Only joking. This is the Ramadan drummer. He wakes us up faithfully every night at about 2.30pm to call us to get ready for the meal before fasting starts at day break. Just when we have managed to get back to sleep, he comes back down the street and wakes us up on his return journey. Our friends thought that having a flat on the twenty-first floor might exclude them from this nightly experience. But no, even on the twenty-first floor residents of Ankara can still here the drum beat. The other evening our friendly neighbourhood drummer knocked on our door to ask us to pay him for the privilege. Mark gave him some money and tried to tell him that we have some very good friends in the next street!!!
This is my first experience of the Ramadan drummer but my first experience of Ramadan was in Keighly North Yorkshire thirty three years ago when I was teaching music to a class mostly populated by Pakistani and Bengali Muslims. At the end of the month of fasting is a big festival Eid al-Fitr. I had prayed that God would open a door for me to be able to get to know some the families of the children I was teaching. At Eid I got invited into homes of the children....wouldn't be allowed today....and was able to share in the festival with them. My mother had told me to always eat everything put in front of me. If I remember correctly, that first Eid I ate with eight families. Being obedient to my mother I ate everything that was offered....thinking I was being polite. I can still feel the discomfort as I walked home that night having eaten eight full meals!!!! This Eid we will be in New Zealand celebrating the wedding of our oldest daughter, Sophie. I am so grateful to God for the rich experiences of our lives.
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