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I decided to follow the Ramadan fast today, to understand what Muslims are experiencing at this time of year. It’s 3pm and I’m not feeling so good! I slept at our friend Rehana’s house last night. We were woken by a sound like an air-raid siren at 3.30am, signalling time to get up and start cooking. We’d been up until midnight: the adults talking; the children playing on the computer, with their pet rat, or holding a badminton tournament outside (badminton is the local Ramadan sport). The shouting and chanting from the nearby loudspeakers meant I couldn’t ease back into sleep. But Rehana’s 8-year-old son seemed to be able to nap through it all. Having only had 3 hours sleep, he needed to be forced awake with water flicked in his face, and eventually enough to drench his t-shirt!

A meal was speedily reheated and tandoori roti bought in (I guess the roti-makers are also up early). So at 4am I tucked into buffalo meat and spinach, sweet fruit bread crumbled in milk, tea and a pastry slice. And plenty of water, knowing a dry day was ahead. At 4.40am another siren signalled we must stop eating, drinking, smoking, paan-chewing, or swallowing our saliva, until 6.40pm tonight. I already felt thirsty!

The men and boys went to the mosque to pray. The women and girls stayed home, washed-up and prayed there. We sat around for a while, sharing stories from the family photo album (to which two of our team had already been added!) before sleeping again: me until 9am, Rehana’s daughter until 7am when she needed to go to school (girls go in the morning and boys in the afternoon), and the boys until 10 or 11am.

I felt OK in the morning, I went to visit another family with Rehana, who work hand-inserting rivets into jeans: mum, dad and daughter all involved in the process. I did my clothes washing, by hand, and chatted with one of the neighbours downstairs who showed me the Muslim way to pray and explained about the five prayer-times: 6am, 2pm, 4.40pm, 6pm and 9pm.

Then I started to feel weary. And in the middle of the hot and sweaty afternoon I faded out under the fan …. Later to be woken by some of the girls from downstairs checking up on me (there are 5 girls, 2 boys and 3 married couples living in 3 rooms). They invited me down to ‘iftar’ (breaking of the fast) with them, it was a privilege to be included in the family.

At 6.35pm, as the sun set, we gathered around a plastic tablecloth on the floor, laden with fruit, pakora, dahi-vada (savoury doughnuts in yoghurt) and plenty of water. As the siren sounded we each ate a date and then consumed the rest of the food at speed.

[Idina is leader of the Southall (UK) Team. Servants organised a short-term 'Exposure Team' to India in 2008, during which a small team experienced living in poor communities for a month, getting to know and understand the issues of their neighbours there.]

[Servants works in a number of Islamic settings, including India and Indonesia. This month is the month of Ramadan (also known as Ramazan), the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts about 30 days. It is a month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and submissiveness to God. Each day this month we will be putting reflections, stories, and information about Islam on this website to help you learn more and pray for our Muslim friends.]