RAMADAN. This is my third and last Ramadan in Morocco; I guess I have "arrived" because people have accepted that I have my own religion and do not fast. I still get invited to l-ftur, (which is break fast, but after the sun sets) to have hrira, which is a ground chickpea soup, a bit like minestrone; depending on how the cook makes it...and same "depends" as to whether it is excellent or not so great.

The fasting tends gets more difficult for many Muslims every year now for a few years, as the date of Ramadan moves up 11 days, which means it has moved to early fall, then summer. The fasting is from sunrise to sunset, and with the longer days, I'm just glad I won't be here for the next few, especially having to rely on public transportation. It's bad enough when it's very hot, much less when drivers haven't eaten/drunk anything for hours. The government went to daylight savings time this past summer for the first time in years and it was scheduled to last until October, but they moved it ahead to accomodate the long day issue for Ramdan, so we're back to regular time again. Not that most people in the countryside never did change to daylight time, LOL.

I am getting a bit acccomplished; a couple of the big reports due by Oct. 1 are nearly completed, doing some house cleaning, organizing things, AND Sana and I might actually put out the boutique open for business sign out Thursday morning and see if anyone wanders in. She is pretty excited about it; so am I! Will post a photo of the interior in a few days.