Happy Birthday Eid Mubarak

Teton Mountains, Wyoming

Back on August 30th, I celebrated Eid al-Fitr and the end of Ramadan with millions of other Muslims in North America. In honor of the holiday a good friend of mine hosted a celebration at her home. Eid al-Fitr, for my readers who don't know, is kind of similar Christmas in that everyone gets dressed up, goes to the mosque for special prayers, and you buy gifts for the kids.

Because there were going to be loads of kids at my friends celebration, she went to Cost-Co and ordered a white sheet cake with balloons on it. She asked the baker to frost the phrase "Eid Mubarak!" in-between the balloons. For added clarification she wrote the phase on a piece of paper with the correct spelling. Awhile later, the baker came out with a cake that read "Happy Birthday Eid Mubarak!"

While this is quite funny and gave everyone a good laugh, its also a little disheartening that Islam is still so foreign to the general public. Its this ignorance that left me a bit trepidatious about going to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming with my sister for a week. While the basic understanding of Islam is not great in the Bay Area, I can still get that warm fuzzy feeling seeing a Muslima in full hijab discuss what Greek yogurt is best with a Philippino transvesite at my local grocery store. I felt pretty sure this is not a scene that would be played out in Idaho.

On September 13th my sister and I began our trip. We joked in the car that we, she a lesbian and me a Muslim, heading into red state, small town territory, were like the beginning of a bad joke that may not end well. I am happy to report back that it ended well. And I was pleasantly surprised along the way.

Some of the highlights included meeting the woman who now lives in the home my dad built when I was a child. She invited us inside and showed us how she and her family had renovated the space and made it their own.  We were also invited into the home my great-great grandparents built and grandparents once live in. At one of the cemeteries we met the caretaker who knew my grandfather and still "owed him a world of thanks" for showing him how to solve his irrigation issues. The abandoned home shown in the entry below is my great aunts home and was built by my great uncle. We met a couple from Pocatello who graciously drove us around the sand dunes on their ATV's one afternoon after towing my sisters car out of the sand. And probably most surprisingly, we saw a small Islamic center in Twin Falls Idaho. 

The view of the Tetons on the drive to Jackson Hole Wyoming was one of breathtakingly gorgeous places I've ever seen. The drive down the backside of the Rocky Mountains heading into Idaho one of the most terrifying drive I've ever experienced.

The most surprising part of this trip is this... I want to go back. I guess my mind was opened a bit and I learned a little about myself. So, Happy Birthday Eid Mubarak. Its a big country and there is, indeed, a lot to see and a lot to learn.