His Blood is not Good Enough

A problem I never wrote about in Somalia is the phenomena of Murder based on Stature . The More successful you are , the more your chances of being killed . Cliche? Behind every Successful man is a pack of haters ? . But see the difference is you are not dying because they are hating on YOU per say . It's not personal you see. It's simply tribal business.
Let me Explain
I remember when my Father [allah yir7amu] first brought me to Somalia, though he wanted to visit his hometown , he would say it was too risky and he would probably be killed as pay back for a crime someone from the same tribe committed years ago .At that time it seemed like another exaggerated fairy tale  and there was no way people could be so unreasonable .
But a few days ago I heard of 2 similar stories . A man who was killed for a crime his brother committed . The problem is the brother who committed the crime wasn't hiding or on the run , he was living just like everyone else , Like he was a man with no blood on his hands - No one wanted him , because his blood wasn't valuable enough.

"He's a Looser , his blood is not equal to my tribesman, No one will mourn his death" .

So instead in the middle of the night , the innocent brother who was minding his  bussiness was dragged out of his house and shot dead .
A Bussiness Man for a Bussiness man , A Doctor for a Doctor , A Sheikh for A Sheikh .
that's the rule .

And what else would make people act so barbarically and irrationally but the mind numbing , ego stroking ideology of Tribalism .
And no matter how many successful people of our nation are born , the laws of tribalism will keep our nation tied down and forever in the shadows of poverty, barbarism, and illiteracy .
You would think Religion ,common sense, and humanity would protect one from shedding blood so  easily , so intentionally , so righteously but it is heartbreaking and frustrating to see how our nation has crumbled to it's knees because of a name - Reer Hebel.

Make A Difference

I remember a few months ago , My friends and I were introduced to a man who would push us to make a difference . A man who forced us to look at things from a new perspective regardless of what the norm was .
I would love to mention his name but I would have to make sure it is okay with him . So for the time being let's call him Prof. A .

Prof A had a philosophy . In arabic: "إن لم تزد شيئا على الدنيا فأنت زائد عليها "  [If  you do not add anything to this world , then you are simply an addition/burden on it] and then he would ask you 

Are you simply an addition or do you have something to add? 

it's a simple statement yet so profound in meaning and very much true . After a 2 hour long conversation over dinner with prof.A . We were all very much inspired to make a difference , to leave something behind in a city that we had no tribal/family ties to.
After much thought we decided the best addition one could ever make was that of knowledge . like the famous quote " Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day , teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime" . At the time we were 5 girls , so we decided to each financially support a child who could not afford education. Surprisingly we did not have to go far to find such children . a few doors away from our own house we found 3 familes with 8 children, all of which were staying at home yet of school age, and some loosing a parent.
Our initial plan was simply sponsoring 5 children , soon we had 2 other girls in and now we could sponsor 7 kids . At the time it was almost the end of the school year , so we decided to enroll them into a Quranic school . After explaining to the dugsii teacher what we wanted to do , he offered to take in the 8th kid as well free of charge .

I know it might seem like a very straighforward , easy to execute kinda plan right ? WRONG!!
In a Country that has been over exposed to NGO's and free handouts , the parents of the children were very skeptical of our intentions and in no time news was spreading of "These Arab girls who were working with an NGO and were offering to pay for tuition".  and as people estimated how much of the funding we were slipping into our pockets and how many thousands of dollars we were selfishly holding back , the clan ideology came into play : on more than one occasion we were told to help our Clan's needy instead of those we were not related to. - "Your people need it first" .

A few months later ,On eid we were able to give out a humble sum of money to the families of the children [3 families in total ] and an exceptional woman who herself raises 4 children by picking up trash from families for less than 25cents per pick up.
 Now we are planning on adding another 5 children to the Quranic School and this time an aunty from Saudi Arabia has taken up their sponsoring and paid an advance for 5 months.

