Dear Readers

I write this post with very mixed feelings. Lately My writing has been interfering with my Education .When I say that I do not mean I have been spending more time writing than homework, however apparently my opinions and observations have almost ended my University education. I am sorry I cannot go into the details of the incident or what I might be referring to for personal reasons. But hopefully in a few months , I will be free to get back to updating you all on the latest from wherever I might be .  
I do promise to come back with better stories after my graduation. But for now I am forced to stick to a Journal.


I love you all , and to those of you who do want to keep in touch you can always send me an email or tweet me @fayyDs. 
                                                           
                                                                                    Love,
                                                                                        Fayy [ Heblayo]

Do Not Enroll Into Med School - Advice from a med student

Through most of my School years , I've played with the idea of majoring in different fields. I've thought of being a lawyer, a Journalist , a psychologist , nutritionist , translator and ofcourse a Doctor. As HighSchool came to an end , I had narrowed down to 3 fields. But like most Somali families most of my choices were dismissed as inappropriate and I was enrolled into med school. The first 2 years of med school was a breeze , I wasn't challenged or impressed by the level of difficulty - A's grew on trees for me . Fastforward and I'm a senior with only 18 months to graduation and things are not all that easy anymore, the pressure is high, expectation even higher and the wide road to greatness seems to be turning into a narrow bridge . Not to mention being on binoculars at all times by the entire Somali community . So after much whining to everyone in sight here I am putting together a few paragraphs on why you should NOT enroll into med school. 

 Let me simply put it this way ; If anyone tells you medicine is the hardest field to be in , smack them in the face and tell them to FEAR THE LORDD for their outrageous Lie!!!! .
On a more serious note , from personal experience I would tell you I felt "smarter" when I was in highschool than I am right now. Med school killed a good portion of my brain cells. Studying medicine is 90% about your memory skills and 10% critical thinking. So basically you are rarely challenged to come up with a solution of your own , most of it is in the books . So unless you are willing to spend a minimum of 6 hours reading about sickness and disease, DO NOT ENROLL IN MED SCHOOL!!! . 


Reason 2: If you're a laid back person to begin with , who enjoys doing nothing most days except hanging out with your friends and living your social life to the max, then again I would tell you not to enroll into med school . You see there's this Triangle to med school , and the equation to success can have only 2 of these 3 factors. ; Homework , Sleep and Social Life. You will always have to sacrifice one , and when in med school it's always the social life that gets cut out. You could try and act all smart about it and cut out sleep , but once again from experience that is usually a short term solution and will most likely lead to a good number of D's and F's on your transcript .


Reason 3: you have to be an A or B student AT ALL TIMES, anything below that is just unacceptable- Talk about Pressure!!! . And when you have about 95% of the class getting straight A's , your C+ will have you feeling like an Idiot all day long. So if you enjoy the comfort of having to "Just pass" DO NOT ENROLL INTO MED SCHOOL!!!!!. 


And my closing Argument , The Work field is already highly competitive as it is , and unless you are the best around, you will most likely not get a decent job as a doctor. There is no " just okay applicant" - Be the Greatest or Go Home. So practically speaking are you willing to go through 6 - 10 years of school and risk ending up staying home? or even worse working for minimum wages in a village in the middle of nowhere ?. 


Final Words - DO NOT ENROLL INTO MED SCHOOL , MAKE ME PROUD AND BE ANY OF THE THINGS I COULD NOT BE ;) 

The Hush Hush talk - Hymens and Virginity

Hymen reconstructions, little Chinese hymen look-alike products, Ketchup, little cuts on the thighs etc etc etc. The lengths some would go to prove their virginity on the night of their wedding . Would I blame them ? not necessarily . I am sure many are already shaking their heads and yelling out profanities at my choice of topic but I really couldn't care less. 


Over the years , different cultures have challenged each other at how to prove a girl's virginity . The Somalis, like many other Africans decided to go with the FGM , a creative way to keep girls from having premarital sex. I mean who would want to go through excruciating pain just for some one night stand. right? . What they forgot to think of was the after effect; Infections, Labor complications, Death and so on . I guess it all didn't matter as long as her purity was kept for her.
 The Arabs however have been less creative , They decided that the hymen would be a great indicator of a girl's virginity . So in Egypt for example the bed sheets must be stained with blood and hanged over the balcony for the whole neighborhood to see, this is then followed by drum playing and a celebration - So much for Romance and easing the tension. 
In Turkey , things are less of a national celebration but rather a family affair. A small handkerchief is stained and then wrapped in a garment and given to the Groom's mother who present's it to the bride's in-laws with pride. and so on through most of the Arabian peninsula. .  

