Alejandro Ruiz-Acevedo, MS 03

It is interesting to see how far apart we are, as expats, from the local celebrations and traditions of the Afghan people and the Muslim world due to the intense security restrictions that we have to deal with here in Kabul.

I arrived some days ago from my small rest and recuperation trip in Egypt. I traveled with two other Colombian friends to the ancient Pharaonic world, in order to see some of the roots of our civilization. One of my friends, Juan Gaitan, actually works here in Afghanistan with the PRT - Provincial Reconstruction Teams - and the other, Christian Dunkerley, we met him in Kabul after his consultancy with the European Commission on transportation routes between Kabul and the border side with Pakistan. We had a relaxed time traveling through Egypt, getting to know Cairo, the pyramids of Giza, the famous Cleopatra's city of Alexandria, and exploring to better understand the Muslim culture.

Traveling through Egypt (its name in Arabic is actually Misr) showed us another interesting side of the Muslim culture, especially what this Ramazan represents for them. When you grow up under the western influence, you have a misunderstanding of what Ramazan is, which is actually the holy month for the Muslims in which people fast during the day and at night celebrate with their family and friends with large meals. I would actually say that the Muslim Ramazan is very similar to the way that we celebrate Christmas in Colombia during the entire month of December. The main difference is that Ramazan is attached to the moon cycle and starts and finishes according to the beginning of the new moon. During this month Muslims are not supposed to eat during the day (sun-day) and as soon as the sunset starts (around 5:30pm) the families and friends congregate and break the fasting period together. It was funny that during this month at 5:30pm everything stops and everyone joins together to eat. In Cairo, a security guard eating on his small kiosk asked us to join him and eat with him. Actually, sharing is very characteristic of this culture, and we actually encountered it everywhere.

After their large meal, which is the first meal at night, as well as the preparation for the second one which starts at 2am, they go out to the streets mostly for shopping, usually between 8pm to 1am (all shops are open until that time and there are tons of people walking on the streets buying new clothes and stuff for their relatives and their own houses). It is very similar to December in Colombia, where we go out and start buying things until late before Christmas night. We had the chance to experience and walk through the bazaars in Cairo and Alexandria where it was as a carnival of people walking around and buying presents. In Alexandria, the owners of the shops do actually sing to sell their products and is extremely interesting to see these people having fun with other sellers and sort of composing songs to attract customers.

Instead of Christmas night, they have Eid which lasts three days before the new moon in which they celebrate with their families. Here In Kabul we had tons of fireworks and parties all over the place. My driver here in Kabul said to me that people get sort of wild during this period of time (the Afghan definition of "wild" means the very basic interrelationship: guys are allowed to talk sort of freely to girls). All long distance relatives and friends come together to celebrate. During these three days I actually received many congratulations for Eid including phone calls from Afghan colleagues, cards and emails.

Unfortunately we, as UN international staff in Kabul, cannot closely explore and live the common normal afghan life and celebrations of Eid as our security restrictions are very tight. We have to continue keeping a close eye on the developments of the kidnappings of our three UN colleagues which--in shalla--will be liberated for this special Muslim occasion. Fortunately, being able to travel around other Muslim countries better shows me the way that this culture deals with religion and traditions, and keeps challenging the western way of thinking that I have.

I hope that now with the continuation of the rule of Mr. Bush, the western world becomes more sensible to understand the differences among these cultures, acknowledging that the way to find peace among nations is by respecting each others beliefs, development, and specific circumstances.

Afghanistan and Iraq are not far apart from this, and we will need to continue supporting the reconstruction of their future, but only based on their history, religion, traditions and beliefs of their own people.

Un abrazo a todos,

Alejandro