In my opinion this is a very humble addition to a community that has given us personally the chance at a higher education. It is only fair to give back and hopefully InshAllah those of you reading this will be inspired to make a difference as well regardless of how big or small it may be . And in time I hope these very kids grow up and in turn give back to their communities and so forth .
- Contribute within your means , any way you can to your communities . Do it not for the love of fame , or for a name , or even with the expectations of an applause . Do it simply for the sake of leaving good behind and making a difference
 

Africa through my Lens

My Long Feud with The Evil M's

If there is one thing I will never come to terms with . It has got to be the M family .

Over the years since we've first met . My hate for this family has increased to the point where I dream of slowly and painfully debilitating their limbs one at a time - Gross ? . I KNOW !!
I might as well confess that in the past 5 years I have mercilessly killed a few elders in that family [Only because they are the weaker , noticeably easier to catch off guard members]
And this is coming from the girl who screams at the top of her lungs against violence and what not .

Now I know you're probably wondering what has this family done , to earn all my cursing and my SAW like fantasies of mass murder . and this is my story with the M's

Our very first encounter must have been my first day in Borama. After a Long bumpy car ride from Hargeisa . Lying down in the "7osh"[ a version of a backyard]  to enjoy the breath taking weather of the city seemed like such a great idea. But little did I know that I would be brutally attacked , only to wake up to my very first bruise not inflicted by hooyo's flip flop or a WWE match with my siblings [ John Cena fan ^_^ ] . And to make things worse I had no idea where I had gotten it .
So being my superstitious self I blamed it on Jinn and the Evil eye [ Seems reasonable right? ] .

A few bruises later and A trip to the hospital I finally noticed the demonic beings that devoted their life to suck the very blood out of me and leave me with nothing but deformed skin and a bad case of allergies.
I was outraged, frustrated and in tears - Imagine having to face an entire army of blood relatives alone. How could I ever win ? .

Well a few years later and a few 100 battles , I can proudly say I am now a Mosquito fighting Ninja Assassin.
See I'm sure you're all familiar with the Mosquito repellent sprays and creams , But that has definitely got to be tiring and hard to keep up [Considering how hard it is to find them in the first place ] . My repellents would always run out half way through the year and my only way of getting more was begging hooyoo to send me some with the next person heading over to Hargeisa or Borama .

It was then that our maid introduced me to the power of "Foox"/Foo7 [Punt] . See I learned that lighting a little bit of it , not only keeps the M's away but is a blessing on those chilly nights by working much like a heater . [Talk about effecient energy saving and smaller electric bills]
Another Secret is Black seed oil [ 7abat Soda] , let me just mention there is no black seed oil like the ones in Burco [Works perfectly against muscle sprains, colds, allergies - anything basically ] .
I promise you rubbing that on before you sleep will keep the M's away all night .

And finally Don't take your Mosquito Nets lightly . I consider it my safe haven literally . My first 3 months in Borama, I lived inside one and the only time I would step out of it was for a quick dash to the bathroom . God Bless the Maro Kanee3o/Mustakar/Shandarama !!!

And the Most Peculiar method of Killing these tiny Vampires is by getting one of these 

Rubbing any kind of oil all over it and using it much like a shield .
See when you hear that horrible buzzing noise near you , do a swift hand move around you and BAAAMMM - they are trapped .[Make sure you don't hit yourself in the head - that makes you look really dumb and you loose all ninja cool points ]
At this point it is up to you how you would like to end their miserable lives . I personally go for breaking off their needles :) .


Have you met the M's yet and if you did How do you deal with them  ? 

Sport or Diplomatic Tribalism

So if you have been following Universal Tv or simply the Somali Gossip lately , you will already know that Somaliland is having its annual Football championship in Burco . This is an interesting event for a few reasons . and the timing couldn't be anymore perfect . Here's why :

A few days ago, there was some tribal tensions in the northern region of Somaliland , precisely between Qabiley and Borama. I wont go into any specifics of the incident , since I have heard only one side of the story and am not very familiar with the whole situation. Let's just say there were Gunshots through 24 hours, Tribe Seniors Locked up and protests leading up to civilian clashes with the police - not very pretty at all.

