One Way Ticket: Breaking fast with the orphans

Yesterday we had iftar after school. The way Islam works is that by doing good deeds, you can get points that basically you can cash in when you die that help your case in going to heaven (thawab). So, we invited a number of orphans to the school to break fast with us, and all of the children stayed after school. It was nice to see the school in a different light, playing, gossiping, getting to know me outside of the classroom. It felt much more like camp in a way, because they are all free to do what they want. Basically all I had to do was throw a soccer ball on the main lawn, and they were content to play for a while – which is good because everyone gets really irritable since they have not been allowed to eat since 4 AM. Of course I had my PE whistle with me, which came to good use when needed.

Once the orphans came it was a bit strange, and the kids didn’t really want to mix with them, but it was also difficult because they were all six year olds. Soccer didn’t really work, and they all got distracted. We played duck-duck-goose instead. It's also funny to think of how activities are completely dependent on when the call to prayer is, which is when we were allowed to eat.

On a side note, I have weekly homework to use the spelling words assigned for week in a sentence. Some funny ones. “Lots of people think that Arabs are terrorists, while actually they are not.” “2008 is Juhayna’s (a milk juice company) 25th anniversary.” “I am completely scornful at Michael Jackson after his last operation.”