I'm sure many are waking to news that Libya is again in turmoil. Yes, in reality its never stopped just news moves on to bigger stories til something happens enough to turn its eye back. Is Libya safe? Why are you still there? Get back here! How do you want us to come to Libya when we see this on TV? These and many more questions i'm sure you are asking. Reality is no where is safe, no where is peaceful. This is the world we live in. Have I gone nuts? Well that is a tough one..long ago some would say.
Yesterday I watched Twitter to see what the day would bring. Fridays not much happens here since everything is pretty much shut down til after 5 pm so calls to protest the problems of rouge militias seemed to be on everyone's minds. Fatimah had stayed the night with some family and was going with them to visit their grandparents and by afternoon I was worried, had she gone anywhere near the trouble spots? We live 8 miles from the border of Tripoli so its close but far enough that most issues are just read about in the papers or online and sounds on the wind. A storm had passed over the past two days and left rain water in many areas and our trip to the local outdoor market the day before we knew the roads would be haphazard so any plan to go out meant to Tripoli and knowing that there could be road blockages kept me from even asking to go even though we need things only found in town. Later as I stood on the roof trying to get a glimpse of the skyline over Tripoli through the palms I worried about my youngest daughter and called to make sure they were safe.
I watched as a few planes came overhead one jet landing so he may have had a run over the trouble spots but he wasn't going back at least he wasn't shooting people. I stayed on the rooftop playing with the pups and talking with Aieysha trying to keep an eye out listening for booms in the distance. Night began to fall and it gets cold quickly up there so we headed in. I then sat with my tablet and scrolled through bits and pieces being reported around Tripoli. I went to bed around 10 pm feeling overwhelming sadness at the events unfolding online. Hubby didn't want me watching the TV news. So all I could get was online.
Through the night it seems Tripoli was bombarded. This time not by its Government but by people who once stood up and protected her. Many spoke that this day was predicted long ago. Many of us spoke of Orwell's Animal Farm and how soon would that be. Last night the PIGS tore through the other animals in the field. Only unlike a animation in reality humans died and were maimed. These are the times when I gave up watching some movies, too many came true past two years around the world not just here. I can no longer tell my kids that is just cinema magic its not real. As I said yesterday i'm left with Zombie/Vampire movies, for now I can rest knowing they cannot rise. The booms rang out in a city just a few miles away yet we slept in silence..while the world watches in sadness at what has become of a country that fought for its freedom. There is still hope.
A new image haunts me, a young woman her head blown away...I know what is like not to see my sons face before they put him in the ground what do you tell her mother?
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Thursday, November 07, 2013
Pieces From The Crash
Its been a little over a month now almost 2 months really, my how time has passed. I have been to see the car and taken photos and gone past the site of the crash many times, it still doesn't seem real. But this morning I was sitting loading some software for Quran and I realized that I will never hear his voice again, and started to cry. I know somewhere there is video and clips of him with him chatting away like tomorrow will always be there but for now the house is silent of his voice.
A month has passed and he isn't coming home. He isn't at a friends house and he didn't go on a trip and will be back soon and slowly I have to understand and accept this. I went to see the car with Suhayl one day to look for some items that were not in the bag of things found from the car. It was daylight and full sun so there was no hidden place or darkness around to not reveal the impact of what I was seeing. A car in total devastation. I looked around and bits and pieces lay all around the car and inside the car. Bits of electrical components smashed beyond recognition to only the pro would know what it was for. But I was looking for other bits and pieces. A lanyard that we had put state map pins on of the states we had visited when we went for his sister Rachael's wedding. Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Wyoming and I think one more but for now I can't remember what state. And the prize pin his #33 Patrick Roy hockey pin he got when he saw the Av's get the Stanley Cup. I looked everywhere in the car I knew I had put it in the glove-box but it was gone that and a set of Goalie Pad miniatures key-ring. I was looking for the car booklet that had his drivers licence and the papers for my car in it, gone. Some people will say they are trivial things, yes I know that but they held memories. I looked around the car at the devastation and I could not imagine him there. Maybe that is a good thing cause when you see the impact damage you wonder how anyone could survive. Your mind plays all those safety films you see in driver's ed class and those crash test dummy ones. Was he buckled? Probably not. He got lazy with this and I kept telling him, "Why are you learning bad habits. You know better and you should be setting the example." Would a buckle have saved him? I don't know only a safety specialist could tell me that and I don't even have a decent report from the doctors on his injuries to tell me if he could have been saved had he been buckled. This is why I keep wanting to know and talk to people who where there at the scene. Fill me in on what actually happened. I NEED to know. It won't change anything but maybe my mind and heart can move on. Its just one more piece I need to find.
Life has moved on. His father and brother Suhayl arrived a few days after the funeral and I remember their arrival. They didn't come with a blare of horns common to arrival of people from a trip but to the silent shutting of car doors and small soft voices saying they are here. His sisters crowded ahead of me and the girls and gave their hugs. I finally saw my husband after almost 10 months and I could not even cry and hold him or my son. It was a brief hug and let them in so they can come inside and talk a bit then come upstairs and rest its been a long trip and 23 hours layover for them just to get here.
Weeks have melted now and we have shed tears, talked and discussed many things but there is still a hole in our lives. A few weeks back we went to look at land for purchase. See just the night before I was sitting with him planning house designs trying to decide how much land we needed for our dream houses. As I surveyed the land I stood and cried. My husbands cousin asked why I was crying. I told him, "My son, this was for him and his brother and sisters. What use is this to us if we have no one to share this with?" My daughters will marry they will move to their husbands homes and build their lives in other places. Suhayl doesn't want to live here so what do I need for him a flat is enough for him. So who am I buying this for? He told me that morning of the crash as we waited to see the doctors for Aieysha he and Suhayb talked about homes and designs. He told me Suhayb wanted to study Architecture and design his own home. He was finally settling down and planning a future.
So here we are two months down the line. Not much has changed and for awhile much won't. But it seems like I keep trying to find bit and pieces to put together the puzzle and I keep asking God what plan does he have for me that he needed my son to be taken from me? I'm in dispute with family on my husband leaving us here while he returns to the USA to finalized our life there and in reality everyone seems to think they have the solution when they have no clue. In a Middle Eastern world women don't do well without men regardless of the age of the man we seem to need them. Yeah send my 7 yr old for bread cause you know its safe to do that here while back in the USA he could not walk down the street to the local market without raising a few eyebrows. Maybe that small southern town people live in or if the store is next door or across the street but not like here walk about a mile stand in line with other men chatting away while they wait their turn for filling their bread baskets.
Now our only solution is to ask Suhayl to stay behind a bit, give up a semester of schooling for helping his mother and father settle in a land that he doesn't want to even be in. Khadijah still asked to go back and we are considering it. I know the reality of things and I for now don't want to even think of the possibilities but it seems like God has his plans. Is tearing my family apart one of them? Is this what we were destined for? Contrary to news life here is safe and secure at least so far. Let me say its just as safe as anywhere when God said its your time.
The other day we went to a farm with a local family to take some quiet and rest. The wife and I walked around the property looking at the fruit trees she had planted and looking for her chickens and she asked me,"Did Suhayb ask you not to cry when he died?" I told her yes. It is something we all believe. Did not Sidi Omar Muktar say to us "From God we come to him we must return?" So if God gives us then its his right to take us is it not? So why do we cry for someone who has died? Has he or she not returned to his father his creator? We only borrow them for awhile. I don't cry for them I cry for those left behind who must live without them. I think she understood. My only regret was not having time to see if he would have been compatible for a transplant to help his sister. That weights heavy on my mind some-days and hers too. Maybe with time Libya will start donor registration and give life a chance to others. I still want to do something useful here. People keep saying do this or do that but what I still think God is waiting for something more important from me. For now all I can do is keep looking for those bits and pieces and trying to fit them back into what was my life. Its not a puzzle that can be tossed away because you lost pieces, you have to cut an fit new ones to fill it in.
A month has passed and he isn't coming home. He isn't at a friends house and he didn't go on a trip and will be back soon and slowly I have to understand and accept this. I went to see the car with Suhayl one day to look for some items that were not in the bag of things found from the car. It was daylight and full sun so there was no hidden place or darkness around to not reveal the impact of what I was seeing. A car in total devastation. I looked around and bits and pieces lay all around the car and inside the car. Bits of electrical components smashed beyond recognition to only the pro would know what it was for. But I was looking for other bits and pieces. A lanyard that we had put state map pins on of the states we had visited when we went for his sister Rachael's wedding. Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Wyoming and I think one more but for now I can't remember what state. And the prize pin his #33 Patrick Roy hockey pin he got when he saw the Av's get the Stanley Cup. I looked everywhere in the car I knew I had put it in the glove-box but it was gone that and a set of Goalie Pad miniatures key-ring. I was looking for the car booklet that had his drivers licence and the papers for my car in it, gone. Some people will say they are trivial things, yes I know that but they held memories. I looked around the car at the devastation and I could not imagine him there. Maybe that is a good thing cause when you see the impact damage you wonder how anyone could survive. Your mind plays all those safety films you see in driver's ed class and those crash test dummy ones. Was he buckled? Probably not. He got lazy with this and I kept telling him, "Why are you learning bad habits. You know better and you should be setting the example." Would a buckle have saved him? I don't know only a safety specialist could tell me that and I don't even have a decent report from the doctors on his injuries to tell me if he could have been saved had he been buckled. This is why I keep wanting to know and talk to people who where there at the scene. Fill me in on what actually happened. I NEED to know. It won't change anything but maybe my mind and heart can move on. Its just one more piece I need to find.
Life has moved on. His father and brother Suhayl arrived a few days after the funeral and I remember their arrival. They didn't come with a blare of horns common to arrival of people from a trip but to the silent shutting of car doors and small soft voices saying they are here. His sisters crowded ahead of me and the girls and gave their hugs. I finally saw my husband after almost 10 months and I could not even cry and hold him or my son. It was a brief hug and let them in so they can come inside and talk a bit then come upstairs and rest its been a long trip and 23 hours layover for them just to get here.
Weeks have melted now and we have shed tears, talked and discussed many things but there is still a hole in our lives. A few weeks back we went to look at land for purchase. See just the night before I was sitting with him planning house designs trying to decide how much land we needed for our dream houses. As I surveyed the land I stood and cried. My husbands cousin asked why I was crying. I told him, "My son, this was for him and his brother and sisters. What use is this to us if we have no one to share this with?" My daughters will marry they will move to their husbands homes and build their lives in other places. Suhayl doesn't want to live here so what do I need for him a flat is enough for him. So who am I buying this for? He told me that morning of the crash as we waited to see the doctors for Aieysha he and Suhayb talked about homes and designs. He told me Suhayb wanted to study Architecture and design his own home. He was finally settling down and planning a future.
So here we are two months down the line. Not much has changed and for awhile much won't. But it seems like I keep trying to find bit and pieces to put together the puzzle and I keep asking God what plan does he have for me that he needed my son to be taken from me? I'm in dispute with family on my husband leaving us here while he returns to the USA to finalized our life there and in reality everyone seems to think they have the solution when they have no clue. In a Middle Eastern world women don't do well without men regardless of the age of the man we seem to need them. Yeah send my 7 yr old for bread cause you know its safe to do that here while back in the USA he could not walk down the street to the local market without raising a few eyebrows. Maybe that small southern town people live in or if the store is next door or across the street but not like here walk about a mile stand in line with other men chatting away while they wait their turn for filling their bread baskets.
Now our only solution is to ask Suhayl to stay behind a bit, give up a semester of schooling for helping his mother and father settle in a land that he doesn't want to even be in. Khadijah still asked to go back and we are considering it. I know the reality of things and I for now don't want to even think of the possibilities but it seems like God has his plans. Is tearing my family apart one of them? Is this what we were destined for? Contrary to news life here is safe and secure at least so far. Let me say its just as safe as anywhere when God said its your time.
