Ramadan, Guest Furniture, Light, and Iftar

Quick Note: I realize some of you probably don't want to have to constantly check to see if I have blogged, so now at the bottom of the page you can put in your email and then when Mom helps me post, you will get an email.

Ramadan Mubarak

Meaning, have a blessed Ramadan. Ramadan began on June 6, so the Muslims here are fasting from dawn to dusk. It doesn't effect me because I am a dog. Mom and Dad just have to make sure they are not eating or drinking in public during daylight hours. Most restaurants operate as to-go only or delivery only, and if they are open they put up screens (like the Japanese folding things) and you eat behind those. The hours for public sector jobs and for school is shortened, and when you walk around the mall you will notice no music playing, and everyone is kind of moving slower. There are pretty decorations all around. Here are some from the Mall of the Emirates. 

More on Ramadan later. 

If you put furniture in, they will come...

Mom is channeling Field of Dreams. Recently, someone Dad works with asked if we needed any furniture, because her boyfriend was moving in and they needed to get rid of a bedroom set in his apartment because they would have no where for it but they didn't really want to sell it, but storage for it would not be cheap. So it was decided that this bedroom set would come and live in our second bedroom and then maybe one day they will get a bigger place and want it back, but for now they store it for free, and we have a place for guests. So Mom is hoping, since furniture is in, you will come. 

dresser and mirror (not hung up yet)

 

 

Bed, side tables, some lamps Dad bought, and bedding from home and also IKEA

Light

There was no chandelier in the dining room and that bothered Mom. So they went to Dragon Mart, which is basically a gigantic indoor flea market selling everything from children's toys to power tools to household goods to clothes to safes to carpet...just everything. Dragon Marts slogan is "Where you can find one in a million or a million of one". They bought a big ball chandelier, but couldn't hang it themselves because of lack of hardware and poor planing by the builders of the villa. So some guys came into my house today and hung it. I wanted to say Hi but Mom didn't want me to, what with ladders and tools and whatnot. 

 

Chandelier 

 

Up close 

Iftar

After the guys who hung the light left, Mom and Dad had to leave because they were going to an Iftar at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding. This is the meal that Muslims eat during Ramadan after the call to prayer (adhan) for the Maghrid prayer which is the one at sunset. There were probably about 50 people from several countries at the Iftar, and also the volunteers who organize the whole thing. First our hostess told us some things about Ramadan and Islam and asked if people had questions while some guys handed out dates and water and Arabic coffee while we waited for the Maghrid adhan to all break our fast together (though some people apparently paid no attention to anything when they looked this up and booked it and as soon as they got the dates and drinks ate and drank them. Some other people (i.e. Mom and Dad) waited until the adhan, when the hosts and volunteers broke their fast. Then, the Muslim volunteers and also some Muslims in attendance did the prayer. BTW, we were invited to take photos or videos of any and everything. So I won't try to explain the prayer or the postures they go through, you can google, but here are some photos. You will notice they pray in a line shoulder to shoulder. Women would pray either in a separate prayer room or in a group behind all the men or with a gap between the last in the line of the men and women. This is so they are not distracted by others during prayer, like by the rumps of ladies being up in the air, or having their shoulder rubbing up on strangers.

Here is a panorama that Dad took of everyone watching while the men prayed. The food was smelling sooooo good according to Mom.
 

Then there was the food. Mom said it was yummy, she can't remember the names for everything, and she couldn't eat them all, but she had a lot of Biryani, chicken, meat, and vegetarian. She also had vegetable Saloona (a stew) and white rice. Dad was able to eat dishes such as Harees, a porridge-like dish made of wheat, meat and butter, and Thareed (think that's what it was called), Arabic bread layered with vegetables and meats and broth then baked. All of the food was very good and they brought some Biryani home, apparently not for me though. 

Everyone getting food

 

Can you believe they put the food on the floor?!?!? I would have hoovered through all that!!! Nom nom nom.

Next, Mom and Dad went to the masjid, or mosque. Again they were invited to take photos. Mom had a pashima she was going to use as a sheila for her hair, but she wasn't wearing long sleeves, so she had to put the abaya (long black dress like smock they wear over their clothes). They had these for the ladies in attendance to borrow. 

Mom and Dad in the masjid

Mom after she wrapper her pashima around her head
making it a sheila.

In the masjid our hostess answered more questions and told us more about Ramadan and Islam, and then there was an explanation of the prayer that is done. 

That is our hostess in the center explaining what the volunteers are doing. 

 

 

 Here are some photos from the masjid.  

 

Chandelier in the dome, the roofs are domed for the amplifying effect.

All worshipers stand in lines shoulder to shoulder facing this direction. The Imam stands up in front in the mihrab, that tiled niche thing, which faces Kaaba in Mecca. On the right you see where the Imam does his Friday sermon from, that is the Sunday equivalent for Christians and Saturday for Jews. That digital thing on the wall that you can't see well shows all the prayer times for the day.

Arabic calligraphy above the mihrab (verses from the Quran)

Shelf of Qurans

 

 

After going to the masjid, Mom and Dad went back to the room for tea and dessert. Mom could only eat the creme caramel and then a milk pudding that she has had a very similar thing at an Israeli restaurant, with pistachios and stuff on top. She is pretty sure it is called mahalabia. Dad got to have more exotic stuff, like the traditional Emirati dessert Lgeimat, which is basically a donut ball in date syrup, Mom is still jealous. There was also another dessert that was literally described as "wheat, cardamom, and saffron" and then also an Egyptian dessert Dad tried made with layers of dough soaked in cream with shaved almonds and golden raisins on top. And there were chocolate covered almond stuffed dates that Mom got one of.

After dessert they chatted a bit with some of the volunteers. And Mom and Dad picked up a pretty cool souvenir. Their names written in Diwani Arabic calligraphy.

They might try to cut them down and frame them. The calligrapaher basically worked non-stop from when everyone started to arrive. And at the end there were a lot of sugared up out of control kids wondering when theirs would be done. 

Thats all for now.

Dog out,

Woof