Pandora's Box: Teenage

Don't ask me how teenage is like... all I had is news of Palestine being bombed everyday and another city lost then Gulf War 1&2 and people escaping to no land... this is my childhood..

I would get back from elementary school everyday back home with my sister to found about my mother watching the television and crying. I was too young to understand why. She would shut down the television to make sure my sister and me wouldn’t see the news. In Jordan the TV controlled by the government for people to watch to see and what to not to see but still they would announce all the news about Gulf War. My mother had Iraqi friends and others living and working in Iraq. It was a very rich and successful country that all Arabs would go to work and send money to their family. An Egyptian friend of my mother would visit us going back for his vacation from Baghdad to Cairo and bring us lots of presents. The taste of dates from Iraq is still above my tongue whenever I think about those days. 

Iraq was not only full of ancient history, water and food not also oil. It would provide free oil to Jordan too. Oil was the main reason why the entire history and its people were destroyed forever. One day my mother Egyptian friend visits us in Jordan for the last time. He has no presents for us this time. He was escaping. It was the 1^st Gulf War. 

I was 13 years old. One day around midnight I heard the ululation around coming from the neighbours. We went out to check what was happening. It wasn’t a wedding. All women were on the roof of their houses celebrating. It was the first time ever Israeli was under attack since it was establishing a country to steel the land of Palestinian for 42 years. Iraq sent 1 or 2 rockets to Israel and probably wounded no one. Next day Iraq was occupied by America and lost more than 2.4 million civilians in the streets. The first thing they did was to bomb their communication nets even the phones so the country wasn’t able to communicate with the rest of the world. 

As a child I remember in Jordan I saw beggar Iraqi’s in city centre. Jordan was the poorest country in the Middle East supported by Iraq with free oil once upon a time. 

 

Don't ask me about future..

Pandora's Box: Dessert

Time, place, reason, where, why, when… water!

A few days passed, I guess, or maybe I just slept?! For a few minutes, hours or days.

I do not want to stay at the intensive room. Why I'm here?! Was I in a coma? How long? Some people are up actually. Making noises or coughing some is shouting. Some people are entering and exiting the room.

Hold on!

That women sitting next to my bed all day! I looked again! That is my mother!

My mouth is as dry like the dessert!

I looked inside her eyes. I didn’t look into anyone’s eyes until then it seems. I smiled with tears flowing down my chin.

She stood up from a plastic chair two steps away from my bed, walked to me and cried. ‘Mama’ she said.

Everything is green. I’m wearing a green cloth. Mom is wearing greens on her cloth. White cloves. Everyone coming inside the room is wearing greens and white gloves. The bins, the bed covers, the water bottles are green. ‘Mama! Water!’ Did I say that? Now since I’m writing these lines I know I did not. I looked at the green bottles and showed my lips. How? I have no memory of a word I said then. My right arm couldn't move but I wouldn't know then. My left arm was connected to serums to the bed. Perhaps I tried to lick my lips. She knew. I didn't have to tell much. She put a piece of cotton inside the water. Squeezed it then started to drop of water around my lips. It was such a relief! I was singing in my head.  (Arabic) ‘See how much the sea is big… I love you more than that…’ I love you mother.  (Arabic)