The other day we went to a farm with a local family to take some quiet and rest. The wife and I walked around the property looking at the fruit trees she had planted and looking for her chickens and she asked me,"Did Suhayb ask you not to cry when he died?" I told her yes. It is something we all believe. Did not Sidi Omar Muktar say to us "From God we come to him we must return?" So if God gives us then its his right to take us is it not? So why do we cry for someone who has died? Has he or she not returned to his father his creator? We only borrow them for awhile. I don't cry for them I cry for those left behind who must live without them. I think she understood. My only regret was not having time to see if he would have been compatible for a transplant to help his sister. That weights heavy on my mind some-days and hers too. Maybe with time Libya will start donor registration and give life a chance to others. I still want to do something useful here. People keep saying do this or do that but what I still think God is waiting for something more important from me. For now all I can do is keep looking for those bits and pieces and trying to fit them back into what was my life. Its not a puzzle that can be tossed away because you lost pieces, you have to cut an fit new ones to fill it in.
Saturday, October 05, 2013
Death Comes Knocking
I pray that this is the last sad post that I write but I know I will have to deal with it if its not. People say writing is healing. Writing helps us move forward, lets us express our grief so we can heal and mend wounds. I don't know if I'm even to acceptance yet. They said in my Psychology courses in College that there are steps to grief we must go through in order to heal. I know them well. But as I write this I wonder myself have I even begun to go through them? When Death Knocks do you just not answer the door?
Step 1 Shock and Denial.....I don't feel shocked, and I can admit what has happened, so have I moved past it?
Step 2 Pain and Guilt... My heart feels little pain yet, maybe its too soon. Guilt? Why Guilt I didn't cause it and I'm not a survivor of the accident so how can I feel guilt?
Step 3 Anger and Bargaining.... I'm not angry at anyone. It was a pure accident as far as I'm told. Bargaining? Who do I bargain with? GOD? The doctors? The man who caused the accident? His family? Tell me who? What kind of deal can I strike but with the devil to bring back a life lost? Only God has that power over life.
Step 4 Depression, Reflection, Loneliness.... Reflection yes I see a bit of reflection and more to come in the weeks that follow I got his birthday soon. Weddings and grandchildren who will never know their uncle Suhayb except for a photo on the wall and some stories their mom or dad or grandparents tell them. Maybe I'm at this step but I'm not depressed or lonely.
Step 5 Upward Turn...life moves on...well yeah I need that step. I'm already worried how I will manage here while my husband returns to the states and my only other son returns with him to continue his studies. Leaving me with three daughters and a house full of pets to deal with. Carry my own water-bottles. Take out the trash myself, get someone to take me to town since I won't drive that far yet and remember I don't have a car now so I'm back to walking again.
Step 6 Reconstruction....seems like a term for building a house not a life...but I know what it means. Filling in the blanks where my son use to be. For now that is me and my other son and my husband.. they are their own persons and can never fill his place but I can move forward. How do you replace a child? I'm too old to have another as many would suggest after the loss of a child.
Step 7 Acceptance and Hope....I feel like this is where I went from zero to 7 in a few seconds...
I remember a neighbor who had a son the same age as Suhayb. He was born with severe birth defects and from the first moments of life they were told to plan his funeral. He would not live long. Over the coming months and years the coffin they would need grew bigger. More and more problems arose and finally one day he was taken home. I remember that day so vividly.. He had been sick the past few days and again was bedridden. He could not go to school many times due to his frail health and conditions. He had asked his mom to call us and ask Suhayb to come over to play with him and Suhayb said momma I can't I just can't see him today momma. I told him I would not make him do something he didn't feel good about but to know that his friend was missing him too. See when they were little it was one thing to be around a frail kid but now he was older they were in the 5th grade and he had friends who could run and play soccer and play at the park and go places not sit in a room playing a computer game while others could run outside. He didn't want to be with the sick kid. As a mom I understood his anguish.
The next day I saw his little sister playing outside our front door and I asked her how he was. Her reply haunts me to this day. "Oh he died". And she ran off playing with the other kids.
I grabbed up the phone and called my neighbor and said how can I ask this but your daughter just told me your son died last night. She confirmed it and I hung up and cried. Suhayb came in and saw me crying and asked me why I was crying. I told him what had happened and it hit him hard. He was upset that he could not take back that day and go and play with him again. I told him we can't undo what is done we can only move forward and to live the life for him that he was denied. Suhayb did that....
So I ask his friends who read this to live the life he was denied. Move past the loss and grief and live the life you are given. We never know when it will be our last day.
Two days ago the family of the man who caused the accident came to the house with the papers to allow his release. I guess we both have to sign them. I have no clue what they said. I wrote my name and gave a thumbprint as proof. Life seems to easy here. How many years would we have had to deal with lawyers and judges and insurance agencies had this happened back in the states? My husband's accident took four years just to heal the insurance wrote us off after the first year. 100 thousand dollars on medical alone.
I'm told their is reimbursement for the loss of the car. It was new three years ago. Not even one year in Libya and its done for. 7 months waiting for our drivers license and we got a month out of them and his is now laying in a bag at our relatives house. I have yet to get our things from the car. I have yet to even see my car.
Writing this I feel unconnected, like its someone else's life I'm writing about. Through the war I remember looking at all those dead young people and thinking what if this is how someone sees their loved one for the last time? A photo posted online for the world to see when they don't even know they were dead yet...is there out somewhere a photo of the accident or my son on someone's camera? If so I wish I could know so I could have a copy cause I don't believe he is gone...he is at work, at the store, somewhere with friends.
As I type this a small kitten is playing at my lap. While at my Sister in Laws house the other day she showed my daughter a kitten they had found. Its around two weeks old and a boy. His mother is dead they said and in the field near their house we could hear another kitten crying but we could not see it or get to it. A large owl flew over shortly after maybe the owl found him we didn't hear it cry later on. We are tending him until we can find a home for him. He is ravished as we feed him as best we can with a syringe. He is a fighter. Life moves on...I just need to move with it.
Internet is back so I will try to post as I can a few more bits and details but its late and I need some sleep. The kitten will be hungry soon again and morning comes early here.
Step 1 Shock and Denial.....I don't feel shocked, and I can admit what has happened, so have I moved past it?
Step 2 Pain and Guilt... My heart feels little pain yet, maybe its too soon. Guilt? Why Guilt I didn't cause it and I'm not a survivor of the accident so how can I feel guilt?
Step 3 Anger and Bargaining.... I'm not angry at anyone. It was a pure accident as far as I'm told. Bargaining? Who do I bargain with? GOD? The doctors? The man who caused the accident? His family? Tell me who? What kind of deal can I strike but with the devil to bring back a life lost? Only God has that power over life.
Step 4 Depression, Reflection, Loneliness.... Reflection yes I see a bit of reflection and more to come in the weeks that follow I got his birthday soon. Weddings and grandchildren who will never know their uncle Suhayb except for a photo on the wall and some stories their mom or dad or grandparents tell them. Maybe I'm at this step but I'm not depressed or lonely.
Step 5 Upward Turn...life moves on...well yeah I need that step. I'm already worried how I will manage here while my husband returns to the states and my only other son returns with him to continue his studies. Leaving me with three daughters and a house full of pets to deal with. Carry my own water-bottles. Take out the trash myself, get someone to take me to town since I won't drive that far yet and remember I don't have a car now so I'm back to walking again.
Step 6 Reconstruction....seems like a term for building a house not a life...but I know what it means. Filling in the blanks where my son use to be. For now that is me and my other son and my husband.. they are their own persons and can never fill his place but I can move forward. How do you replace a child? I'm too old to have another as many would suggest after the loss of a child.
Step 7 Acceptance and Hope....I feel like this is where I went from zero to 7 in a few seconds...
I remember a neighbor who had a son the same age as Suhayb. He was born with severe birth defects and from the first moments of life they were told to plan his funeral. He would not live long. Over the coming months and years the coffin they would need grew bigger. More and more problems arose and finally one day he was taken home. I remember that day so vividly.. He had been sick the past few days and again was bedridden. He could not go to school many times due to his frail health and conditions. He had asked his mom to call us and ask Suhayb to come over to play with him and Suhayb said momma I can't I just can't see him today momma. I told him I would not make him do something he didn't feel good about but to know that his friend was missing him too. See when they were little it was one thing to be around a frail kid but now he was older they were in the 5th grade and he had friends who could run and play soccer and play at the park and go places not sit in a room playing a computer game while others could run outside. He didn't want to be with the sick kid. As a mom I understood his anguish.
The next day I saw his little sister playing outside our front door and I asked her how he was. Her reply haunts me to this day. "Oh he died". And she ran off playing with the other kids.
I grabbed up the phone and called my neighbor and said how can I ask this but your daughter just told me your son died last night. She confirmed it and I hung up and cried. Suhayb came in and saw me crying and asked me why I was crying. I told him what had happened and it hit him hard. He was upset that he could not take back that day and go and play with him again. I told him we can't undo what is done we can only move forward and to live the life for him that he was denied. Suhayb did that....
So I ask his friends who read this to live the life he was denied. Move past the loss and grief and live the life you are given. We never know when it will be our last day.
Two days ago the family of the man who caused the accident came to the house with the papers to allow his release. I guess we both have to sign them. I have no clue what they said. I wrote my name and gave a thumbprint as proof. Life seems to easy here. How many years would we have had to deal with lawyers and judges and insurance agencies had this happened back in the states? My husband's accident took four years just to heal the insurance wrote us off after the first year. 100 thousand dollars on medical alone.
I'm told their is reimbursement for the loss of the car. It was new three years ago. Not even one year in Libya and its done for. 7 months waiting for our drivers license and we got a month out of them and his is now laying in a bag at our relatives house. I have yet to get our things from the car. I have yet to even see my car.
Writing this I feel unconnected, like its someone else's life I'm writing about. Through the war I remember looking at all those dead young people and thinking what if this is how someone sees their loved one for the last time? A photo posted online for the world to see when they don't even know they were dead yet...is there out somewhere a photo of the accident or my son on someone's camera? If so I wish I could know so I could have a copy cause I don't believe he is gone...he is at work, at the store, somewhere with friends.
As I type this a small kitten is playing at my lap. While at my Sister in Laws house the other day she showed my daughter a kitten they had found. Its around two weeks old and a boy. His mother is dead they said and in the field near their house we could hear another kitten crying but we could not see it or get to it. A large owl flew over shortly after maybe the owl found him we didn't hear it cry later on. We are tending him until we can find a home for him. He is ravished as we feed him as best we can with a syringe. He is a fighter. Life moves on...I just need to move with it.
Internet is back so I will try to post as I can a few more bits and details but its late and I need some sleep. The kitten will be hungry soon again and morning comes early here.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Observations of Life
Since we came all I have done is to watch and try to learn about the customs and traditions that the people of Libya share. As you can read from my other posts I haven't had much for explanations of them and had to feel my way through many things here. Yesterday was no exception.
Sitting here its 2:30 in the morning and like yesterday I didn't sleep very long. Its normal under the circumstances and I know I should go back to bed but instead I'm writing down my thoughts so that one day I can look back and see the words that I have written and it will be a way to heal over some event. Until I came to Libya I could count the number of funerals I had been too in my life on one hand. Ones that I was somehow involved in the preparation or planning of or closely connected to the one now deceased.
I don't care what anyone says there is no way to prepare yourself for the burial of your child. Over the past two years I have seen so much and heard so much about women losing their sons and daughters not knowing where they are or what happened to them or seeing images of horribly disfigured or disturbing images of people torn asunder.
