i am so hungry right now it's hard to be
motivated or do anything right now
okay first what am i doing exactly
ramadan is celebrated by over a billion
muslims each year it marks the ninth and
holiest month of the islamic calendar to
partake in these celebrations for 30
days as long as the sun is up you're
abstaining from eating drinking and a
whole host of other activities so i'm
going to be fasting from around 6am to
around 9pm each day with each day
getting longer now why am i doing this
i'm not muslim and i didn't grow up
surrounded by muslims i spent the first
16 years of my life in the united states
where the image of islam is shown in
mainstream media is really quite poor
and then when i was 17 years old and
doing an exchange in france i lived with
a muslim family
i had an amazing time living with them
and we stayed in touch it's actually
been seven years since my exchange
they're honestly one of the major
reasons why i fell in love with france
and have decided to make it my home and
it was through this experience that i
began to see this gigantic gap between
what we see on like the news and whatnot
and the reality like what i was
experiencing i feel like i have an
opportunity here to do something about
that by sharing my own experience and so
my host family has very kindly welcomed
me to spend a week of ramadan with them
to fast together i have chosen to do
this experiment to learn more about a
culture that i barely knew anything
about i've never done anything like this
before and let me tell you despite all
the challenges this has been an
eye-opening experience that i do not
regret here's what happened
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we stayed up late talking everybody has
now gone to bed it's almost 1. i'm
supposed to wake up at 5 00 a.m tomorrow
morning i'm not very good with lack of
sleep we're gonna see how this goes
the first pre-fast meal before sunrise
is called sari
to think that this would be my new
rhythm was hard for me to wrap my brain
around but there was something really
motivating to me about the fact that we
were all in this together
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oh my goodness
and even the kids race
who are 14 and 16 joined in on ramadan
okay
i can't eat or drink anymore 606.
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i am feeling
the
tiredness so i'm probably going to lie
down for a little bit it's funny i had
dreams about eating food and then
realizing it afterwards i mean like like
literally spitting it out
all right it is time for the second
prayer of the day
now muslims pray five times a day at
specific times
these prayers are done in very specific
ways following a series of specific
steps what i'm going to do is at the
times of the prayers i'm going to just
pause my day and reflect and meditate a
little bit
pausing right there was amazing
i just had several moments of gratitude
i've been fasting for
roughly nine hours and for the last hour
or so i've started to hear my stomach
rumbling i'm starting to really struggle
with this
my mouth is watering constantly i just
feel
tired and low energy wow this is hitting
me really hard like i do not feel great
so hungry so low energy i'm in a bad
mood i mean this smile is not telling
the full story i'm not the only world
i'll be able to break my fast in three
and a half hours three and a half hours
i can't do math right now
before i could spiral too far my host
mom took me to deliver sugar and food as
gifts to her friends this is common
practice and reminded me that a big part
of ramadan is to do something bigger
than yourself
is this really the religion that so many
non-muslims fear
i was stunned by how warmly we were
received and we left with giant plates
of yet more food
only a little over an hour left i cannot
wait to eat there's like a
feeling of excitement that is palpable
oh wow it's like a special event that's
going to happen
many muslims break their fast with dates
which is a tradition rooted in the
religious teachings of the prophet
muhammad however my host parents come
from togo and the ivory coast where
dates are not common it seems like this
so they would break the fasts with other
foods
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well it didn't take long before i made
my first major mistake
4 41 i was barely able to sleep last
night because i ate so much
lesson learned
gotta eat a lot in the morning and a lot
less in the evening otherwise
your body's trying to digest oh it was
awful so i think this morning i'm just
going to be able to drink i don't think
you can eat anything right now for
the same drug
wow
honestly practicing muslims have all my
respect
day two is not proving to be easier than
day one
definitely feeling like a zombie right
now struggling not to fall into negative
thoughts i decided to ask my host family
for advice
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inspired by their answers i decided to
go on a run just as sunset was
approaching i wonder if we can only
truly appreciate the things that we have
when we give them up
this wasn't just about food and water i
realized this was a moment to prioritize
the spiritual the golden light of the
ending day struck me more than usual it
marked something more than just the
chance to eat and drink again with my
host family it felt important meaningful
less really can be more it seems like
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i feel like i'm
getting into
a sort of flow of things you know this
is hard everything requires more effort
and focus
it's like it's forcing me to be present
just trying to work right now it's just
like i feel i'm slower than usual i'm
not as clear cognitively i'm also taking
time to learn about islam and the quran
this is such a mental game this is
intense
bc milai
it was on the fourth day that things
began to click
all right this morning i'm trying
something a little different i'm not
going back to bed i'm speaking too
loudly whoops i have like five more
minutes i'm drinking as much water as
possible it's going in
for my last bites for the day until this
evening of course
i'm so full that's it done until tonight
in the evening i went to the local
mosque the first time i'd ever stepped
foot in a mosque i broke my fast with
hundreds of other men and had the chance
to speak with the imam i asked him a
couple of questions about islam and i
was immediately seeing all of these
parallels between other schools of
thought and philosophies there's an
emphasis in islam on detaching from the
material world which is a very common
central theme in buddhism on some level
there are some really powerful spiritual
teachings here that are universal
i was finally understanding why billions
of people do this every year
it's a way to get closer to god
hey
finally
yes
is this an okay time to talk just a few
minutes absolutely fine absolutely fine
if you've got people around you that are
doing it it helps so much because no
you're not the only one but
for me it's just fascinating how the
human body can adapt right
mentally you're like it's possible i
can't do it right but when you actually
start doing it your body just
automatically adapts
to your
presentation
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oh
so this meal marks an entire week doing
this i can't believe it
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not once did i eat alone during my
entire week fasting for ramadan which is
something that really stuck out to me it
really made this week special if you're
a muslim and do ramadan each year
especially for the full 30 days you have
my full respect the quran encourages
people to share their wealth and income
with those in greater need with lesser
means this is actually one of the five
pillars of islam a fundamental practice
within the faith this is called zakat
you donate 140th of your net wealth each
year and you know what honestly this
entire experiment was a gigantic
reminder of the many privileges that i
enjoy this has encouraged me to raise
some money for my brothers and sisters
in afghanistan who are
going through a intense period of famine
right now because of everything going on
geopolitically so i have decided to
match the first 2 500 that are donated
to the fundraiser that i set up there's
no obligation to give of course but
it just feels right to do something i'll
put more information in the description
thank you for watching
experience
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