There's no such thing as Ramadan tax and I apologise for making that assumption when my Arabic comprehension was lacking. It seems the shopkeeper was trying to tell me that he had to charge me twice the price because I wasn't returning a used Coke bottle.
Today was the second day of Ramadan and since the school has decided to cancel lunch and replace it with dinner I headed to the corner supermarket to buy myself lunch. I purchased a delicious plain spounge cake for 40R, a 1.5L bottle of water and then requested a bottle of Coke too which usually costs 30R. The storekeeper asked if I wanted the bottle opened.. which must have implied that if I said yes then I was an insensitive bastard for enjoying food while the rest of Yemen suffered in their fast. I figured I'm not a Muslim so why should I fast? So I said open it please. The storekeeper did so and then informed me that I have to pay extra because he opened it and a Ramadan tax of 100% was applied. So I left with 50R change out of 200R.
I was about to leave for my class today and I quickly had a drink of water which, in my haste, I spilt on my T shirt so I entered my class with the markings of a cheater. My teacher seemed grumpier today, probably because he was hungry and thirsty and possibly because he saw the water marks on my shirt. In one of the sentences I tried to construct in class I said all the employees are fasting for Ramadan and he asked if I was as well. I told him no... so he replied you should try it on Friday when you're not working. You might like it because it makes you enjoy food more when you eat at night time. I have no doubt that's true but I'll skipping this experiment. What is with the peer pressure to chew qat and fast in this country. 'If your friend jumped off a cliff would you do it too?' Thanks Mum.
Comments
Post a Comment