Trying to Remember the Past

You know how the mind has a way of forgetting the past events? Traumatic events can cause a person to even forget who they are and all about themselves. Well I do remember some things that have transpired but I am sure that had I had access to the internet or even some blame paper I would have had so much more to tell. So I shall begin where I left off to the best of my abilities.
One bit of advice for anyone is to start a journal if you go abroad. Buy a few of those journal books and take them with you. I thought some days that even if I did not have internet I could use my computer to log my thoughts I had so much problems of having one converter for all the electronics that I lost myself after some time. I have always been told I should write a book about my life, some days I wish I was a better writer. I may not get rich, but I could show others how adversity can make you a stronger person. I think this is why I had so much trouble with my father in law. I have had a series of events in my life that made me very independent and stubborn and in many ways he was the same type of person. At one time my inlaws were among the riches people of our city. Time and losses made them what they are today. Greedy for the dollar and stingy with spending. Thankfully their son understands my past and knows how even the lack of food affects me.

When I was first married I weighted around 95 lbs. Years of living on the edge of society had made me quite lean and vunerable to illness. As Ramadan approaches I wonder how I will fare. I was four years ago 165 lbs. And with the idea of traveling abroad I decided to lose a few pounds and get back to a reasonable 145. I had accomplished this and felt great about myself. I need the extra weight so that I don't become hypoglycemic. Many years I struggled with food. I had been on the streets for two years after a divorce from my first husband who starved me and my body was stressed from lack of proper nutrition. So there are times when I would pass out even though I had eaten recently. Doctors tried to find out why this happened but never found a answer. But I noticed as my weight increased my dizzy spells went away. My body had reserves to rely on and so my sugar levels were more constant. My biggest problem was the lack of sufficient food. It was not that we did not eat. It was the amount we were given. Plenty of watermelon was available but that is all water. Then a big bowl of pasta was normal but it was always too spicy for us to eat much of no matter how hungry you were. Then as for meat we were given a chicken neck and two legs as meat for 6 people. A family who was used to a whole chicken at dinner! And it wasn't because we could not afford it! I gave my father in law 700 dinar to buy things for us while we were there. I also later found out that my brother in law had been bringing food as well but my mother in law was hiding it.
A morning meal consisted of eggs and bread and tuna fish. 1 egg for each person and one can of tuna for all to share. And all the bread you can eat. Even milk was hard as it took about a month to find one that the kids liked the taste of (Juhayna) was the best brand we found. We went from 6-8 gallons a week to less than a quart a week. So in that way they lost a lot of nutrition too.

Breakfast was around 11 am as people slept late. Considering they went to bed at 2 am usually this is not bad. Lunch was made around 4 pm followed by a afternoon nap. We woke and if we were lucky got to go out. Then it was back to prepare a meal and then we sat until 2 am then went to bed. So much for all the plans I had of visiting the country and seeing sights.
I did go into Tripoli a few times. For the brief time that I worked I saw the freeway system. Then we did get a few trips to pick up the much my desperately needed money.
One trip I went to the bank and we were informed that the system had been down and since it had returned, it had been so busy that the bank needed more funds and had closed. So can we go to another location at 1 pm. Ok so we drove around for a few hours. We were taken to one of the better hamburger places by our driver and we had our first hamburgers. They are nothing like the pictures they display. We laughed as the photos showed a hamburger with bacon! They were a chicken/beef burger with cheese and harrisa (hot sauce paste) and the much talked about egg! They were too hot for me to eat. And I had forgotten to ask for no ketchup. So I gave mine to my son. Hamburgers and drinks for 2.50 not bad for four people. At home I would not have gotten one hamburger for that price. After the burgers he took us to the shopping district. This is street upon street of stores catering to the home. Thank god I did not have money. I would have spent it all in about 5 minutes. I drooled over the furniture and the fabrics for drapes. Thinking of my home in the USA I could have redecorated the whole house for less than a few thousand among those stores. I did see that quality was a thing that I needed to watch out for. I told him that if I was going to have something made I would want to see the work of the craftmans before I commissioned any work. Some of the men knew how to tuck corners on furniture and some just folded the material as they saw fit. I guess I am picky. Well we proceeded to go back to the bank and found they didn't have money till 6 pm. Ok so more driving around. We drove round and somehow ended up back on the main freeway not to far from the home and we decided to check out a kids store. Talk about high prices. I guess toys are a new thing there. Again quality is a issue. Mostly imported from Asian countries the toys are cheap. I did see the middle eastern version of Barbie her name is Fulla. I wanted one but never got the chance to buy one. I saw one that had the abaya and a set of inside clothes. My daughter collects Barbie and see would have been a nice addition. If anyone is coming to the states soon let me know. Well after we finished we decided we better get back to the bank. My son and daughter had gone with me and he was suddenly not feeling well. So I asked if we could pull over and get some water. We were at a light one of the few I saw in the Tajura area. We proceeded to pull out of traffic and low and behold I guess we did something wrong? We were whistled at by the officer and told to pull over. My son was in great distress but we listened. After showing his papers and explaining why we had moved out of traffic our driver returned to the car and we went to the store. Beats me why we were pulled over. But we got our water and returned to the bank. We went inside and after a short wait we were able to get my funds. And we proceeded to go back to town. Before we left our driver took us through the street of September One.
Getting ready for the first of September all the streets in the main section of the city had been decorated with lights. And it was quite a site to behold. Sadly we missed the celebrations. We proceeded back to Tajura but I had one last stop. I needed to see if the gentleman at the plumbing store had my much needed lock yet. No he still did not have it so we were forced to go back to Tripoli again as no one had them in Tajura. I went not to far from the street that I had visited earlier in the day and found a strong lock. We returned home.

This lock became a point of breaking between me and my father in law and I will go into more details in another story. I promise you it warrants its own blog. Well I need to get my sons off to their first day back to high school so for now I will keep you hanging. I am still trying to go through the pictures I took and freaked out yesterday when the whole group disappeared. Some photos have mysteriously disappeared from my camera but I hope that they are there. Somewhere. Keep reading and I will return soon.