If someone told me even last week that I would be sitting here now a week later with my first born son now laying in the ground just a few miles from a home we took a lifetime to come to and wondering if I made the mistake in thinking things were better somewhere else, I would have laughed them off and told them only God knows these things.
So now I guess like other women here i'm versed in Burial 101 crash course.
Two days ago I was sitting at a hospital waiting to find out if we were getting a needed surgery for my daughter and chatting away with a cousin of my husbands who offered to help us with the task of talking to medical persons if we needed someone to translate for us. Had I known what that day entailed, I would NEVER have let my son out of my eyes. I would have taken the keys away from him, called his work and said today he is not coming. But as I said yesterday, no one lets us read that book. I have read a million books in my life but this is one that is never published, never made into a movie, never rewritten and never can be returned or exchanged for full refund.
I woke after a short sleep, it didn't take long before we were being asked when where we coming down to join the family in mourning to sit and wait to greet guests and be the grieving mother or daughter or sister or wife. Seems as if they take the role of mother and women lightly here. No one has asked me what I wanted to do, there is no song that was his favorite to be played at a eulogy or list of people to invite, no request for clothes to be worn to be laid to rest in. No we are much more simple than that here and in all Muslim Countries. Here there is the shroud and that is all. Although I have been close to some of the people who I have attended funerals for until now none have been much concern of mine.
I was told shortly around noon that they would bury my son by the afternoon. What where is my say in this? Your telling me that your insisting that my husband and son come to be here with me while I mourn but for the logic of a country and a culture that says for every day a body is out of the ground it cannot be cast into the next world and it will soon have the ravages of the heat and humidity to decay the people we love.
I was angry why are you telling me you are burying him today when if you wait a day or so his father will be here and his brother and they need to say goodbye. I know I know there are many women and parents out there who don't even know where their son is buried or if he is even dead for sure. Just a few days ago they buried two men found in a freezer in the compound of G with many others who had been dead for over 30 years. They were finally identified and laid to rest in a funeral fitting of the community that now seeks to bring them closure.
Anyway, they told me that my husband had said go ahead when they can release the body and bury him regardless if I am there or not. NO I had to say good bye. I had to have closure. I wanted to see my son one last time before they laid him in the ground according to Islamic Customs wrapped in a white linen and lay on his side to face Mecca and the face of Allah in the day of Judgement.
All day long I shook hands of women many new faces and many I knew to be family but still learning how they are connected to my husband. They were watching me. Was I going to go berserk and make a fool of myself? Was his sisters going to faint with loss and sorrow and cry and pull out their hair in agony? NO, I taught my kids better. I at least hoped I could be half of the woman I had seen examples of over the past two years. Mothers gently kissing the head of their children or spouses and saying a last goodbye.
My girls i'm proud of them they held up. And they begged others to stop crying and hold onto memories of a young life cut short. Half the day odd thoughts ran through my mind, I need his last paycheck, where is this or that that was in the car? I'm cleaning up his room even though he did a great job the day before I have to make sure if people come to pay respect that my house is tidy. I gathered up his laundry, made his bed, put all the things by his bedside in a suitcase to deal with later. I grabbed up his blanket, there was no smell of my son on it and I sat for a moment crying into it wishing it was him I was holding not the blanket. I gathered his clothes what do I do with them? That lovely Thobe we just bought for him hangs on the wall hook, pants are somewhere, there lies the box it came in. I will ask someone to have it cleaned and pressed an put it back in the box and take it and put it away, maybe his brother can wear it....He can't wear it again. His shoes are by the doorway downstairs where he always leaves them upon entering the house, now i gather them up and take them to the shoe rack up on our level. His half a bag of Cheetos chips that he begged me to remember to get out of the car the night before lying on the couch, do I throw them away or hand them to someone to eat. No, I put them on his bed with his glasses....where is the other pair? He should have been wearing them. Somewhere in the car or on the road ran over by many other cars..I don't know I will have to ask.
I have yet to see the car they don't want me to see it. But last night I was talking to a young man online about accidents and how we need to begin to educate others on the risks of driving here. Do I offer my car as testament to a lost life in a moment of rush? I don't know I will talk to others.
So when will you take my son on his final journey? They haven't released his body yet I am told. So much is being kept from me I'm uncomfortable being left out but I know they are doing what they feel is in my best interest. You could not help me shop for food or get a bottle of water but you can take over and bury my son without a comment to how I feel...
The day is moving slowly, we ate some breakfast, I know I have to keep doing what must be done, for my health and the welfare of my other kids I have to take care of myself and them. I know I have helpers but I have to keep functioning. Breathe deeply meditate it will help me settle my mind.
They are washing his body. What I'm his mother should I not be doing that? Guess not there are men for that but not one is his father or his brother. I know they loved him too. Come here Faiszah, Sit here Faiszah, Shake another hand, listen to words I have no idea what they are saying to me. I know its words of kindness and faith. But its not in my language, this is all foreign to me, why today do you tell me what it means help me say the words.... I wish I had learned them before I ever needed them..now I stumble over them. It doesn't matter if I say it correctly. They understand I'm a grieving mother. Its natural.
Where are the girls is anyone sitting with them. Come on girls we have to go downstairs now your brother is coming soon and prayer is soon and they want us downstairs. Sit here go here say this say that....hug, cry say its ok I will get past this day. The wails begin...women sitting outside see his body being brought in. Men are trying to be gentle and place him down where I can say goodbye. Where is his mother there are ladies all around the coffin. I'm here, is this his head here? My Brother in Law is pulling back the cover. There is a cloth mummy inside. NO that is my son...my baby. I can't do this. Where is my moment alone with my son? Where are his sisters among all these people? I look up I see someone holding Aieysha, another holding Fatimah. Where is Khadijah....she is there. His aunts, his grandmother all are there among all these women who came to say goodbye to a young man they have only known for a brief time.
I want to see my son's face. Why can't you let me see his face. I don't want to see the cotton stuffed in the mouth and nostrils. I don't want to only see his chin. This cold skin is not my sons. His beard is sharp in my hand. He was saying the other day how he was trying to grow it out. I told him all the cutting you want it will not get better. This is what my baby face boy got. It will never be shaved again. I look into this covered bundle I can't see his face. I want to see his eyes. 24 years ago you gave him to me and he looked at me with those eyes and now they will never look at me again. NO where are you going? I;m not done yet, I don't care about anyone else now this is my last time I will see my son on this earth. Why are you taking him so soon. His face is cold, I love you baby...I'm sorry OH GOD IM SORRY....he is gone they have taken him away. People are telling me its ok..'NO its not ok. I didn;t get to say goodbye/ How was that long enough??? A minute! You give me a minute in a room full of people to say goodbye to my son. He is gone....this is death here...It is over in a minute. It took longer to have him than it did for you to take him from me.
Sitting here its 2:30 in the morning and like yesterday I didn't sleep very long. Its normal under the circumstances and I know I should go back to bed but instead I'm writing down my thoughts so that one day I can look back and see the words that I have written and it will be a way to heal over some event. Until I came to Libya I could count the number of funerals I had been too in my life on one hand. Ones that I was somehow involved in the preparation or planning of or closely connected to the one now deceased.
I don't care what anyone says there is no way to prepare yourself for the burial of your child. Over the past two years I have seen so much and heard so much about women losing their sons and daughters not knowing where they are or what happened to them or seeing images of horribly disfigured or disturbing images of people torn asunder.
If someone told me even last week that I would be sitting here now a week later with my first born son now laying in the ground just a few miles from a home we took a lifetime to come to and wondering if I made the mistake in thinking things were better somewhere else, I would have laughed them off and told them only God knows these things.
So now I guess like other women here i'm versed in Burial 101 crash course.
Two days ago I was sitting at a hospital waiting to find out if we were getting a needed surgery for my daughter and chatting away with a cousin of my husbands who offered to help us with the task of talking to medical persons if we needed someone to translate for us. Had I known what that day entailed, I would NEVER have let my son out of my eyes. I would have taken the keys away from him, called his work and said today he is not coming. But as I said yesterday, no one lets us read that book. I have read a million books in my life but this is one that is never published, never made into a movie, never rewritten and never can be returned or exchanged for full refund.
I woke after a short sleep, it didn't take long before we were being asked when where we coming down to join the family in mourning to sit and wait to greet guests and be the grieving mother or daughter or sister or wife. Seems as if they take the role of mother and women lightly here. No one has asked me what I wanted to do, there is no song that was his favorite to be played at a eulogy or list of people to invite, no request for clothes to be worn to be laid to rest in. No we are much more simple than that here and in all Muslim Countries. Here there is the shroud and that is all. Although I have been close to some of the people who I have attended funerals for until now none have been much concern of mine.
I was told shortly around noon that they would bury my son by the afternoon. What where is my say in this? Your telling me that your insisting that my husband and son come to be here with me while I mourn but for the logic of a country and a culture that says for every day a body is out of the ground it cannot be cast into the next world and it will soon have the ravages of the heat and humidity to decay the people we love.
I was angry why are you telling me you are burying him today when if you wait a day or so his father will be here and his brother and they need to say goodbye. I know I know there are many women and parents out there who don't even know where their son is buried or if he is even dead for sure. Just a few days ago they buried two men found in a freezer in the compound of G with many others who had been dead for over 30 years. They were finally identified and laid to rest in a funeral fitting of the community that now seeks to bring them closure.
Anyway, they told me that my husband had said go ahead when they can release the body and bury him regardless if I am there or not. NO I had to say good bye. I had to have closure. I wanted to see my son one last time before they laid him in the ground according to Islamic Customs wrapped in a white linen and lay on his side to face Mecca and the face of Allah in the day of Judgement.
All day long I shook hands of women many new faces and many I knew to be family but still learning how they are connected to my husband. They were watching me. Was I going to go berserk and make a fool of myself? Was his sisters going to faint with loss and sorrow and cry and pull out their hair in agony? NO, I taught my kids better. I at least hoped I could be half of the woman I had seen examples of over the past two years. Mothers gently kissing the head of their children or spouses and saying a last goodbye.
My girls i'm proud of them they held up. And they begged others to stop crying and hold onto memories of a young life cut short. Half the day odd thoughts ran through my mind, I need his last paycheck, where is this or that that was in the car? I'm cleaning up his room even though he did a great job the day before I have to make sure if people come to pay respect that my house is tidy. I gathered up his laundry, made his bed, put all the things by his bedside in a suitcase to deal with later. I grabbed up his blanket, there was no smell of my son on it and I sat for a moment crying into it wishing it was him I was holding not the blanket. I gathered his clothes what do I do with them? That lovely Thobe we just bought for him hangs on the wall hook, pants are somewhere, there lies the box it came in. I will ask someone to have it cleaned and pressed an put it back in the box and take it and put it away, maybe his brother can wear it....He can't wear it again. His shoes are by the doorway downstairs where he always leaves them upon entering the house, now i gather them up and take them to the shoe rack up on our level. His half a bag of Cheetos chips that he begged me to remember to get out of the car the night before lying on the couch, do I throw them away or hand them to someone to eat. No, I put them on his bed with his glasses....where is the other pair? He should have been wearing them. Somewhere in the car or on the road ran over by many other cars..I don't know I will have to ask.
I have yet to see the car they don't want me to see it. But last night I was talking to a young man online about accidents and how we need to begin to educate others on the risks of driving here. Do I offer my car as testament to a lost life in a moment of rush? I don't know I will talk to others.
So when will you take my son on his final journey? They haven't released his body yet I am told. So much is being kept from me I'm uncomfortable being left out but I know they are doing what they feel is in my best interest. You could not help me shop for food or get a bottle of water but you can take over and bury my son without a comment to how I feel...
