The Eid-ul-Fitr

We get some time off from work in order to celebrate the Eid. This year it is October 23-25. So we get out of work on Thursday, October 19 and have off until Wednesday, October 25. We work one day on Thursday. The varing of the start changes the days off so we did not know we would have almost the entire week until a week ago. Plans would probably have been different.

The Eid means recurring happiness or festivity. The festival of Fast Breaking falls on the first day of Shawaal, the 10th month of the Muslim year. The day the Eid starts varies as does the day Ramadan starts. It is all based on the phases of the moon. Once they see the new moon the Eid begins.

The people all pay a tax leading up to the Eid. The tax can be money or food and is given to the less fortunate. It is not formerly collected by anyone nor is it mandatory, but everyone does it. As Mike and I walk the streets home from work or out to see a new part of Ma'adi you see tables setup in the streets to feed the poor. It is usually outside a well to do manor that is paying their tax by feeding the less fortunate. Anyone can stop and receive a meal. These feasts are amazing. They are equal to our Thanksgiving meals. Basma invited Mike and I to one Friday night. She served roast beef, stuffed baked chicken, duck, multiple vegetables, potatoes, and breads. She prepares all the food all day and is not allowed to sample any of it until Iftar, the breaking of the fast. After dinner and conversation we had dessert. The food was divine. We took a doggie bag home and had left overs.

So the month of Ramadan is interesting. You do not get in a cab of a Muslim between 5:15PM and 5:30 because they have not slept or eaten since 2:30AM and they can eat at 5:30 so they scramble home as quick as a bunny to eat, smoke, drink, and think impure thoughts that they have been refused all day. They eat, sleep, eat, sleep, until 2:30 AM when they cannot eat, smoke, drink again until 5:30PM. We try to stay off the streets at that time.

They also do extra prayers above the 5 compulsory prayers so the Mosques are chanting several more times a day. People are gathered in the Mosques and spilling out into the streets.

So the day of the official Eid people buy new outfits to wear their Sunday best, decorate their houses, go to the Mosque for the Special AM Prayers, come home and feast, children receive presents or money, later in the day there are street fairs for the children to play and spend their money. Each night of the 3 day celebration is spent at a different family members house so everyone gets to visit.

So of course it is a great time for Mike and I to travel. We are headed to Sharm el Sheikh for more diving in the Red Sea. This is located on the Sinai Pennisula at the bottom. We will be staying on a live aboard boat called the Ghazala II. Not bad looking.

We will be out for 3 nights and doing 4 different dive locations:
1. Ras Umm Sid
2. Sha'ab Ali (Wreck of Thistlegrom)
In the golf of Suez, the Thistlegorm lies on a sandy bottom at 30 meter. This armed cargo (415 feet long) is fill with military equipment for the British troops based in Africa.

She was bombed by the German Luftwaffe on the 6th of October 1941 when she was at the anchor near the reef of Sha'ab Ali, waiting for orders to move up the canal. Hit by two bombs the ammunition chamber exploded and the Thistlegorm sunk rapidly taking down with her 9 of the 49 members of the crew.

The wreck was then forgotten until the early 1950's when Jacques Cousteau and the Calypso discovered and identified her.

Today this massif ship, is the most famous wreck of the Red Sea.

On the front deck torpedoes and two railways-cars can be seen as well as a train engine who lies on the sand next to the ship. The stern lie on starboard on it deck two AA guns are pointed to the deep of the sea, farther at the back glass fishes are hidden through the superstructure.
The cargo space is full of military material in a amazing state of preservation, jeeps, tanks, trucks, bikes, well piled.

Since we do not have an underwater camera I am going to show you some one else's. This is what we hope to see:
























3. Ras Mohammed ~ Shark Reef, Yolanda Reef, Anemome City (Nemo!), Shark Observatory
4. Straits of Tiran ~ Gordon Reef, Thomas Reef, Woodhouse Reef, Jackson Reef. The straits are the narrow sea passages, formed by the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas which separates the Gulf of Aqaba from the Red Sea. Should be cool!

Before we get to dive we head on a bus with 10 other people about 9 hours. Ugh we are gluttons for punishment. We cannot fly and dive or else we would.

Have a great week! We will tell you what adventures we have. I hope we do not get attacked by any scary cats this bus trip.