Obviously, this post applies more to me than the average member of the population, or at least the population which partakes in Ramadan because they’re primarily Muslim and they don’t seem like the one and done type. Even if I’m only doing about a third of the month of Ramadan, I’m trying to get from it some of the lessons that it teaches. Like the lessons of suffering and the empathy you gain from it, understanding how people who don’t have food or access to water feel. That you can gain patience and feel more grateful for the blessings you have because of Allah. Sure, I’m not getting as much of the religious aspects out of it as your average Muslim but I feel I can do my best to learn something from it. And even if I am only doing it for eight or nine or however many days, it doesn’t make the fact that I’m fasting any easier. Because I think it’s easy, or at least much more bearable, to go hungry provided you aren’t going thirsty. When you combine the two then it becomes quite a bit more difficult. Especially when it comes to volunteering along with fasting. Now that I’m back at the orphanage, I’m primarily outside the entirety of my time there and I’m doing labor for two thirds of the time there as well. By labor, I more just mean physical labor like pushing kids around in wheelchairs which isn’t all that laborious but after doing it for two hours you start to realize that it’s not a walk in the park either. Plus, when you combine that with a friend of mine, Nadir, who loves to play tag it gets a bit more challenging. We’re not volunteering forever but it also doesn’t change the fact that it’s ninety something degrees outside and I’m running after a kid that is surprisingly fast or I’m not surprisingly slow. The thing is that I volunteered for Ramadan out of my own volition, to both respect the culture of Morocco and Islam, and also to learn from it like I keep mentioning over and again. I’m not trying to complain and since I’m doing this on my own accord, I wanted to make sure that I would interact with the kids at the orphanage no different than how I did beforehand. So sure, I may feel tired and thirsty and want a break but I realize that no one is forcing me to do this, and I could theoretically break fast at any time without consequence, but with that said, I’m not going to make the kids suffer because of my choices. If I suffer more because of it then so be it, but they’re going to get the best of me and that’s just how it’s gonna be. The point is, I’ve begun a habitual nap taker now. No better way to pass the hours than to just sleep it off and not worry about your dry mouth when you’re too unconscious to notice it. Today went pretty easily though, and the first day wasn’t too bad either. It was just something about the second day, probably my lack of napping. Then I made the mistake of over eating or at least over indulging in liquids which led to terrible stomach pain. Another reason why I made it a point to do some after dinner digestion walking, or after some Arabic name for the meal you break the fast with that precedes dinner. Sitting or lying down with a full belly was absolutely horrible because I thought I was going to explode. And not the good kind of I’m so full I could explode. Or maybe those are all bad. It literally was the, I feel I need to eat so I’ll be okay the next day but this is utterly horrible and I might throw up at any moment or just cry from stomach pain. Today though? No problem! Tried to temper the speed of my drinking, walked around instead of resting like a fat pig, and so far I’m feeling ready to eat dinner round two. Or dinner round one, or just the second and last meal of the day or whatever the heck it’s called. It is a strange experience when you jump out of bed too quickly though (post nap) and get light headed from the exertion of energy. Ramadan everyone! All in all though, it’s not too bad and based off my five minutes of Wikipedia research before I wrote this blog post, it’s apparently good for the body. So bye bye cholesterol and hello new cells.  Oh man though, moving on from Ramadan, tomorrow is Father’s Day and Monday is my birthday. That’s cray cray. Even more cray cray is that I imagine I’ll be writing blog posts for both of those occasions so I’m practically the one giving all these gifts of content. You’re so lucky dear readers. Oh man, oh man! What’s even more cray cray is that I have literally one week left in Africa and less than a month left abroad. The end is finally near. Which I’ll also write countless words about in due time. I never thought I’d be going home and now it’s just at my fingertips. So it goes.