So with a tribal feud building up slowly , what better way to settle it all than in the field with a ball - It was GAME TIME !!!! . a day after the tension started , there was a match between Qabileey and Borama. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said the whole town was glued to their screens through the 90 minute game. - and if it isn't clear yet , it wasn't because the whole town were interested in football.
You even had the Old women on standby and everytime a goal was scored , they'd ask who scored [ that's how oblivious they were to the whole game. to them it was just a bunch of men running around with a ball , but what they knew was they were playing the so called enemy !!!! ] and when they were told it was Borama - The drums would be playing and the whole ilyilyilyilyilyyy was the national anthem for the next 30 seconds. this was clearly tribalism invading football , a more diplomatic way of solving issues. No Guns involved , just loads of sweat on the field and a ball.

I dont particularly remember the score , but Borama did win that day and the Gunshots and clashes from the day before were followed with celebrations, drum playing and a joyful feel in the air.

Peace is restored once again to Borama, thanks to the beautiful game of Football :).

PS: To the readers of the blog, I'd like to introduce myself . I am the co-writer of this blog while Fatma is away. I will simply go under Anonymous for now but I will add my contact info to the "about me" page for those of you who are interested in knowing me . Hopefully I will be able to bring you an interesting read .

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 

Somalia - A Lifetime experience

3 years ago, on a sunny sad day , i was told of a place called Borame,and that i would be doing my degree there. The first question that popped in my head was " where is that??". i was in disbelieve when i heard it was in "SOMALIA". i was so sure i wouldn't come out of that trip alive!! . words from the news kept playing in my head " al-shabab, Islamists, UN, Somalia ". i was heartbroken, depressed, and mad at the world. i prayed for forgiveness and repented all of my sins, [ since i knew my clock was ticking].

A month later : as i stepped out of the plane , the weather was UNBELIEVABLE !!!!.being from the middle east where airconditioning pretty much keeps us alive ; the cold breeze and the cloudy sky was just breath taking!!!!

my first reaction inside the airport was : OMGGGG LOOK AT ALL THESE SOMALI PEOPLE!!!!! , my dad quickly hushed me, and told me " people can understand, you know !!!" [ i was used 2 using my somali as a secret language , now everyone around me could understand it, and they were all staring like i was an alien!!!!! ] . 4 hours later , i saw A GOAT FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE , 2 min later , BACAC!!! OMGG LOOK AT THE BACAAC!!!! [ bacaac = sheep], i had no idea what they were called in somali and i honestly believed that was a real name for it.



i was like a little lost child, in a different world . i would stare at everything and everyone. and i had so many questions, and no one was being helpful .







the one thing that had me thinking, was why everyone was chewing "GREEN LEAVES JUST LIKE GOATS " .. LIKE EWWWW ...SPIT IT ALREADY!!!
when i finally got to my new home, i was a bit relieved, things were starting to feel better.. the house had a huge balcony and WE HAD A MAID!!!!!! [ we have never had a maid before , so this was 5 star treatment], i was thrilled at the weather i quickly changed into something lighter and sat outside . one thing i didn't realize was going to meet my enemy : "THE MOSQUITOES".. apparently these tiny lil insects were feeding on my sweet, fresh blood all along ,, 2 hours later, i was swelling up like a pumpkin, and i didn't know why... i was having an allergic reaction and it was so bad, i had to get shots at the local hospital .
ever since that day, long sleeves and mosquito repellents were a must!!

3 years later : I AM STILL ALIVE !!!!!!, and living life to the fullest.
i wont lie and tell you, "SOMALIA IS THE AFRICAN VERSION OF HAWAII!!!" [ I'm sure most of you heard that from aabo or hooyo] , but its definitely a trip everyone has to take once in their lifetime . your whole perspective of life will be changed forever. the little things that most of us take for granted are Blessings we should be grateful for every single day of our lives.

FROM A 16 YEAR OLD , SPOILED LIL BRAT WHO WAS FULL O CRAP, TO THE WOMAN I AM TODAY, . I WOULD MOST DEFINITELY DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN!!!