My friend Maisoon wrote to me today from Gaza. These are her words to me that she really wants you to hear. The words are hers and she was crying as she was writing but she loves these children and her people in Gaza so much that she wanted me to share her thoughts with you. Please read and share her words. salam my dear Eileen. I don’t know why I have the need to tell you this but I want to and I want you to share this story. The story about what happened to me today. I want the whole world to know this. When I was going home today the young taxi driver said to me, “I got married about a month before the war. During the war they damaged my home so bad. And it had taken me so long and so much money to make it as good as possible”. I was upset when he told me this but what shocked me was the way that he told me about this. He was smiling as if what he was saying to me was something good. As if it was good news. Oh my God I tried to control myself. The next thing was that the other man in the taxi said “I have five children and I have no job. I am so embarrassed about this in front of my children because I feel that I am not a good father to them but wallahi I keep looking and looking for a job but never can I find one. Then one day I did find one but the Israelis damaged the place so bad I cannot work there now. So tell me, just tell me what I am supposed to do? My son died in front of my eyes and then I did not know what to do either”. There was another young man in the taxi too. He is a student at the university. He started talking about the people who died in the sea and he said, “I am thinking too to leave Gaza by the sea. There is no life here in Gaza, no future at all since the war. If I die here or in the sea it is all the same. I don’t worry about death anymore. Death is death”. Eileen I am so shocked I don’t know what to say. I feel so so sad for my people and I wish that I could do something for them. They started in the taxi to talk about dreams. The driver said, “here in Gaza we dream without closing our eyes”. These last words upset me the most and I have cried so much since that I look like someone slapped me on the face. After I got out of the car I want to a centre that caters for children. Where they can be taken care of and have fun. I saw the children playing and I felt myself smile too after the tears and sadness of the taxi stories. So I cheered up a little but this feeling did not last long because I saw a child who was sitting alone. I went over to him and I asked him why he was not playing with the others or eating with them. He would not answer me. It was a long time before he would talk to me. Then he said, “I don’t want to. They kill us and they damage my home”. Oh my God again Eileen he has broken my heart wallahi. I was crying and I did not know what to say to this lovely child. I tried to cheer him up and play with him. Then I went after a while to play with another boy. I asked him if he wanted to draw. He said “yes let’s go”. I asked him to draw something nice but oh my God Eileen he shocked me with what he drew. It was full of crap. I asked him what it was. He said “This is the shelling and the bombing and this is where they damaged all the houses and this is the airplane that they killed us with”. All the time that he was telling me this he was smiling. I said to him” You are smiling while you are telling me these terrible things”. He said “I am smiling because I want to live. khalas”. Oh my God how can these children say these words? These painful, painful words. Where is the world now? Why are they not here to see the pain in these children’s eyes? I see how strong they are and I cannot believe it but they suffer so much and they deserve such a better life than this Eileen. I wish to do something for them. I wish to change this bitter reality and I wish I truly wish that there was someone in the world that could hear me and these children. ;( ;( ;( I will go Eileen. The first photo is Abdel, he is so sad. The second photo is Otman. He is the one with the memories of the deatroyed buildings and the planes and Yusef at the end is the one who says that he wants to live. I want to thank Maisoon for her words and so with pain in my own heart I say thanks Maisoon, goodnight and see you soon in shaAllah
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 20:30:49 +0000