The day is moving slowly, we ate some breakfast, I know I have to keep doing what must be done, for my health and the welfare of my other kids I have to take care of myself and them. I know I have helpers but I have to keep functioning. Breathe deeply meditate it will help me settle my mind.
They are washing his body. What I'm his mother should I not be doing that? Guess not there are men for that but not one is his father or his brother. I know they loved him too. Come here Faiszah, Sit here Faiszah, Shake another hand, listen to words I have no idea what they are saying to me. I know its words of kindness and faith. But its not in my language, this is all foreign to me, why today do you tell me what it means help me say the words.... I wish I had learned them before I ever needed them..now I stumble over them. It doesn't matter if I say it correctly. They understand I'm a grieving mother. Its natural.
Where are the girls is anyone sitting with them. Come on girls we have to go downstairs now your brother is coming soon and prayer is soon and they want us downstairs. Sit here go here say this say that....hug, cry say its ok I will get past this day. The wails begin...women sitting outside see his body being brought in. Men are trying to be gentle and place him down where I can say goodbye. Where is his mother there are ladies all around the coffin. I'm here, is this his head here? My Brother in Law is pulling back the cover. There is a cloth mummy inside. NO that is my son...my baby. I can't do this. Where is my moment alone with my son? Where are his sisters among all these people? I look up I see someone holding Aieysha, another holding Fatimah. Where is Khadijah....she is there. His aunts, his grandmother all are there among all these women who came to say goodbye to a young man they have only known for a brief time.
I want to see my son's face. Why can't you let me see his face. I don't want to see the cotton stuffed in the mouth and nostrils. I don't want to only see his chin. This cold skin is not my sons. His beard is sharp in my hand. He was saying the other day how he was trying to grow it out. I told him all the cutting you want it will not get better. This is what my baby face boy got. It will never be shaved again. I look into this covered bundle I can't see his face. I want to see his eyes. 24 years ago you gave him to me and he looked at me with those eyes and now they will never look at me again. NO where are you going? I;m not done yet, I don't care about anyone else now this is my last time I will see my son on this earth. Why are you taking him so soon. His face is cold, I love you baby...I'm sorry OH GOD IM SORRY....he is gone they have taken him away. People are telling me its ok..'NO its not ok. I didn;t get to say goodbye/ How was that long enough??? A minute! You give me a minute in a room full of people to say goodbye to my son. He is gone....this is death here...It is over in a minute. It took longer to have him than it did for you to take him from me.
The Book That is Written
Islam says that in the fourth month of fetal development the angels come down and a book is written for that child. In that book is their life, how long they will live, their hopes, dreams and all the life they will lead while their on earth. This is a book we all have but we will never see it or read it. It is written by the hand of Allah and his angels.
As a mother when we reach that month we know that is when we will hear their heartbeat for the first time and soon after we will feel the first of many kicks and jabs to come. We sit caressing our bellies and dream of the small body that awaits our arms. We dream of their life and how we will guide them.
When the doctors and nurses hand us that small child we are filled with an undying love for that child and we happily move forward in our lives with that new life forever part of ours.
Some books are long and full of many adventures, some are short and full of sorrow for those who will be left behind to wonder why so soon. We don't know why and no religion can ever tell a parent while you take a child before them. Why a child will suffer and die while a parent must move on without them.
Such is the book that today ends with the death of my son Suhayb ATaher Faris. Born on Oct 17, 1989 at 5:30 pm just as California was having one of the largest earthquakes on record.
My son and daughter Aieysha had just returned home from a trip to the doctors in Tripoli to schedule a surgery for her to get her gallbladder removed. He was saying he would go to work and let them know he might be out tomorrow as well as we had to come back again the next day for more labs and reviews of her medical condition.
He told me see you later and I told him after he got off work we would go and get meat for the next meal and then figure out some lunch.
No one ever tells you when the last page in your book is reached. He got not more than two miles from our house and his life was cut short. His book wrote its last paragraph. The End is on the bottom of the page.
My son was heading into the round about at the ocean front and slowed to meet oncoming traffic is what I was told. A car didn't stop and rammed him and he lost control of the car and went over the median and into oncoming cars. I don't know much more yet. I haven't seen him. I won't for a few more days til my husband who I haven't seen in over 10 months comes and we bury our son. Just a few feet from where he died.
I am told that a man in the other car was torn apart by the impact. They told me I don't want to see my son. What mother does but cannot go without saying goodbye to her child. One who she nursed til young adult and was sitting just days ago planning a dream home with him that included land for him and his brother to build their homes and bring wives an children into our lives. There will be no wedding, no house, no grandchildren of my son. Only a memory in the faces and pictures and movies an memories we leave behind.
It is not the ones who die that suffer, It is the ones who are left behind who will feel the burden of this world. The young man who rammed his car, the family of the other man who lost his life as well. The many young men and family whose lives my son touched in his lifetime.
That is the sum of a life well lived is who is there to grieve when you have passed on and the thoughts and prayers that they offer for you and your family who will always have a missing part of them.
My son I can never hold you again, but you will always be with me. I love you. Momma
Monday, August 26, 2013
Updates From Wonderland.
FINALLY, I got back into my blog!!! Can we all say yeah?
I know its been awhile but I have been busy. Settling in here has been a chore and a blessing. I came to an empty house and had so much I was waiting to ship from the USA so I put off buying things that I knew I had and didn't need more of. Sadly, its now been almost a year and I still don't have but a single shipment that hubby sent with the car of our possessions from back home.
So what have I been up too? Well as always when things are going good life will smack you to remind you that its watching you so here goes....the UPDATES
Let me see its been since March OMG so long so lets start...
My mother died in April and although I will miss being able to contact her for her recipe for Fruit salad for EID or Thanksgiving each year I finally got it worked out and passed it on to my girls and my niece so we would have a memory to live with. We had a few weddings in the family and I wish I could post some photos but I don't have any since most use their cells to take pics but I will ask around see who has some that I can get copies sent to my email and post.
My husband's last uncle passed away sadly and we spent the customary 3 days with his family and neighbors. We are getting out a bit more we have had a few scares with Fatimah and her sugar levels and going on the 3rd illness since the year started. We need to watch her she is going back to her old ways and not checking before eating and going long hours of no insulin to counter her intake. But we are thankful that she has not had more than a few hours of nausea and she recoups quickly. Medical here is a challenge for even the people and many who can afford go out of the country to seek care since he let hospitals rot for the general public. Medical is free but quality well U pay for that. Sounds like home right?
All the month of Ramadan we had nearly every day power cuts one day was over 15 hours. As a result the new freezer I bought went out and i'm still waiting for someone to look at it. We got a air conditioner the last week of Ramadan as a family gift and it went for a week then stopped working. They are saying that the power to the house is weak and that is why we lost it but then why is my in-laws working? The fridge is weak on power too, I used a outside temp gauge that I brought with me and it said that the fridge was 61 degrees. So I can't put much in it as it will not stay long.
I battled with Pneumonia twice now and got a nice bunch of injection spots on my rump each time since I needed to get antibiotics to knock it out what ever is here is strong I have never been sick like this in the states but I'm better and stronger.
This week we lost my dad's sister Connie and I was sadden to know of this by facebook from a post of my brothers and my daughter. Her funeral was Friday and I sure wish I had been in the USA I would have liked to see her kids and hug them. I haven't seen any of them since my dad passed away over 20 yrs ago. But I guess that is what all families do drift apart over time.
Suhayl went back to the USA it broke my heart but he is old enough to decide his life and I pray that one day he will come back. He is staying for now with Taher and helping when he can to get him back here so we can finally settle in. He has also registered for school so I hope he finds his dreams. I don't talk much to my girls sadly with internet what it is here and all the blackouts I just pretty much given up on keeping more than updates on my facebook page since I could not get here to write more.
Suhayb is working at a school teaching english and he liked it at first but now he feels like I did when I tried doing that before. Its not american english that is taught and we constantly have to correct ourselves to teach british english and many of our common speech patterns are not the same so what sounds correct to us is sometimes incorrect. So he has gotten flustered over this but for now he will continue to work if they keep him after this first quarter. Plus, they only pay at the end of a semester so if we needed money in an emergency we are out of luck.
Aieysha got her a second dog and I probably haven't told you about the first one she got since its been that long. She got a lovely male dog back in May for her birthday and he was bought at the puppy mills in town. Cost us 150 LD which is a lot of money for a dog but we had looked and waited for promised dogs long enough and her heart needed someone to hold. He got settled in and she was saying he needed a buddy since Ramadan was approaching and with the heat she was not sure how much time she could give to a puppy and he would be lonely. We got lucky on this issue a lady saw her post on facebook and had a puppy that had been dropped over her wall that she could not keep. A poor sad looking little white ball of fluff that turned out to be a female when the lady thought she was a male. She was covered in fleas and needed a bath desperately and she got both that and a new loving home. We took about a week in finding a name for her she got christened Lakoda.
First few baths she got to kill off the fleas and clean her up a bit. She was very timid and its obvious that she has been mistreated but she was young enough and we are working with her to overcome her fears. She refused to come inside or go though any doorway and hated stairs and gates. She was timid to even be touched but she has really blossomed with her care and loving home.
Only really bad thing these past few months has been an issue over the dogs.
We keep them up on the rooftop since we have no place downstairs that we can keep them. LONG STORY.... so we made lean-toos on the roof to keep them covered and we exercise them by taking them out for walks along the neighborhood. As I mentioned before we sometimes walk them out on the main road and boy what traffic stoppers we are. Most are boys and men hooting "Kelb ...bark bark". A few young kids you can hear them exclaim "Momma, Babba, look a dog." in arabic. But we love it and the dogs get social interactions.
But we had one snafu at the end of Ramadan that has put some damper on things with my husbands mother.
Aieysha took the puppies out for their daily walk the boy first and got no one to disturb her. She walks them separately now since they like to challenge each other and she can't deal alone with both until they are better leash trained. She took Lakoda out second and she is the more timid and so she is more wary about interaction with her around kids. She had only gotten to her uncles house just across the street literally, and a small group of boys approached her. They were all young and it was the 3rd day of Eid and we were planning on meeting the family for dinner so I was busy baking in the kitchen and could not walk with her. The boys approached her and most of the time she doesn't know what they are saying so she gets nervous. She tried to tell them to be careful since she is timid and she doesn't want the boys to be nipped by a timid dog. One of the young boys around 7 yrs old began to tease the puppy and kick at her. Aieysha told him to stop and they just laughed at her. Then the youth grabbed a toy BB gun and shot the puppy twice in the rump and she told them to stop and grabbed up her yelping puppy. She turned to go to her uncles house for help and he aimed the BB gun at her and shot her in the leg. She went crying to her uncle and yes he did come out and scold the boy but he told her to "take the puppy home". She came in very upset and told me what happened. I was furious. I asked Suhayb to join me and we went to speak to my brother in law. I asked where was the boy who shot them and saw a few young boys outside by a fence. I went to them yelling what did they think they could shoot someone for nothing and get away with it? I was beyond furious. Well I sure drew some looks from the local houses but I didn't care what was it that a young woman could not walk a street full of family houses and not be accosted!!! I then went to my father in law and told him that this nonsense has to end. She has every right to walk among the homes of family and not have any problem. I will be damned that the streets be ran by little children and young men who have nothing better to do than harass a female. That to allow children the right to misbehave was letting them learn that boys will be aloud to do anything and no one will stop them regardless of age. Things will never change with this behavior. And don't tell me a young lady can't walk in her own neighborhood simply because she is female!!
