EID, 9/11 & MICHIGAN FOOTBALL – OH MY!

Blogging to: All Songs Considered’s broadcast of a 2008 Black Keys concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.

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Because the day of Eid Saghir (also known as Eid al-Fitr for the traditionalists, or those who don’t speak Arabic) wasn’t declared as such until after the sun went down that night, the day leading up to it was a standard day of fasting. I woke up at my counterpart’s house, grabbed my clothes and hopped in a taxi with my counterpart’s pregnant wife. I was somehow wrangled into going with her to get an ultrasound (her first, even though, incha’allah, this will be her third child), and we had a mission to accomplish. At the clinic, we were first told that the ultrasound machine was broken and that we’d have to come back next week. Then we were told that the machine was functioning, but the technician wasn’t at work. Then, someone else told us to go to a bookstore, buy a women’s notebook (I’m not kidding: it’s labeled a daftar al-nisa’ in Arabic and daftar tin timgharin in Tashlheit) and then come back.

Baffled, we went to the bookstore.

Through nothing less than a miracle from Allah, the man behind the counter knew what we were looking for and five dirhams later, we were on our way back to the clinic. After a thorough questioning from three doctors, we were sent to the ultrasound technician (who, wouldn’t you know it, showed up for work after all). My counterpart’s wife thought that the experience was pretty traumatic, but I enjoyed myself (as I lamented a few weeks ago, new experiences are becoming increasingly rare), and was relieved to hear that even after fasting all month, the baby was healthy. She’s currently 4.5 months along, and if she’s a girl, her name will be Ilham.

On the 9/11 front, I caught a pretty good chunk of the memorial service in New York via the BBC, and couldn’t help but let a few tears fall. Later that day, a few friends and I reminisced about where we were as the events unfolded. I had never given thought to how many people around the world watched the events of that day as they happened, and I was bowled over when my friends told me that they watched too, from the living room in which we had just drank tea. One friend – a kindergarten teacher – was on her lunch break when Al-Jazeera picked up the live feed. Another friend received a text about it from family up in Casablanca. Hearing stories of how my friends had shared in that moment of our history was an emotional experience for me.

Finally, Michigan Football. I was without the internet last season, and I lived vicariously through the videos and blog links that family and friends sent me after the score had been settled each week. I’d occasionally get valuable updates via text message from the other dedicated Michigan alum in my stage, but neither of us had the ability to keep up with the season in a way befitting of true Michigan Men (that’s not gender-specific, by the way). This season, however, I have access to both CBS’s gamecast and the audio broadcast via SportsTalk 1050 AM, a local Ann Arbor radio station. Though we’re not far into the season, we’re doing markedly better than our previous Lloyd-less seasons, and it’s been a joy to listen to the games so far. After spending four years in the marching band and then promptly leaving the country, hearing The Victors or Bad Romance produces a very tangible nostalgia.