This month, from July 20 th until August 26 th , is fasting month for Muslims in Indonesia. Since roughly 86% of the population (according to Wikipedia) are practicing Muslims, this means that there are lots and lots of people who are only eating between the hours of sunset and dawn. Here I want to share what I’ve learned and experienced about this holy time for Muslims in Batam. First, a glance at my life as a teacher during fasting month at my multi-religious school… At my school, three religions are represented and taught: Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity. I think we actually have more students from Buddhist families than the other two, as we have a large Chinese student population (at school, and in Batam generally) who are mostly Buddhist. There is a small group of students from Christian families, as certain Indonesian tribes / communities are Christian historically (since Holland invaded Indonesia around 350 years ago, but that’s a topic for another day). As far as I ...