‘I get free food and don’t have to spend’
If you’re climbing into a taxi this month, chances are your driver is hungrier than usual. That’s because a large majority of licensed drivers across the UAE are Muslims — and they’re not eating because they’re observing Ramadan.
Depending on their shift pattern during the holy month, thousands of cabbies will be working 10-hour days without food, water or caffeine. Mohammed Kiweewa is one of them.
Originally from Uganda, Kiweewa is observing his second fast in the UAE. And like most Muslims you talk to, abstaining from food and drink while working is not a challenge anymore. “It’s not a problem for me. I come to work, go home, rest, then break my fast,” he told Khaleej Times.
Working from 6am to 4pm seven days a week in Abu Dhabi, Kiweewa said fasting now has become “routine” for him. But reminiscing on his first fast, back home in Uganda when he was just nine years old, it was a very different story.
“That first day was a tough day for me. By the time it came to opening the fast, my mother had to call me out from under her bed. I hid under there because I was so hungry and thirsty and couldn’t bear to see food or drink being prepared.”
Being in the UAE for two years now, Kiweewa said starts his day by waking up at 5am.
“I actually don’t eat Suhoor because it would mean having to get up at 3am to eat, but I can’t go back to sleep once I wake, so I skip it. I just make sure I have plenty food and water the night before, during and after Iftar.”
While driving, he said he doesn’t get affected by the fast. But at about 3pm, just one hour before his shift ends, his energy sometimes gets a little low. “It’s never a problem though, it’s just a normal
In Uganda, we break fast with fresh passion fruit juice, sweet banana and a boiled egg. After half an hour, we have milk porridge, and then a while later, we have our main meal.”
Mohammed Kiweewa, cab driver
feeling. I can rest when I get home so I power through.”
Ending his shift at 4pm and landing up home at about 5pm, Kiweewa said he rests for one hour before heading out for the evening.
Living away from his wife and four children, and as someone who doesn’t cook himself, Kiweewa breaks his fast, in the same way, every night — by going to one of the many tents set up for workers outside mosques across the city.
“I don’t spend a coin during Ramadan as I get free food every night. They host tents for workers like me, so I just go to them and eat with everyone else.”
Buzzing with people from all different nationalities, he said there is actually very little talking that goes on during the Iftar period, despite hundreds of people gathering together under one roof. “Most people are on their phones, reading verses from the Quran or communicating with their family.”
But the one big change for him during Iftar is the food he eats. “It’s very different from what we eat back home. We usually have rice, meat, dates and laban, all in one sitting. In Uganda, we break fast with fresh passion fruit juice, sweet banana and a boiled egg. After about half an hour we have porridge mixed with milk, then a little while after that we have our main meal. We take it in stages.”
Landing home at 8.30pm every night, its usually a shower, bed, then a 5am start again for Kiweewa. And it’s the same pattern every day throughout the holy month.