Paul Bass Photo
It was a workday like all others inside the York-Chapel Garage attendant’s booth for Hekmat Musa. It was. And it wasn’t.
Musa had shown up as usual Tuesday to open the garage at 7 a.m., clean the upper decks, then remain in the booth to collect money from parkers whose credit cards couldn’t be read by an automated exit device. Musa was in in good spirits, outgoing.
“Whatever I’ve got to do, I’m here to work,” Musa said during a conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
The past month his workday routine has included one difference: The 58-year-old Kurdish native of Zaxo, Iraq, has been fasting from sun-up to sundown in observance of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which ends on Thursday.
So he woke up extra early Tuesday to get in a yogurt, egg, bread, and cheese breakfast. At 5:15 a.m. he said the first of his five daily time-prescribed prayers to Allah before heading out to work.
At 1 p.m. he planned to head to the garage office and retrieve his rug for the next prayer, then return to the booth until the 3 p.m. shift end. Then the plan was to return home for a nap before iftar, the 7:30 nightly breaking of the fast.
The fasting doesn’t slow him down one bit, Musa said. Nor is it hard: It gives “the stomach” some needed time to grow stronger. He loves the holiday.
Musa said he moved here from Iraq in 1996. He stopped first in Houston. “I stayed there seven, eight months. It was too hot for me, so I came to Connecticut.”
He settled in Naugatuck, which he called a good place to raise children. His six children are now all grown. They’re all working, he said. And they all live nearby. All six have been showing up nightly during Ramadan at Musa’s home for their mom’s iftar meal, which helps make the holiday special.
After iftar Musa heads to Masjid Al-Mustafa in Waterbury for the final prayers of the day, then catches some winks before starting over again before dawn.
Click on the video to watch the full conversation with Hekmat Musa on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
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