ramadan

today is the beginning of the saudi arabian ramadan, which is a one-month period in the muslim calender of fasting from sunrise to sunset. during ramadan you cannot eat, drink, have sex or smoke. yesterday the albanian ramadan began. i am not muslim but i've got a beautiful and intelligent and lovely albanian friend who (was born in greece!) is, so she began fasting yesterday. she told me how she got up at around 3am and cooked a meal of lamb and rice for herself. she ate until 4.25am then began fasting from 4.30am to 9.16pm. she didn't go back to bed afterwards because she wasn't sure if she was allowed aw, and when she came to school her eyes were a bit puffy. her parents aren't fasting and her little brother says he loves food too much lol. she doesn't mind though because at least she can get closer to her god. i think that's beautiful. yesterday morning at school, before our lessons started, she was reading a book about islam aw. she's fasting for 10 days altogether, until she goes on a summer holiday to albania. :-)
this friend of mine mentioned the other day that when her mum was pregnant with her, even though she was married, people wanted her to get an abortion because they thought she was too young. i'm really glad her mum didn't listen to them and i told her that. i'm not very good at telling people who i really love that i care about them so i couldn't look at her when i said that. and she's been looking a little dejected this week. i wonder if it's just school weighing her down and maybe the temptations there might be. anyway, here's an adorable picture i saw on werheartit: