I have so much that I'm going to just toss.

Ugh.

2 comments:

April D Findley said...

That's what NEIGHBORS are for! Say, "Hey, let me stash my sausages in your freezer and when Ramadan is over, I'll grill you one up as a token of neighborly good-will and appreciation!"

BTW, your student does have tremendous self discipline, it sounds like. I wonder though, why is she abstaining from water? That sounds dangerous...

Lance Christian Johnson said...

She's abstaining because that's part of the process. Since I don't fear the wrath of Allah, I'm willing to break that particular rule.

To be honest though, when I was in Egypt and it was Ramadan, I saw a lot of people drinking water. Probably because it's even more dangerous when it's as flippin' hot as it is there! (And there wasn't always air-conditioning.)