Well I guess that got my mother in law upset and later on in the day I had gone to get some stuff I needed for preps for dinner meal. I saw her sitting on the carpets outside of her door and I told her I had been busy but I saw that the courtyard needed to be swept before company arrived and I would come back down and help out. I approached her to tell her good morning and she told me go away. I asked her why she wanted me to go away. She told me to leave her home. I again asked her why? Then she got up and went towards her doorway and I followed her asking her what I had done to displease her. Then the big one.....She called me "bint al kelb" like in english equivalent to "you bitch" . Sorry but in my whole life no one has ever called me this and I blew a gasket. I told her why did you call me this dirty word? I know she didn't fully understand me and I was trying to find out what did I do to deserve such fowl words to be spoken to me by a woman whom I had only shown the greatest of respect to.
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her asking her why. I swear I have never even laid a hand on my own mother and now I was trying to understand why a woman whom I now called mother could treat me such. My heart was beyond broken and I told her ok so be it I will leave you. I gave up all my life in the USA to bring her son home and for what!
Needless to say my day was ruined and we sat in the house with no meal and no one to see on the last day of EID while family joined them downstairs. Not one member came to me so im a bit bitter over this. I contacted my husband and he called me later that evening said to stay away from them until he comes and he would deal with it when he does.
After that the neighbors understood that I will not allow my kids or their pets to be the brunt of any abuse. If you want to see the puppies approach with caution and we will allow them to be petted but if you act in any way to harm them then watch out cause I will take you down and you will wish you never touch them again.
A few days later we were out walking again by my husbands brothers house and his uncle and a small group of boys saw us walking the boy dog. Again we knew they were up to no good and they could be heard planning to tease the dog to get it to react. I told Aieysha to hold on to the puppies leash and watch out I wasn't sure what they were planning but I could hear them talking. First, one of the little ones ran past us really close but I was between him and the dog. Then when he saw he got no reaction he motioned for the other two to run. They ran past us as well. Then acted like they were playing tag. They did this three times by the time we got to the end of that strip of houses. By then I was getting pissed off. I turned to them and told them go away and leave us alone. The older one laughed and I told him this is how you respect your elders? We are doing nothing to you leave us alone or I will call for help.
We turned the corner and these houses are all the homes of my husband uncle and his sons so we were surrounded by family homes. I then noticed they were following us planning who knows what. A few more steps and I noticed a broken broom handle laying in the dirt and I picked it up. They saw this and backed off. I will not take it.
We got to another two houses and a new group of boys began to approach us. LOL yep it just keeps happening..... but this time some relatives were out and saw the boys and told them to leave us alone. I thanked the men and we walked home. The next day we had a few boys approach us and luckily they spoke some english and we told them we're trying to train the dogs and if kids keep bothering us the dogs will not learn to behave. They understood and were excited to see the dogs do some tricks. Later we saw my BIL Salem and he was sitting with a man. We approached to say hi and she showed them how well behaved he is and what he is learning to do sit and lay on command. They both were impressed with his good behavior. I told Aieysha this is the only way we can be. Show that we are working with them and so they need to be left alone and that they will not bite so any time there is an issue it will be on our side that people have seen how well behaved the dogs are.
Let me see....Eid is over and we have begun to go out again to visit people and things are getting better. We went to a relatives land and stayed the evening enjoying the quiet of country life. I dream to have some land soon we can build on and enjoy our own home. I want so much for the kids futures.
Khadijah is still pretty much to herself and I have tried to accommodate her in getting stuff to keep her entertained. There is more to her than people see and its hard dealing with her.
Fatimah has been going out a bit more lately too and got to spend time with some kids her age. I got to meet a young lady from twitter the other day too.
I also met finally..........Katrina or better known as UKWatcher from Livestream. She came to Libya finally to put the finishing touches on their new home and we had a lovely evening. Sadly she is back in the UK with the girls but I hope we will see each other soon.
Im getting out more I refuse to sit around the house and do nothing. I went out shopping yesterday and got some glasses for coffee, tea and juice so now I feel at least I can offer someone a drink not in a plastic cup. I finally got my Libyan tea set I bought it in pieces and am happy with what I bought for now. I still need the little table and a cook top but for now im practicing making tea that is sweet enough I know its not BLACK enough lol but I hate such dark tea. I tried to foam the tea and ended up spilling quite a bit so I definitely need practice.
We have two weddings approaching soon so the ritual of finding things to wear is always there to keep me busy looking in shops. The freezer has left us with no way to store meat so I have to go out daily and with cost and all it is cheaper to buy a cooked chicken full of rice and side of salad than cook one. So for now we are eating out lol...most people don't eat out. With all the amazing cooks here you should never want too but I haven't much choice when even the fridge cant cool drinks barely.
Well this is a long one but we are caught up for now. I will remember what I did to get back into my account so hopefully I can write some more soon. Keep reading and keep in touch I love your comments lets me know people are reading it at least.. Love to all.
Here is a photo of the puppies hope U like them :)
I know its been awhile but I have been busy. Settling in here has been a chore and a blessing. I came to an empty house and had so much I was waiting to ship from the USA so I put off buying things that I knew I had and didn't need more of. Sadly, its now been almost a year and I still don't have but a single shipment that hubby sent with the car of our possessions from back home.
So what have I been up too? Well as always when things are going good life will smack you to remind you that its watching you so here goes....the UPDATES
Let me see its been since March OMG so long so lets start...
My mother died in April and although I will miss being able to contact her for her recipe for Fruit salad for EID or Thanksgiving each year I finally got it worked out and passed it on to my girls and my niece so we would have a memory to live with. We had a few weddings in the family and I wish I could post some photos but I don't have any since most use their cells to take pics but I will ask around see who has some that I can get copies sent to my email and post.
My husband's last uncle passed away sadly and we spent the customary 3 days with his family and neighbors. We are getting out a bit more we have had a few scares with Fatimah and her sugar levels and going on the 3rd illness since the year started. We need to watch her she is going back to her old ways and not checking before eating and going long hours of no insulin to counter her intake. But we are thankful that she has not had more than a few hours of nausea and she recoups quickly. Medical here is a challenge for even the people and many who can afford go out of the country to seek care since he let hospitals rot for the general public. Medical is free but quality well U pay for that. Sounds like home right?
All the month of Ramadan we had nearly every day power cuts one day was over 15 hours. As a result the new freezer I bought went out and i'm still waiting for someone to look at it. We got a air conditioner the last week of Ramadan as a family gift and it went for a week then stopped working. They are saying that the power to the house is weak and that is why we lost it but then why is my in-laws working? The fridge is weak on power too, I used a outside temp gauge that I brought with me and it said that the fridge was 61 degrees. So I can't put much in it as it will not stay long.
I battled with Pneumonia twice now and got a nice bunch of injection spots on my rump each time since I needed to get antibiotics to knock it out what ever is here is strong I have never been sick like this in the states but I'm better and stronger.
This week we lost my dad's sister Connie and I was sadden to know of this by facebook from a post of my brothers and my daughter. Her funeral was Friday and I sure wish I had been in the USA I would have liked to see her kids and hug them. I haven't seen any of them since my dad passed away over 20 yrs ago. But I guess that is what all families do drift apart over time.
Suhayl went back to the USA it broke my heart but he is old enough to decide his life and I pray that one day he will come back. He is staying for now with Taher and helping when he can to get him back here so we can finally settle in. He has also registered for school so I hope he finds his dreams. I don't talk much to my girls sadly with internet what it is here and all the blackouts I just pretty much given up on keeping more than updates on my facebook page since I could not get here to write more.
Suhayb is working at a school teaching english and he liked it at first but now he feels like I did when I tried doing that before. Its not american english that is taught and we constantly have to correct ourselves to teach british english and many of our common speech patterns are not the same so what sounds correct to us is sometimes incorrect. So he has gotten flustered over this but for now he will continue to work if they keep him after this first quarter. Plus, they only pay at the end of a semester so if we needed money in an emergency we are out of luck.
Aieysha got her a second dog and I probably haven't told you about the first one she got since its been that long. She got a lovely male dog back in May for her birthday and he was bought at the puppy mills in town. Cost us 150 LD which is a lot of money for a dog but we had looked and waited for promised dogs long enough and her heart needed someone to hold. He got settled in and she was saying he needed a buddy since Ramadan was approaching and with the heat she was not sure how much time she could give to a puppy and he would be lonely. We got lucky on this issue a lady saw her post on facebook and had a puppy that had been dropped over her wall that she could not keep. A poor sad looking little white ball of fluff that turned out to be a female when the lady thought she was a male. She was covered in fleas and needed a bath desperately and she got both that and a new loving home. We took about a week in finding a name for her she got christened Lakoda.
First few baths she got to kill off the fleas and clean her up a bit. She was very timid and its obvious that she has been mistreated but she was young enough and we are working with her to overcome her fears. She refused to come inside or go though any doorway and hated stairs and gates. She was timid to even be touched but she has really blossomed with her care and loving home.
Only really bad thing these past few months has been an issue over the dogs.
We keep them up on the rooftop since we have no place downstairs that we can keep them. LONG STORY.... so we made lean-toos on the roof to keep them covered and we exercise them by taking them out for walks along the neighborhood. As I mentioned before we sometimes walk them out on the main road and boy what traffic stoppers we are. Most are boys and men hooting "Kelb ...bark bark". A few young kids you can hear them exclaim "Momma, Babba, look a dog." in arabic. But we love it and the dogs get social interactions.
But we had one snafu at the end of Ramadan that has put some damper on things with my husbands mother.
Aieysha took the puppies out for their daily walk the boy first and got no one to disturb her. She walks them separately now since they like to challenge each other and she can't deal alone with both until they are better leash trained. She took Lakoda out second and she is the more timid and so she is more wary about interaction with her around kids. She had only gotten to her uncles house just across the street literally, and a small group of boys approached her. They were all young and it was the 3rd day of Eid and we were planning on meeting the family for dinner so I was busy baking in the kitchen and could not walk with her. The boys approached her and most of the time she doesn't know what they are saying so she gets nervous. She tried to tell them to be careful since she is timid and she doesn't want the boys to be nipped by a timid dog. One of the young boys around 7 yrs old began to tease the puppy and kick at her. Aieysha told him to stop and they just laughed at her. Then the youth grabbed a toy BB gun and shot the puppy twice in the rump and she told them to stop and grabbed up her yelping puppy. She turned to go to her uncles house for help and he aimed the BB gun at her and shot her in the leg. She went crying to her uncle and yes he did come out and scold the boy but he told her to "take the puppy home". She came in very upset and told me what happened. I was furious. I asked Suhayb to join me and we went to speak to my brother in law. I asked where was the boy who shot them and saw a few young boys outside by a fence. I went to them yelling what did they think they could shoot someone for nothing and get away with it? I was beyond furious. Well I sure drew some looks from the local houses but I didn't care what was it that a young woman could not walk a street full of family houses and not be accosted!!! I then went to my father in law and told him that this nonsense has to end. She has every right to walk among the homes of family and not have any problem. I will be damned that the streets be ran by little children and young men who have nothing better to do than harass a female. That to allow children the right to misbehave was letting them learn that boys will be aloud to do anything and no one will stop them regardless of age. Things will never change with this behavior. And don't tell me a young lady can't walk in her own neighborhood simply because she is female!!
Well I guess that got my mother in law upset and later on in the day I had gone to get some stuff I needed for preps for dinner meal. I saw her sitting on the carpets outside of her door and I told her I had been busy but I saw that the courtyard needed to be swept before company arrived and I would come back down and help out. I approached her to tell her good morning and she told me go away. I asked her why she wanted me to go away. She told me to leave her home. I again asked her why? Then she got up and went towards her doorway and I followed her asking her what I had done to displease her. Then the big one.....She called me "bint al kelb" like in english equivalent to "you bitch" . Sorry but in my whole life no one has ever called me this and I blew a gasket. I told her why did you call me this dirty word? I know she didn't fully understand me and I was trying to find out what did I do to deserve such fowl words to be spoken to me by a woman whom I had only shown the greatest of respect to.
