Craiger does Ramadan

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fast and introspection, started on Oct. 4.  I was unsure what it exactly meant, and how I was to react to it.  I had never really thought about the muslim religion, so I didn’t really know what to expect.  Initially I thought that I would not fast, as I was not Muslim, and thus had no reason to do so.  A chat with one of the Americans who works at the MRTC who was a former Peace Corps volunteer here changed my thinking.  She said that it built a sense of comraderie with the people of her village who were muslim, and it allowed her the chance to experience  and understand the Muslim religion.  I thought about her words for a while, and then decided to go for it: I decided to fast.  

Oct. 5th was the first day I fasted.  The fast works like this:  You wake up around 4:15 or so and have breakfast with some tea, bread, fruit (sometimes), and water.  You stop eating at 4:45 or so and are not allowed to eat or drink ANYTHING until 6:20 in the evening, or for roughly 13 ½ hours.  At that time, you break fast with a small bit of tea (aka Lipton bag tea) with lime and sugar, dates, and raisins.  You then gradually sip cool-to-warm water and then gradually eat larger and larger amounts.  You also continue to drink water throughout the night to replenish what you missed during the day.  Of course, the muslims also pray 5 times a day like normally, but during the month a little bit longer.  The process repeats for the entire “month,” or better said the cycle of the moon from the New Moon of Ramadan to the next New Moon.  At the end of Ramadan there is a huge feast and party called Eid al-Fatr.

So, I decided to try this whole thing out.  The first day was hell.  We had a “good” dinner the night before, and I went to bed feeling a little nervous.  Waking up at 4:15 in the morning to eat is not easy, and it is nearly impossible to go back to sleep.  What follows is a description of my first day doing the fast (recall, no food or water during daylight hours):

“Clinic just finished, and I am tired.  43 patients between 8:00 am and 12:30.  I only got about 5 hours of sleep (4 hours between going to bed and breakfast, and only 1 hour from about 4:30 to 8).  It is hard to concentrate.  I am very thirsty, and I have slight hunger pangs.  My thoughts are fuzzy, and my ability to type is definitely diminished.  

It is now 4:00 pm.  I woke up from an hour nap as a way to kill time, to avoid thinking about food and drink, and lastly to catch up on sleep.  I am now trying to read an article I downloaded the other day on malaria vaccines.  It is very, very hard.  Words seem to mix together, concentration is at a minimum, and my typing is even worse than before.  Thirst is the hardest part.  My throat is dry, as is my mind.  I have a slight headache, like that of my hangovers (a sign of dehydration).  I cannot wait for 6:20.

It is now about 7:30, and I feel alive for the first time all day.  I had tea with sugar and lime, dates, raisins, and small amounts of water.  About half hour later, we ate dinner (some meat with a ton of French Fries, some rice with sauce, and some oranges I had bought the day before).  There is nothing like breaking the fast after about 13 hours of NPO except some water.  You feel alive again, as if you awoke from a deep sleep, and are finally aware of what is around you. You feel alive during that half hour or so after you eat. Your body then gets back into your usual state.  You can write again, speak again, think again, be again.”

So this same cycle of no food and water during daylight hours continued for me for 2 more days.  On Day 4, at around 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I got up from my chair, and fainted.  This has happened before to me when I was younger, but not in a long time.  The doctors there said I was out for only a couple of seconds, and I regained full capacity shortly thereafter.  They thought well of me for trying the fast with them, but they thought it was better that I not do it.  I told them I thought it was rather important, and that I would make an amendment: no food, but some water during the day.  They were skeptical, but agreeable.  

After my fainting episode, I decided to approach this whole thing methodically:

Breakfast at 4:30: orange, banana, bread/croissant, water, and half a granola bar that my parents sent from the states.

During daylight hours, one 6 oz. cup of water in the morning and one 6 oz. cup of water in the afternoon.  NO FOOD at all.  Half hour to an hour nap to kill time and catch up on lost sleep after breakfast.

6:20- break the fast in the traditional way: tea with lime and sugar, dates, raisins, and sometimes oranges.  To replenish my water stores, one 8 oz glass of water every half hour for the rest of the night.  

This regimen has suited me well for the past 10 days.  It is hardest when I am in Bamako for a day or two, and staying at my free room at the office with no one to share in the misery of the fast.  But, somehow I do it.

Health wise, I feel great.  I weight 84 kilos when I started (about 184 pounds).  After 14 days, I weight 80 kilos (about 176).  With means I have lost 9 pounds.  Not bad at all.  The only other issue is that I have this nasty foot infection on my left foot.  I think it is a nasty case of athlete’s foot that caused cracking and blisters to form.  It first started on my right foot, and now my left.  My right foot is essentially healed after about 10 days of treatment, but my left foot is worse than the right ever was, and there are about 5 blister-like sores there.  So I am now walking with a slight limp.  It looks like they are healing well, but slowly.  Otherwise, no issues.

Probably the biggest gain I have received is the comraderie from my fellow researchers in the village.  I live with about 10 other researchers: some doctors, some lab technicians, some clinical coordinators.  When I first arrived to the site in early Sept, there were some growing pains and some funny looks here and there.  I felt isolated from them.  As it became apparent that I could not work on the trial that was ending there and I worked vigorously to change that, my isolation increased.  Compound that with my less than adequate clinical experience there, after a month, I was at wits end with them.  After a while, they grew on me and I on them.  However, it took the experience of Ramadan and fasting with them to really change their conception and thoughts about this American living amongst them.  I have noticed completely different reactions to me now.  We are like a fraternity so to speak of researchers living and working in a spot that is close enough to civilization that we can get provisions when we need them, yet isolated enough that we feel we must rely on each other to get by.  

I have 14 or so more days of Ramadan remaining.  I have become accustomed to the fast, and now am able to function better than at the beginning.  I hope to learn more about the muslim faith during this time, and a little more about myself and what I am made of.  I think I will somehow make this a yearly thing, like a cleansing of sorts.  Of course, if this were a true cleansing, I would do this thing sans alcohol.  But, as the Bambara saying goes, Doni doni ne tere geh. (Little by little, my friend).