Ramadan is here

Ramadan started today. A few people in the guest house had thought it started Friday, and for much of the morning/afternoon on Friday, it felt like Ramadan--certainly, the volume and length of the broadcasts from the local mosques seemed to indicate that it was, in fact, Ramadan. Instead of the one- or two-minute call to prayer, a couple mosques put their entire Friday noon services on the loudspeaker.

I stayed around the guest house most of the day, checking e-mail and constantly looking at my cell phone, as one of my research contacts had said she'd get in touch with me yesterday. In the late afternoon, a couple of the Bir Zeit students wanted to go into town, and in particular wanted to go to the store where I got my fan on Thursday. This same store was doing a brisk pre-Ramadan business, selling multicolored strings of lights, extension cords, etc.--pretty much anything you'd need to create a festive Ramadan light display. The Bir Zeit students wanted to make their own Ramadan display up on the roof of the guest house.

So I walked with them to the center of town and took them to the store--which, by the way, was closed because it was Friday afternoon. Main Street was very quiet, and most of the stores and restaurants were closed. This was surprising--only because I was expecting all the stores and restaurants to be closed: after all, I had been told that Ramadan had started. So as we were walking along past open restaurants, I was speculating to myself about the religion of the owner, the secular-ness of Ram'allahn society, etc. It was only when we got to the closed electric appliance store that we found out that no, Ramadan hadn't started yet.

So the Lonely Planet (it's so lonely) guide book was right, and the internet was wrong (one web site said that Ramadan starts on the 22nd for North America, but a day earlier in Asia due to different moonrise times). It wasn't so surprising that there were some restaurants and shops open yesterday afternoon--it was just a Friday afternoon. Sure enough, as afternoon faded into evening, more shops and restaurants opened, and the downtown area came to life.

As we were walking back, the street filled with police cars--no sirens, but flashing blue lights. A dozen or so Palestinian police were cordoning off the street from traffic, and some very-professional looking individuals in midnight blue uniforms got out of a black SUV and started scanning the street. We ducked into a bookstore for a minute, and when we came out, three of the guys in dark blue were escorting down the street a middle-aged man with glasses and a tailored suit. He passed a few feet away from me and I got a good luck at him, but his face didn't ring a bell. There was a merchant sitting outside his shop, watching the whole display of police and political power.

I nodded my head in the direction of the VIP, and asked ma' huwa? (Who is he?)

The shopkeeper shrugged and said ma'b 'araf... rajul kabeer? (I don't know... an important man?)

rajul kabeer indeed