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her asking her why. I swear I have never even laid a hand on my own mother and now I was trying to understand why a woman whom I now called mother could treat me such. My heart was beyond broken and I told her ok so be it I will leave you. I gave up all my life in the USA to bring her son home and for what!
Needless to say my day was ruined and we sat in the house with no meal and no one to see on the last day of EID while family joined them downstairs. Not one member came to me so im a bit bitter over this. I contacted my husband and he called me later that evening said to stay away from them until he comes and he would deal with it when he does.
After that the neighbors understood that I will not allow my kids or their pets to be the brunt of any abuse. If you want to see the puppies approach with caution and we will allow them to be petted but if you act in any way to harm them then watch out cause I will take you down and you will wish you never touch them again.
A few days later we were out walking again by my husbands brothers house and his uncle and a small group of boys saw us walking the boy dog. Again we knew they were up to no good and they could be heard planning to tease the dog to get it to react. I told Aieysha to hold on to the puppies leash and watch out I wasn't sure what they were planning but I could hear them talking. First, one of the little ones ran past us really close but I was between him and the dog. Then when he saw he got no reaction he motioned for the other two to run. They ran past us as well. Then acted like they were playing tag. They did this three times by the time we got to the end of that strip of houses. By then I was getting pissed off. I turned to them and told them go away and leave us alone. The older one laughed and I told him this is how you respect your elders? We are doing nothing to you leave us alone or I will call for help.
We turned the corner and these houses are all the homes of my husband uncle and his sons so we were surrounded by family homes. I then noticed they were following us planning who knows what. A few more steps and I noticed a broken broom handle laying in the dirt and I picked it up. They saw this and backed off. I will not take it.
We got to another two houses and a new group of boys began to approach us. LOL yep it just keeps happening..... but this time some relatives were out and saw the boys and told them to leave us alone. I thanked the men and we walked home. The next day we had a few boys approach us and luckily they spoke some english and we told them we're trying to train the dogs and if kids keep bothering us the dogs will not learn to behave. They understood and were excited to see the dogs do some tricks. Later we saw my BIL Salem and he was sitting with a man. We approached to say hi and she showed them how well behaved he is and what he is learning to do sit and lay on command. They both were impressed with his good behavior. I told Aieysha this is the only way we can be. Show that we are working with them and so they need to be left alone and that they will not bite so any time there is an issue it will be on our side that people have seen how well behaved the dogs are.
Let me see....Eid is over and we have begun to go out again to visit people and things are getting better. We went to a relatives land and stayed the evening enjoying the quiet of country life. I dream to have some land soon we can build on and enjoy our own home. I want so much for the kids futures.
Khadijah is still pretty much to herself and I have tried to accommodate her in getting stuff to keep her entertained. There is more to her than people see and its hard dealing with her.
Fatimah has been going out a bit more lately too and got to spend time with some kids her age. I got to meet a young lady from twitter the other day too.
I also met finally..........Katrina or better known as UKWatcher from Livestream. She came to Libya finally to put the finishing touches on their new home and we had a lovely evening. Sadly she is back in the UK with the girls but I hope we will see each other soon.
Im getting out more I refuse to sit around the house and do nothing. I went out shopping yesterday and got some glasses for coffee, tea and juice so now I feel at least I can offer someone a drink not in a plastic cup. I finally got my Libyan tea set I bought it in pieces and am happy with what I bought for now. I still need the little table and a cook top but for now im practicing making tea that is sweet enough I know its not BLACK enough lol but I hate such dark tea. I tried to foam the tea and ended up spilling quite a bit so I definitely need practice.
We have two weddings approaching soon so the ritual of finding things to wear is always there to keep me busy looking in shops. The freezer has left us with no way to store meat so I have to go out daily and with cost and all it is cheaper to buy a cooked chicken full of rice and side of salad than cook one. So for now we are eating out lol...most people don't eat out. With all the amazing cooks here you should never want too but I haven't much choice when even the fridge cant cool drinks barely.
Well this is a long one but we are caught up for now. I will remember what I did to get back into my account so hopefully I can write some more soon. Keep reading and keep in touch I love your comments lets me know people are reading it at least.. Love to all.
Here is a photo of the puppies hope U like them :)
Racoon the cat
Will post more soon
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Traditions, 1st and 2nd Generations and Expats
Sitting here this morning watching a show on TV called "Namesake" got me thinking
about a few things. 32 yrs ago a young man traveled to a new land, not knowing at the
time he would not return home again til 32 yrs had passed. What ever his reasons for not returning home all those years I still have only bits and pieces. We really haven't had much time to talk about why he left and for
many years it really didn't matter. He never really spoke of home. When we had children
he felt there was no need for them to learn his native tongue they would probably
never meet their grandparents or any other relatives and except for a few friends that
lived somewhat close to us, there was no need in this new land.
We had promised each other when and "IF" the time ever came we would head home.
No ifs and buts about it we would go. His family at one point had sent us tickets for hubby, myself
and our new son. We could not go then part being a promise he had made to me
we would never leave without trying to get daughters who I had been denied
back in my custody from a first husband who had made my life miserable for the years in
which he lived. It was not til his death nearly 15 yrs later could we even dream of that.
Now, move forward in time. Five other kids had became part of our small family, neighbors and
other local muslim families became our "family". I myself not really having much to do with
my own family members most living scattered across the USA. My First generation children of a mixed race
mixed culture family, knew little of the world of Islam beyond the borders of the local
mosque and saw on TV like many of us the cracked, fractured and misunderstood world that they were
a part of but not a part of.
With the fall of Tripoli almost a year after the war began, a glimmer of hope rose in my heart. My husband
felt with trepidation the glimmer of hope as well. I PUSHED him along in the hope that one day soon;
I mean I could go tomorrow, but we had responsibilities and after years of separation with my two oldest daughters I had a relationship with my youngest daughter who I had the least time with. Her and her husband and my two wonderful grandsons lived blocks from me and Grandma got to see them whenever she wanted. How could I now uproot and move to another place clear on the other side of the world? I had my other daughter with her two children living in another state but the idea of a house with grandma and grandpa visiting on weekends and those darn family days suddenly seemed to crumble. After 25 yrs of marriage and of not really setting roots everything we knew was about to be suddenly changed.
Sure we could just go on with our lives here, going back and forth visiting family here in the winter and living in our country visiting it when we could. In reality we barely made a life in the USA and struggled to give our children the things that made life what it was. So the cost of traveling to another country halfway around the world for a few weeks each year was not in the remotest chance of happening. My husband and I talked, well take that back "I" talked, he grumbled. I told him your the oldest son for your mother and your youngest brother has carried them all these years and wasn't it time that he bellied up to this responsiblities as a man? See Kharma works like that, you ignore your grandparents, your parents and well
when your own kids grow up well it will come back to haunt you.
He finally relented, and we made plans to visit and see how things were. I mean they had just came out of a war and 32 years of repression and lack of even basics and we wanted to come headlong into that? So we packed two suitcases each and took what we could and headed home.
Things really hadn't changed much since the kids and myself were here 6 yrs ago. Not physically but mentally yeah. AS I said before there was a new air about the people.
It took a bit first a bit of anger on the parts of the kids being drawn up into this MOVE and being dragged from all they had every known. Me being the child of a military family it was all I ever knew and I was getting restless having sat so long in one place. Maybe I was selfish.
Its 6 months in and hubby returned to the states back in November to settle our business there. Wish I had planned differently, wish I had more time to plan when I was planning and people had listened to me and readied themselves. Packed up the rooms when I suggested it saying at least if we come back things will all be here and not dusty and we can repaint and refresh the house at worst. Now he is packing our life in boxes, hopefully not tossing out what he didn't know was important.
I attended a Volunteer group today, we got there an hour late I thought we would be on time. No they seemed to be just about wrapped up. Two people spoke to us we got a few stares. I was hoping to see some folks from Twitter there if you were there I wish we could have met. The young man we had met that assisted us in getting there told me he had called my son so he was on the way back felt bad 1/2 hour and hey come back. Something I don't know said, "Don't think they really care if you came, these youth."
Hope I'm wrong. I'm frustrated not having anything to do and not having money to do more that I NEED to do after sitting in a basement for almost a year watching screens show me a world thousands of miles away and wishing I could be there to do something, anything, I feel unwanted and unneeded. Maybe im'm wrong, I pray I am. Where is the activism that I saw sprout out and yell for the chance to make a difference? I went out to the local ducan (store) and watched as the restaurant deposited their garbage on the sidewalk in front of the store. One bag broke open and salad and bits and pieces of food fell onto the ground
its not that hot yet the flies have yet to multiply to monstrous proportions, but by days end I'm sure it stunk. They looked at the mess and walked off waiting for the cleanup crews to pick it up.
So much needs to be done. Locals will ask, "where do we start?" Youth will say we got to have jobs, we are bored, we don't want to pick up garbage or clean up a mess of a building. It's not our job. Much needs to change. Again I pray that those outside, those who know better and have been raised differently, should come home. We need, LIBYA needs your help.
What will the next generations have? What are we building now that will benefit them? Certainly not a new shawarma shop....Grand Prix racing? Do we really need that? Glitzy buildings of foreign companies touting goods and services that would be better if they could harness the local economy and skills have begun to come. I guess there is a place for Cinnabons and Starbucks Coffee. Where is a shop that shows off and sells Amazigh clothing and wares? Harness the dates and the honey and all the riches of the
country in natural beauty.
Oh I forget while we sit, foes still plan and whisper in the ears of youth and tell them that the dream is not their dream. Burn down that store, kill that person for some old wrong, destroy a bit more of your history that hasn't already been damaged from time or lack of care. Destroy your history, bit by bit til nothing is left. Fill the beaches with hotels and resorts touting the views of the Gulf while slowly you destroy the view for those who sit behind it. Block off bits and pieces as your own and charge to use what should be the right to free use of all Libyans.
I look back to my own country, how long after our own revolution did it take us to turn our country around? Set up government and laws? I don't know i'm a genealogist by hobby, but a historian no. I'm no politician, no mega conglomerate. I'm one person who had a dream. Keep reading my blog, not many people respond to me so I have no idea who is really reading it or what they think about what I am saying.
I'm a dreamer, maybe a fool. But I'm not the only one. Realizing as I post this today that most of this I have already said before. Guess the feeling is still there.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Humm, Trying to Think of a Catchy Title?
Sitting here its early morning like most of my days. Been a week or more since I got sick and pretty much haven't gone beyond my front door. Came down with Pneumonia and had a few trips to doctors and clinics. Guess I could tell you about that since well if you got kids its going to happen you will have to visit a clinic or hospital soon enough so brace yourself. First, I have to say I have connections so from what I have seen so far I guess its tame as compared to other places you might end up visiting. Tajura is home to a Heart Hospital which I guess was one of the best since it was right across from the Khamis Katiba. During the war a dear friend had family members working there and we held hands virtually each night reading for bombing raids on the Katiba across the street. Let me say NATO did well not a scratch on the surrounding buildings. Katiba well that's pretty much demolished. Second, you have free clinics and you have pay a fee clinics. Honestly except for conditions of the building I haven't seen much of a difference so far. The level of medical supplies varies and you best listen to family on where to take someone depending on connections and your location. Fatimah sprained her ankle a few months back and we went to the first hospital and they had no one in radiology available at night. Second hospital had someone but you pay a fee so we went on farther into Tripoli and ended up at one there. Connections got us seen pretty quickly. Funny story one of the family members who took her well the family wants her to marry him, so she is limping around while the "doctor" in the family is scurrying around trying to find his buddies to look at her and another cousin who went with us is like "how about we slow down and find her a chair to sit in since she seems to be having trouble walking" look on his face. No there is no emergency room check in. No there is no triage nurse to assess your needs, at least that i have seen so far. So back to my illness, we went to the Heart Hospital first its free and late night the local clinic was closed pretty much. I had been coughing a week or more and had gone to the local pharmacy with a couple that speaks English helping me choose cough medicines. Name brands here are different so use the internet when you get a medication PLEASE as contradictions are not discussed here. If you have health issues or allergic reactions to medications please check online sources like WebMD before you take any medication there is no Walgreens Pharmacy personnel that has every medication you ever took on their computer and can sit and discuss any reactions with you. Pharmacies are iffy when it comes to who is behind the desk. Anyways, I was having difficulty breathing since a over the counter (everything is over the counter here) medication i had taken from suggestion by the Pharmacist gave me a reaction of asthma. I was barely speaking above a whisper and was trying to fill my son in on what I thought the doctors might need of my medical history. We sat outside cause inside was crowded and I just could not breathe inside. The family member who went with us gave my name and possible reason for visit to the clerk in the hallway and we sat waiting. He kept going back and fourth asking when I could be seen and a "doctor" came out looked at me talking to my son and said, "well she is talking so I guess she is breathing OK".
We finally were seen and I showed the doctor behind the curtain the medication I had taken and my son told him that it gave me a reaction. Seems as if he had another patient with the same issue so I got standard treatment. What is standard treatment? Well I get to sit on a bed that has a single sheet of tissue on it in a curtained off section with a few instruments in it and wait for a bottle of oxygen to be set up. I was given a nebulizer and sat up on the end of the bed breathing it in. NO medical history, NO xray, NO doctor comes in to assess me beyond someone listened to my chest. After a bit I was released and sent home with some more medications.
I took that stuff for a week but I was getting worse and we went to another hospital and my family member commented see that is why we go to Tunisia for care. But I told him if Libyan's have to see these doctors then that is who I see. Not like I could go to Tunisia. The second doctor was three hospital later we found a friend of my nephew on duty at a PAY hospital He spoke English and my son sat outside since this time I took my SIL with me. I was sent into a room with a few nurses is all i can guess as to why they were sitting there. I was told to sit and a sweet young lady set me up for oxygen. The two ladies who had just occupied my BED moved over to the adjoining bed and sat playing with their cellphones behind the curtain while I looked on in awe. My sister in law needed a place to sit so she sat on the same bed as them. While I got my treatment they sat chatting about their settings I guess. After a bit he told me we needed to go get a chest xray and we went downstairs to have that done. The intern at least asked if I had jewelry on thank god. I had one man come in and in broken English told me hold still and breathe in and hold it. Glad I know about chest xray procedures. After a few minutes we were handed our film and we went back upstairs. He took a look and said I had Pneumonia I could see the cloud in my lower lung. He wrote out a new prescription and we were off to home. After a week on that medication I still had a rattle in my lungs and worse in the night and mornings when i felt like something was sitting on my chest. So, after a week I felt it was best I go see him again. We called and he was not in but we saw another English speaking doctor and he ordered xrays, looked at the medication I had been prescribed and asked me a few questions about my health. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!! As we wrapped up he asked me why we had came a common question I have gotten since we arrived. I told him Libya needed people to help now, people with experiences outside of Libya who could help inform or educate Libyans on what was missing here. And I told him I kept a promise to my hubby. This was his home and we were here to stay. He smiled an told me he hoped that within 10 years Libya would be better. I like that optimism. I thanked him for his time and he told me come back in a week so we can assess you again. See there are good doctors.
Its also a bit to tell you conditions of hospitals. They all need repairs even the nicer ones. They try to keep them clean but well think about the local free clinics in your town, yeah like that. Low on supplies, old outdated machines, not quite so sterile environments. Well all I can say is if you have family with serious health issues you might want to wait. Normal everyday stuff well educate yourself and be proactive. So far we have had no surgery or serious medical condition so I cant comment on things beyond what I have seen. I heard horror stories, most will say better to go outside, but think about it if Libyans continue to go outside for medical then when does their system get better? What about those who cant afford to go outside? Libya deserves just as good as the rest of the advantaged parts of the world have. Yes it will take time but if people continue to accept things as is well when does the change begin? The doctors and nurses need to be evaluated and hospitals need to be brought up to standards. Painted and repaired and bring medical supplies into them so even the smallest of clinics can have better. Pharmacies need actual people who studied more than a week to give you medications. And laws need to go into place for medications so that you simply cant walk into a store and buy anything you want without a prescription. And they need follow up of patients, medical record systems, charts and triage and so much more. I have been told many doctors ask for this but are denied by higher up as not a necessity. I can tell you its a necessity. Im feeling much better after this last course of medications a bit raspy this morning but i forgot my nightime syrup and I hate that metallic taste in my mouth all night long. On Sunday I will go back cause I do believe in followup at my age.
Some may say I'm dreaming here. Libya is full of issues and no way will it be better even in 10 years. Well with that attitude no it won't. People need to demand in honest dialogue changes be made. Progress will take time. But small steps are being taken everywhere people are waking up and seeing they deserve better. Medical health is a issue in many countries and no system is perfect not even Canada's system as my son suggested. I'm sure there are people there who slip through the cracks in the system. Everyone deserves in this day and age better. Not just the ones who can afford it. Well its been an early morning I was up before the crows for once. Been sleeping oddly lately with this cold but I think in a few days I will be my old self again and I will be back driving around town trying to find my way in a new place. Thanks for listening.
We finally were seen and I showed the doctor behind the curtain the medication I had taken and my son told him that it gave me a reaction. Seems as if he had another patient with the same issue so I got standard treatment. What is standard treatment? Well I get to sit on a bed that has a single sheet of tissue on it in a curtained off section with a few instruments in it and wait for a bottle of oxygen to be set up. I was given a nebulizer and sat up on the end of the bed breathing it in. NO medical history, NO xray, NO doctor comes in to assess me beyond someone listened to my chest. After a bit I was released and sent home with some more medications.
I took that stuff for a week but I was getting worse and we went to another hospital and my family member commented see that is why we go to Tunisia for care. But I told him if Libyan's have to see these doctors then that is who I see. Not like I could go to Tunisia. The second doctor was three hospital later we found a friend of my nephew on duty at a PAY hospital He spoke English and my son sat outside since this time I took my SIL with me. I was sent into a room with a few nurses is all i can guess as to why they were sitting there. I was told to sit and a sweet young lady set me up for oxygen. The two ladies who had just occupied my BED moved over to the adjoining bed and sat playing with their cellphones behind the curtain while I looked on in awe. My sister in law needed a place to sit so she sat on the same bed as them. While I got my treatment they sat chatting about their settings I guess. After a bit he told me we needed to go get a chest xray and we went downstairs to have that done. The intern at least asked if I had jewelry on thank god. I had one man come in and in broken English told me hold still and breathe in and hold it. Glad I know about chest xray procedures. After a few minutes we were handed our film and we went back upstairs. He took a look and said I had Pneumonia I could see the cloud in my lower lung. He wrote out a new prescription and we were off to home. After a week on that medication I still had a rattle in my lungs and worse in the night and mornings when i felt like something was sitting on my chest. So, after a week I felt it was best I go see him again. We called and he was not in but we saw another English speaking doctor and he ordered xrays, looked at the medication I had been prescribed and asked me a few questions about my health. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!! As we wrapped up he asked me why we had came a common question I have gotten since we arrived. I told him Libya needed people to help now, people with experiences outside of Libya who could help inform or educate Libyans on what was missing here. And I told him I kept a promise to my hubby. This was his home and we were here to stay. He smiled an told me he hoped that within 10 years Libya would be better. I like that optimism. I thanked him for his time and he told me come back in a week so we can assess you again. See there are good doctors.
Its also a bit to tell you conditions of hospitals. They all need repairs even the nicer ones. They try to keep them clean but well think about the local free clinics in your town, yeah like that. Low on supplies, old outdated machines, not quite so sterile environments. Well all I can say is if you have family with serious health issues you might want to wait. Normal everyday stuff well educate yourself and be proactive. So far we have had no surgery or serious medical condition so I cant comment on things beyond what I have seen. I heard horror stories, most will say better to go outside, but think about it if Libyans continue to go outside for medical then when does their system get better? What about those who cant afford to go outside? Libya deserves just as good as the rest of the advantaged parts of the world have. Yes it will take time but if people continue to accept things as is well when does the change begin? The doctors and nurses need to be evaluated and hospitals need to be brought up to standards. Painted and repaired and bring medical supplies into them so even the smallest of clinics can have better. Pharmacies need actual people who studied more than a week to give you medications. And laws need to go into place for medications so that you simply cant walk into a store and buy anything you want without a prescription. And they need follow up of patients, medical record systems, charts and triage and so much more. I have been told many doctors ask for this but are denied by higher up as not a necessity. I can tell you its a necessity. Im feeling much better after this last course of medications a bit raspy this morning but i forgot my nightime syrup and I hate that metallic taste in my mouth all night long. On Sunday I will go back cause I do believe in followup at my age.
Some may say I'm dreaming here. Libya is full of issues and no way will it be better even in 10 years. Well with that attitude no it won't. People need to demand in honest dialogue changes be made. Progress will take time. But small steps are being taken everywhere people are waking up and seeing they deserve better. Medical health is a issue in many countries and no system is perfect not even Canada's system as my son suggested. I'm sure there are people there who slip through the cracks in the system. Everyone deserves in this day and age better. Not just the ones who can afford it. Well its been an early morning I was up before the crows for once. Been sleeping oddly lately with this cold but I think in a few days I will be my old self again and I will be back driving around town trying to find my way in a new place. Thanks for listening.
Thursday, March 07, 2013
Be Swayah and InShallah Or "Step by Step and If God Allows"
Seems as if I can't sleep and I find I'm able to access my blog account for once so let me get it off my chest so I can sleep. Seems as if the terms step by step and If God Allows have become the two most common words around here. Step by step my kids are learning how to speak Arabic and If God Allows you will remember the offer or promise you made to my family. Now let me rant a bit....
First, I'm beginning to realize after all this time that my husband never thought he would come back to his country so that's maybe why he felt there was no need to teach his kids his language let alone anything about his native land. Second, we have always tried to teach our kids when you promise someone something you do your best to keep that promise and if you can't for some reason let them know why. Seems simple enough.
We have been in Libya now since September and Taher went back to the states to wrap up our life there and yes I had hoped he would be back by March but teasing us saying he left us here and found a new wife or to keep asking when he is coming back EVERY time you see us can get painful. Second, we don't know the language so how about offer to take us shopping and let us actually shop for the things we said we needed not "Hey I guess we just came along to follow you around while U do your shopping". Months later I have gotten use to a calculator as a tool of language and I am blessed that Libyans in general are honest people and if I have handed you too much money you are kind enough to say this is too much we needed this much. See I will remember it like the guy today who I know darn well I gave him a dinar for the potatoes yet when I took my potatoes and turned away you insisted that I hadn't paid you yet. That guy isn't getting return business. Plenty enough vendors on the line and yes I remember now how much they should cost so I can haggle the price if I'm so inclined next time. Next I'm a very prompt person and yes I can be patient a bit but if I say I wanted to go at a certain time then 4 hours later is not an option...get it.
Next, as a Foreign wife, being separated from your spouse is hard enough for most people but to have people tease you is insensitive....it may not hurt me personally but my child standing there is another story especially cause they miss their father too.
