My First Ramadan in Oshkosh Wisconsin.
Hi. My name is Ihsan, and I’m 11years old. I’m going to tell you my story about my first Ramadan in Oshkosh. My family and I moved to Oshkosh last October. We moved from Omaha, Nebraska where we had lived there for more than 7 years. Omaha is a big city with a population of 427,872. While here in Oshkosh we only have a population of 63,701. But the worst thing is that we don’t have a mosque in town. We do have a mosque but it’s owned by Ahmadiyya. So we have to drive about 20 minutes to get to the nearest mosque which is in Town of Neenah. So every night we drive there for Taraweh. On the way to Taraweh, my family listens to the Quran recitation in the car. Every Saturday at the masjid they have an iftar where everybody comes bringing some dishes to share. I enjoy being there for iftar.
Since we go to the masjid every night I always see my Muslim friends there. They are coming from different countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Bosnia, and Middle East. I am the only one from Indonesia. We always say “Salamualikum brother” when we meet. During the day we are fasting, I like to stay inside. My activities during Ramadan are reading and memorizing the Quran as much as I can. In Oshkosh we eat sahur at 3:45 am and break the fast at 8:00 pm. It is quite a long time, but alhamdulillah I make it without complaining and I do my best because we are do this for Allah. During sahur I don’t eat a lot. I just eat like a piece of bread. Every night before we have iftar my mom and I love to cook for the family. Even though we can’t try it we just hope it taste good. We cook usually Indonesian food. When it gets close to iftar I always count off how many more minutes. When it is time I’m always the first one to drink. We always drink jasmine tea. I don’t know if it’s a tradition but we always do that. Plus my dad is the only one to break fast with dates. After that we get ready to go to the masjid. We do isha and Taraweh there. It starts at 9:20 pm and ends at 10:30 pm.
During the day even though I feel hungry and thirsty I still feel blessed since I know I will have food to eat at night. Compare to our brothers and sisters in Somalia, they walk miles and miles to look for food without knowing whether they will have food by the end of the day. So I’m very fortunate to have all this food. When I watch the news about the people in Somalia, I ask my parents if I can donate money for them. I am very thankful that Allah has blessed me with all those good things in my life. At the end of the day I always thank Allah for everything and I read Quran every night before I go to bed. To burn time, my dad and I like going to the mall. That takes our mind off fasting and eating. Before when I lived in Omaha the school started while we were fasting so my friends asked,” Why aren’t you eating”? I replied them,” Because My God ordered Muslims to fast during this month”.
In Oshkosh, I have found new Muslim friends who are close to me. We stayed in the Masjid for itiqaf on the odd night of Ramadan. We spent the night reading the Quran, play and finally fall asleep before Fajr. Even though Oshkosh is a small city I am fortunate to have found nice Muslim friends to have Ramadan with them. Inshaallah, Allah SWT will reward us for our deeds during this month or Ramadan, and gives us another opportunity to meet Ramadan next year.
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