United States is such a vast country. Many stories can come from this melting pot country. This time a sister who was living in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA, between 2009 and 2011 is pleased to share her Ramadhan story there. Eva is a medical researcher from Indonesia and a mother of 1 and expecting another in September.
Morgantown is a small town with about 30,000 permanent inhabitants. It is the home of West Virginia University (WVU). For a small town, the Muslim community is quite big. There are a few hundreds Muslim; most of them are the students of WVU, as well as fellow residents and physicians of the Ruby Memorial Hospital. When Eva and her husband first arrived, they were amazed that the Islamic Center of the city was very active and offers a quite comprehensive services including Friday prayer, ICM Sunday schools for children, marriage services, funerals, Arabic classes and Fiqh courses for adults, and weekly Halaqah (http://icmorgantown.org/). They were so pleased that the city has a small halal store that sells halal meat and food, enough to fulfill basic needs.
At that time, she worked for a US government facility, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Contrary to most of the stereotype about discrimination in the US, she found that her colleagues were very respectful to Muslims in general. The Muslim workers there were lucky to have their own offices which allowed them to perform Dhuhr and Asr prayers everyday at the office. The hijab has never given her any problem at the office and even during field works. Basically, she was satisfied that she can peacefully do her work without any hassle.
She fasted Ramadan Morgantown in 2009. At that time it was about 15-hour long fasting time on average. At the beginning of the fasting month, Fajr was at 5:20 AM and Maghrib at 8:06 PM. Towards the end of the month, Fajr was at 5:50 AM and Maghrib was 7:20 PM. But the weather was not that bad, not too hot nor too humid.
Although there is mosque that is open for Taraweeh prayer everyday during Ramadan, she did Taraweeh at home with her husband because Isya was around 9 PM. The local masjid there is a bit huge that can fit about 200 people in a congregation. It has three levels; the first level is an open space for community activities, the second level for men and the third level for women to perform prayer in congregation. Women are welcome to perform Friday prayer and Taraweeh prayer in congregation.
Most of the Muslim families in Morgantown send their children to the ICM Sunday school. So, Ramadan is truly a special month for the children as well, when young children learn how to fast and bigger children perform the fasting throughout the month of Ramadan.
Many activities are held during Ramadhan in the masjid. It opens every day for men and women for breakfasting and Taraweeh prayer. The ICM always holds special celebrations for Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha at the mosque. People bring food to eat after the Eid prayer at the mosque. It’s always been a nice time to spend with family and friends. Therefore, although far from her big family in Indonesia, she always felt welcome.
Currently she just moved to Montreal, Canada but since the city was so big, she hasn’t had time to break her fast in any of masjid there and tell the story to us. She likes to watch movies and traveling aside of her busy schedule.
*co-written by Vica Item
