I spent 2016 volunteering at an Indonesian NGO called Mitra Wacana Women’s Resource Centre. This is the story of when I celebrated Ramadan with my colleagues.  It’s less than a week until Idul Fitri and excitement is building. Every morning and night for the past few days, a children’s drum band marches merrily past my house and through all the streets in my neighbourhood. Everyone is finishing up work to mudik, go home for Idul Fitri. My colleagues planned for everyone in the office to berbuka puasa, break the fast, together before they all mudik. We set the date as our second-last working day before the Idul Fitri holidays. In the week leading up to our bukber (the abbreviation for buka bersama, breaking the fast together), large quantities of food stuffs mysteriously appeared in the office. Tall piles of biscuits, chips (crisps) and other non-perishables were lying around our common area. The day of our bukber, I finally discover what it was all for. It is a tradition in Indonesia, my colleagues explain to me, for workplaces to give their employees food parcels for Idul Fitri (or in the case of the language school I attended, where many of the staff were … Continue reading Breaking the fast together