News from the Mahorais front
14 Oct 2007 06:12 pmMayotte being 99% Muslim, Ramadan is always a big deal. Many of our neighbors teased ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mana_triniand me about participating, but because it is not our faith, we didn't make the effort. Not eating between sun up and sun down might not be that big of a deal, but not drinking any water during that time definitely is. (I know Ramadan is not *only* about the fasting.) Yesterday, though, was Eid al-Fitr, the festival of fast-breaking, and that I can get behind. Our neighbors spent the last few days of Ramadan cooking up cakes and other "desserts" (they call all the goodies "cakes," and judging from the lack of sugar [coming from me, who systematically halves the sugar in recipes that is saying a lot] it is a bit of misnomer to call them desserts), which they were eager to share with us as soon as we opened our shutters to the morning of Eid.
I, too, wanted to offer treats--even before, Fabie (8ish) and Maeva (10ish), our new Malagasy neighbors, insisted that we not be nonparticipating misers--but I waited until Saturday to do my baking. I whipped up some banana muffins, miniature fried apple pies, and pecan tassies, and passed them out to our four immediate neighbors. One neighbor thanked us by offering a bowlful of tomatoes and chilies from her garden. That was very touching and a lovely choice on her part, since J and I can only eat so many baked goods between us. J was invited next door to be the guest photographer for a, as he put it, fashion shoot. Like Easter or Christmas, everyone here gets decked out for Eid al-Fitr.
Today, things are still noisy in the street. There is a nice breeze blowing, but I closed the shutters so poor J could get some sleep. He has another 11-hr shift coming up, and, up until he stumbled to bed at 1:00 pm, he had been up for thirty straight hours.
While he sleeps, I'm sitting in the dark and quiet, editing away at TTD, while chatting withfrigg, kmkibble75, and slmcgaw(until she abandoned me for her bed. Dratted round planet). Nothing like a good yak with fellow writers to keep the mind sharp. My scissors have been pretty sharp as well, and I'm down to 216K, almost 217, but I've slid under the mark. My goal is to get it down to 215K at least. I have 14 more chapters to go. The good thing is that today I had my first spark in a long time to get back to my second novel attempt, something I haven't felt in a while. Now that TTD is really approaching finished, I have more room in my affections and mind for another project. I still have to get ready for that blasted query process though.
No guts, no gain. I'll try for glory another day.
mana_triniand me about participating, but because it is not our faith, we didn't make the effort. Not eating between sun up and sun down might not be that big of a deal, but not drinking any water during that time definitely is. (I know Ramadan is not *only* about the fasting.) Yesterday, though, was Eid al-Fitr, the festival of fast-breaking, and that I can get behind. Our neighbors spent the last few days of Ramadan cooking up cakes and other "desserts" (they call all the goodies "cakes," and judging from the lack of sugar [coming from me, who systematically halves the sugar in recipes that is saying a lot] it is a bit of misnomer to call them desserts), which they were eager to share with us as soon as we opened our shutters to the morning of Eid. I, too, wanted to offer treats--even before, Fabie (8ish) and Maeva (10ish), our new Malagasy neighbors, insisted that we not be nonparticipating misers--but I waited until Saturday to do my baking. I whipped up some banana muffins, miniature fried apple pies, and pecan tassies, and passed them out to our four immediate neighbors. One neighbor thanked us by offering a bowlful of tomatoes and chilies from her garden. That was very touching and a lovely choice on her part, since J and I can only eat so many baked goods between us. J was invited next door to be the guest photographer for a, as he put it, fashion shoot. Like Easter or Christmas, everyone here gets decked out for Eid al-Fitr.
Today, things are still noisy in the street. There is a nice breeze blowing, but I closed the shutters so poor J could get some sleep. He has another 11-hr shift coming up, and, up until he stumbled to bed at 1:00 pm, he had been up for thirty straight hours.
While he sleeps, I'm sitting in the dark and quiet, editing away at TTD, while chatting with
frigg, kmkibble75, and slmcgaw(until she abandoned me for her bed. Dratted round planet). Nothing like a good yak with fellow writers to keep the mind sharp. My scissors have been pretty sharp as well, and I'm down to 216K, almost 217, but I've slid under the mark. My goal is to get it down to 215K at least. I have 14 more chapters to go. The good thing is that today I had my first spark in a long time to get back to my second novel attempt, something I haven't felt in a while. Now that TTD is really approaching finished, I have more room in my affections and mind for another project. I still have to get ready for that blasted query process though. No guts, no gain. I'll try for glory another day.