To Fast or Not to Fast: my experience with Ramadan

Ramadan (the month-long Muslim holiday) had just recently ended and I’m glad for it because my favorite hoteli in town is now open again and I can once more enjoy the best chapati in Garissa. Also, this marks the end of the early morning wake-up call from the mosque at 3am which means I get a much more peaceful night of sleep. I only fasted for three of the days this year, mostly because it started right after I had gotten into town and I thought it would be a shock to my system. I was curious though so for the three days between my trips to Malindi I fasted. My coworkers had kept asking me if I was going to fast so I decided to give it a try, although because I’m new to the Garissa climate I decided not to give up water (that just seemed a bit dangerous). So, I got up at 4:30 and made breakfast so that I could be done eating by sunrise around 5 and then didn’t eat again until the call to prayer at sunset (6:30ish) at night. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be really. The second day of my fasting one of my coworkers and I talked about how I was fasting and how it was going and I told him it was fine. Then a little later he saw my water bottle and when he found out it was mine he told me that if I’m going to drink water I might as well not fast at all. Technically, you arent even allowed to swallow your own spit during Ramadan let alone drink anything. I told him that it would be dangerous for me to give up water considering I would get so dehydrated and might pass out (I drink 2-3 liters of water each day). I also made the point that since I’m not Muslim I might as well not be fasting either, but that didn’t seem to change his mind. So, I told him “fine, tomorrow I’ll fast kabisa (completely), but if I pass out its on you”. So the next day I made a point of telling him I was fasting kabisa and to that he responded “What?! You haven’t been here long enough, you arent used to the weather yet. You might pass out!” I couldn’t do anything really other than laugh it off, but really? Come on.