Then now lets move on to getting us comfortable in our new surroundings. We came with pretty much a suitcase each leaving behind all our other possessions until they can be shipped so let me see what would YOU pack? Surely not a gown for parties, shoes that you wear less than once a year, clothes for more than a week, things that provide a bit of comfort from home, like maybe a game or that favorite toy that was left on the bed cause they didn't really think dad was going to stay there was he? So going to a Wedding or a Baby Shower or just about any social gathering can be a bit difficult and lets see it was summer when we came so now its cold and no we don't have warmer clothes with us...and my kids are not your size nor is that outfit anything they could wear cause your all pencils here and my kids well are built different. Next, IF you are going to invite us to something would it not be nice to actually tell us what day its on and dear GOD what should be the proper attire to wear to this function see we have never been to a LIBYAN one before to know. Secondly, how about sit near us or ask someone to sit near us and fill us in on the customs we see before us or maybe offer to take the kids around to meet your friends so they can you know MEET SOME PEOPLE!! I mean they did leave their world to come here and all their friends and now instead of going out and meeting people they sit in a house all day or you promised them to take them to so and so well over a month ago and yet you still haven't found time to fulfill that promise.
Now put yourself in our position, if you came to our country let me see we have middle eastern markets, restaurants and large communities of other expats that many of us go out of our way to introduce you to and make you feel welcome and at home. I should also remember after the umpteenth time that we know you didn't bring much with you so let me take you shopping so I can help you to assimilate yourself into my world. Then, hey I'm really busy but I can ask so and so to sit near you and fill you in on our social customs of why we do this here.
Honestly, I do love it here. I am determined to make my life here and yes I don't expect to find everything from my native land in yours but if I really wish I had something and you know where it can be bought how about take me there or stop by and get it and I am more than happy to pay you back or thank you generously. Growing up in a military family I remember momma going to the new neighbors to "get a cup of sugar" see that is how you introduce yourself to others and most military wives have a bit of a club where when they have a new family in town they get together a basket of stuff and walk over an say hi and offer to take them around base or town to show them where you can get this and that. You bring your kids by and they take them out and introduce them to their friends so hey your kids can make some new friends cause their whole life has just been uprooted and they are heartbroken having to say goodbye again....seems its not like that here.
I promise ladies those of you who know me you come to Libya contact me and I will be happy to take you around and show you where you can find your basics then we plan a social visit where I can bring by a few friends and we can chat for a bit.
Now I'm beginning to feel a bit better putting my feelings on to paper as the saying goes or airing my dirty laundry some might say...oh well take it as you like.
Tonight was the third night of a wedding for a family member. After months of waiting for my car it finally arrived and we washed it and were excited to finally have our own transportation to go somewhere and not have to rely on waiting for someone and being split up into a dozen cars to go somewhere where one of us has been there for hours while the other sat waiting for so and so to get ready..
My son said mom I want to go help set up something for a family member so I need you to be ready to go by this time and I was. I had done my hair and all I needed was some lipstick and I was waiting to get there to put it on since I was covering and didn't want to wipe it off on the scarf I was wearing. And by the way I am not use to wearing a face veil and its hot and I can hardly breathe and see and I am walking in heels that I haven't worn before cause they aren't mine to begin with. I get to your home to find out hey no one is there. I call other family and NOT ONE BLAME PERSON could tell me it was not going to be there tonight we move to a bigger place, so I go back home to wait for someone else to be ready who is still in their house dresses and not expected to go for another hour or so anyways...so I got livid actually and pulled out my hair that my daughter had worked so hard on to make her old mother look nice and put on my pajamas and crawled into bed. Oh and by the way my two kids are not coming tonight cause they sat in a corner being ignored last night cause "they are American and they don't speak Arabic . And now you know they really feel like attending more wonderful parties in the future and have become more social inverts being pointed at and talked about all evening the last time. Oh and when it comes to FAMILY I expect you to invite everyone unless its a female only or male only event, cause you know my sons would like to get to know customs here too cause you know one day they will probably choose a LIBYAN wife and they need to start now learning all the stuff they are going to have to go through. And my daughters have pretty much sworn there is no way they are doing that at their wedding!!
So instead of a lovely evening of which no one took out anything to cook cause we all planned to be out and its late so lets walk over to the local sandwich shop for a quick bite to eat.
Now for the "If GOD ALLOWS"....I have always tried to keep a promise to my kids and I have told people if you promise my kids something do it. I can understand a change in plans but four months down the line and you still haven't met your promise well they give up on you and it makes a rift in our relationship cause I have to tell my kids not everyone keeps promises. Well we finally got our car but that is another rant maybe I will post in the morning cause it's like 3am and I just might finally feel like I can sleep now. So to all of you ladies out there, yes its worth it and more than likely his family is going to do the same to you so do what you can to plan ahead if your not coming anytime soon. Its small hurdles we have to cross over no one in life said it was going to be easy but we are making it and eventually we will have all our stuff from home here and wish for years that we could find that one thing we desire most from back home here that you just don't have or it just doesn't taste like ours does...Be kind to each other folks. Now I will post this on my Facebook account so everyone there can find out what I have been up too. Oh and by the way internet here SUCKS. And more than likely I will not have it again in a few days, week or even a hour from now cause someone was so desperate to have someone from home to talk to that they used up all our minutes...Life goes on.
First, I'm beginning to realize after all this time that my husband never thought he would come back to his country so that's maybe why he felt there was no need to teach his kids his language let alone anything about his native land. Second, we have always tried to teach our kids when you promise someone something you do your best to keep that promise and if you can't for some reason let them know why. Seems simple enough.
We have been in Libya now since September and Taher went back to the states to wrap up our life there and yes I had hoped he would be back by March but teasing us saying he left us here and found a new wife or to keep asking when he is coming back EVERY time you see us can get painful. Second, we don't know the language so how about offer to take us shopping and let us actually shop for the things we said we needed not "Hey I guess we just came along to follow you around while U do your shopping". Months later I have gotten use to a calculator as a tool of language and I am blessed that Libyans in general are honest people and if I have handed you too much money you are kind enough to say this is too much we needed this much. See I will remember it like the guy today who I know darn well I gave him a dinar for the potatoes yet when I took my potatoes and turned away you insisted that I hadn't paid you yet. That guy isn't getting return business. Plenty enough vendors on the line and yes I remember now how much they should cost so I can haggle the price if I'm so inclined next time. Next I'm a very prompt person and yes I can be patient a bit but if I say I wanted to go at a certain time then 4 hours later is not an option...get it.
Next, as a Foreign wife, being separated from your spouse is hard enough for most people but to have people tease you is insensitive....it may not hurt me personally but my child standing there is another story especially cause they miss their father too.
Then now lets move on to getting us comfortable in our new surroundings. We came with pretty much a suitcase each leaving behind all our other possessions until they can be shipped so let me see what would YOU pack? Surely not a gown for parties, shoes that you wear less than once a year, clothes for more than a week, things that provide a bit of comfort from home, like maybe a game or that favorite toy that was left on the bed cause they didn't really think dad was going to stay there was he? So going to a Wedding or a Baby Shower or just about any social gathering can be a bit difficult and lets see it was summer when we came so now its cold and no we don't have warmer clothes with us...and my kids are not your size nor is that outfit anything they could wear cause your all pencils here and my kids well are built different. Next, IF you are going to invite us to something would it not be nice to actually tell us what day its on and dear GOD what should be the proper attire to wear to this function see we have never been to a LIBYAN one before to know. Secondly, how about sit near us or ask someone to sit near us and fill us in on the customs we see before us or maybe offer to take the kids around to meet your friends so they can you know MEET SOME PEOPLE!! I mean they did leave their world to come here and all their friends and now instead of going out and meeting people they sit in a house all day or you promised them to take them to so and so well over a month ago and yet you still haven't found time to fulfill that promise.
Now put yourself in our position, if you came to our country let me see we have middle eastern markets, restaurants and large communities of other expats that many of us go out of our way to introduce you to and make you feel welcome and at home. I should also remember after the umpteenth time that we know you didn't bring much with you so let me take you shopping so I can help you to assimilate yourself into my world. Then, hey I'm really busy but I can ask so and so to sit near you and fill you in on our social customs of why we do this here.
Honestly, I do love it here. I am determined to make my life here and yes I don't expect to find everything from my native land in yours but if I really wish I had something and you know where it can be bought how about take me there or stop by and get it and I am more than happy to pay you back or thank you generously. Growing up in a military family I remember momma going to the new neighbors to "get a cup of sugar" see that is how you introduce yourself to others and most military wives have a bit of a club where when they have a new family in town they get together a basket of stuff and walk over an say hi and offer to take them around base or town to show them where you can get this and that. You bring your kids by and they take them out and introduce them to their friends so hey your kids can make some new friends cause their whole life has just been uprooted and they are heartbroken having to say goodbye again....seems its not like that here.
I promise ladies those of you who know me you come to Libya contact me and I will be happy to take you around and show you where you can find your basics then we plan a social visit where I can bring by a few friends and we can chat for a bit.
Now I'm beginning to feel a bit better putting my feelings on to paper as the saying goes or airing my dirty laundry some might say...oh well take it as you like.
Tonight was the third night of a wedding for a family member. After months of waiting for my car it finally arrived and we washed it and were excited to finally have our own transportation to go somewhere and not have to rely on waiting for someone and being split up into a dozen cars to go somewhere where one of us has been there for hours while the other sat waiting for so and so to get ready..
My son said mom I want to go help set up something for a family member so I need you to be ready to go by this time and I was. I had done my hair and all I needed was some lipstick and I was waiting to get there to put it on since I was covering and didn't want to wipe it off on the scarf I was wearing. And by the way I am not use to wearing a face veil and its hot and I can hardly breathe and see and I am walking in heels that I haven't worn before cause they aren't mine to begin with. I get to your home to find out hey no one is there. I call other family and NOT ONE BLAME PERSON could tell me it was not going to be there tonight we move to a bigger place, so I go back home to wait for someone else to be ready who is still in their house dresses and not expected to go for another hour or so anyways...so I got livid actually and pulled out my hair that my daughter had worked so hard on to make her old mother look nice and put on my pajamas and crawled into bed. Oh and by the way my two kids are not coming tonight cause they sat in a corner being ignored last night cause "they are American and they don't speak Arabic . And now you know they really feel like attending more wonderful parties in the future and have become more social inverts being pointed at and talked about all evening the last time. Oh and when it comes to FAMILY I expect you to invite everyone unless its a female only or male only event, cause you know my sons would like to get to know customs here too cause you know one day they will probably choose a LIBYAN wife and they need to start now learning all the stuff they are going to have to go through. And my daughters have pretty much sworn there is no way they are doing that at their wedding!!
So instead of a lovely evening of which no one took out anything to cook cause we all planned to be out and its late so lets walk over to the local sandwich shop for a quick bite to eat.
Now for the "If GOD ALLOWS"....I have always tried to keep a promise to my kids and I have told people if you promise my kids something do it. I can understand a change in plans but four months down the line and you still haven't met your promise well they give up on you and it makes a rift in our relationship cause I have to tell my kids not everyone keeps promises. Well we finally got our car but that is another rant maybe I will post in the morning cause it's like 3am and I just might finally feel like I can sleep now. So to all of you ladies out there, yes its worth it and more than likely his family is going to do the same to you so do what you can to plan ahead if your not coming anytime soon. Its small hurdles we have to cross over no one in life said it was going to be easy but we are making it and eventually we will have all our stuff from home here and wish for years that we could find that one thing we desire most from back home here that you just don't have or it just doesn't taste like ours does...Be kind to each other folks. Now I will post this on my Facebook account so everyone there can find out what I have been up too. Oh and by the way internet here SUCKS. And more than likely I will not have it again in a few days, week or even a hour from now cause someone was so desperate to have someone from home to talk to that they used up all our minutes...Life goes on.
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