An evening in celebration of Ramadan, including a meal, a work project, a collection, and music.

On Sunday October 24, exactly at the appointed time of 4:50 PM, we entered the guest house dining hall for "Iftar" – the meal that follows the fast every day during the month of Ramadan. This is something we do at least once every year in the village. It gives non-Moslems too the ability to enjoy something of the experience of this special month.

The Spiritual Centre is interested to encourage such occasions for cultural encounter, and this year was active in the preparations.

A delicious potluck meal, with dishes and preparations traditional to Ramadan, was prepared by village residents. The dining room quickly filled with adults and young people, who all enjoyed the ample food.

Besides people from the village, guests were also invited from outside. These included members of the team that conducts the medical treatment days in the Occupied Territories. This was both in order to say thanks and also because we used the Ramadan meal in order to support the project.

After the meal the diners gathered in the shelter where tables had been arranged for a special project. The humanitarian aid committee had purchased items to prepare first aid kits as gifts for all the families of the Palestinian village of Al-Media, which has been the site of recent medical aid days. Our job now was to assemble the items – basic medicines, bandages and a thermometer – into the boxes. With all the children and adults working together in assembly line fashion, this was accomplished in about an hour. Over 200 first aid kits and greetings cards specially prepared by the children at the school, were packaged and ready to go.  (The kits were delivered on the next medical treatment day, Saturday November 30 - full report here).

The evening was not over yet – we then gathered in the White Dove hall, where we collected money for Malak – the child for whom we are trying to raise money to cover hospitalisation. Those who had not yet seen it were able to watch the video film prepared on the medical treatment days. Commentary was provided by two of the doctors who had been involved - Dr. Ahmad Masarwa and Dr. Kifaat Amsheh. They described the experience they had on the treatment day in Nablus, during which the staff had found itself endangered by machine gun fire by the Army.

The final part of the evening was a sing-along of Arab music. The program was put together by Raida, who prepared the song sheets, and her husband Ibrahim, who brought another member of his ensemble, Habib Shehadeh. Everyone joined in the singing of songs from Arab folklore, which was so successful we will surely repeat this again..

The entire evening was a success, in fact. It was enjoyable; it strengthened community and was useful for the HAP program since, besides assembling the first aid kits, we also collected NIS 1,500 in donations.