ABP Ramadan Activities

ABP Students Organize Iftar

On Tuesday, October 18th, the Academic Bridge Program's Student Association organized a "pot luck" Iftar meal for the ABP students, faculty and administration.

Students and teachers alike provided various dishes contributing to a common feast. Some western fare was in evidence - gooey chocolate brownies were particularly popular - but most of the Iftar food was Qatari, Syrian or Lebanese.

The Ramadan fast was broken at sunset with dried dates and Arabic coffee flavoured with cardamom. After the prayer, the initial snack was followed by a selection of traditional Arabic dishes, brought from home by the students' and utterly delicious.

They included Bukhari rice with spices and raisins, traditional harris (a dish of meat cooked over a long period of time), madrouba made with chicken and spices, machbous (a Gulf variety of biryani), threed (a Qatari dish of chicken sauce served over very think bread, called argag), many different salads and various types of pasta.

Desserts were also plentiful. Logaimat - tiny doughnuts dipped in rosewater syrup and fragrant basboosa (a traditional, very sweet cake made with semolina) had many Iftar participants coming for second helpings.

According to Qatari social mores and customs, male and female students ate separately, but all had tremendous fun and a strong sense of sharing an important part of their culture with the rest of the ABP community in celebration of Ramadan.