Unfortunately that hasn't been working out quite well . Apparently the hymen comes in different forms. Some more elastic than others, Some perforated and some non-existent to begin with.Like most parts of the female body , the hymen is no exception to the changes that happen after puberty. Thus Horse riding, Bike riding, sprints, and many other physical activities can break the precious purity ring. At other times, A woman can be well into her pregnancy and still have an intact hymen

 " OH MY GOD IT MUST BE A MIRACLE!!! ,SHE MUST BE ONE OF THE CHOSEN FEW!!! TAKBIIRRR - ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR!!!! ILYLYLYLYLYYYYYYYYYY" - smell my sarcasm yet ??. 

It's sad to think some husbands, brothers, and fathers would kill their spouses, sisters and daughters over a mucous membrane that has no physiological significance. 


Honestly , Don't you think God would be fair and place a hymen on every male too , if it's purpose was to indicate Virginity , purity etc etc etc. I mean Obviously God is All-Just and just to make things even more convincing . When accusing someone of premarital sex , notice how there is no mention of a vaginal checkup or a must staining of a cloth . On the contrary you cannot accuse someone of adultery unless you have 4 witnesses to the act and a confession from the person being accused . 


Now take a moment to contemplate the issue at hand. Imagine the countless number of girls who have been ridiculed and shamed by society by such a myth. Imagine the number of women who have lost their lifes in these so called honour killings because her virginity was being questioned. Imagine the millions of little 5 year olds who have died because of FGM and the thousands who continue to suffer from it's effects upto this day .

Do you still think the hymen is that important. Is the price payed for such ignorance through the years still not enough ? Shall we continue to undermine and humiliate little girls for another decade before we snap out of this cultural craze? 




- For those of you still interested in reading more on the topic, Read The myth of the hymen this is a beautiful article by a muslim female who really takes the time and effort to break into it all . 

Eathquake Alert - Aftermath

I think I'll start this post off with a curse . A curse on the idiot who thought it would be funny to pull an April's fool 6 months early. May the Ground split into two and drag you six feet under !!!!.
Yes the Earthquake alert was a huge prank. But it sure had almost everyone scared .


So At around 2:30 am My phone starts ringing, while I snored away , I could tell something was making a very annoying sound but oh well I just imagined it was the background music to my awesome dream which I can't even remember now . Two minutes later my little sister is literally running circles in the room and yelling out "AN EARTHQUAKE'S COMING ..IT'S COMINGGG OMG OMG OMG" . She tries to tell me that we're all dying and it takes me a good one minute to take in everything she's saying . when it finally got through I ran in circles with her , felt my heart pound right out of my chest and eventually got to waking the rest of the house up. 
By now everyone was terrified , except for my cousin who found it all nonsensical and did not even bother to get out of bed . As we sat contemplating what to do next , we decided to get dressed, grab our passports and money and stand outside the house. I managed to get in a blog post and a facebook status update right before we headed out 

 ( this is to show how social networks have over the years undermined something as serious as possible death )

" Oh you guys pray for me I'm about to die  wink wink kisses :)" 

2 hours later and we're still sitting on our doorstep waiting for some 5.0 devastating earthquake to hit. We were freezing and starving but still terrified of heading back in .To make things worse the city dogs were having a singing choir  and every time they would start howling we would stand and squat a little , making sure our legs were firm on the ground. Apparently the howling of Dogs is an ineffective indicator of an earthquake coming - lesson learned.
 It was only at around 5:30 am when the sun rose that we realized this was a horrible prank . We headed back in and that was the end of it - Just another day in Borama, Somaliland/North Somalia

Earthquake alert

So it's 3:07 am and I just got a phone call that there's probably going to be a really bad earthquake anytime through tonight. I am freaked out and the fact that I've never been through any sort of Earthquake drill makes me even the less capable to deal with anything . I know that hiding under tables and staying away from windows is completely useless in this part of the world . The Only drill I know of is "Run For Your Lives" . The  housing infrastructure is so weak , a mere 3.0 would bring it down to rubble.

To those of you awake at this very hour , Your prayers would be of much value to all of us in Borama and it's surroundings . Keep them Du'as coming please.
Goodnight