This is our 2nd Ramadan here in Egypt. However, it is new in some ways.
Last year, when we arrived, Ramadan started about 3 weeks after we arrived. People talked about the crazy traffic and the tiredness of folks that made it difficult to get things done, and the noise at night.
When we arrived last year, the traffic all looked insane, getting ANYTHING done took a ridiculous amount of people AND time, and the streets were always noisy with traffic and people.
When Ramadan arrived, the only real difference I noticed was that you could manage to get from one end of town to the other in about 10 minutes just before, during, and after iftar. [If you could find a taxi, that is.]. And everything was closed from about 2 hours before Iftar to about an hour after.
Looking back, all this was because we didn’t have a baseline of “normal” yet for Cairo. When you are still trying to figure out how things work and a major disruption like Ramadan comes along, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees.
This year is different. We have adapted to what passes for normal in Cairo. This year, the disruption of Ramadan is much more noticeable. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the positive aspects of it as well, but we now see how different the days and nights really are.