01 January 2006

All safe...

Dear readers, I am now sitting in my fathers house looking at the snow outside the window. Cannot really belive it! I had a looong and interesting journey from Cairo to Sharm el Sheikh to Frankfurt to Skavsta to Uddevalla (my parent's city), wich I will tell you all about within short, but for now I just want to let you all know that we arrived safely and that there is a lot of snow in Sweden... I have some lovely photos to show you all from the journey.

A very arabic-society-culture-and-religion-hostile but polite man I met at the Sharm el Sheikh airport and discussed world politics with in arabic, english and a little bit in french while having a major headache and managing three tired children, asked me after we spent almost an hour talking outside the gate "How many days did you say you spent in Gaza?". When I answered "six MONTHS" he almost fell off the chair, looked at me to see if I was serious and then shook his head and stumbled "You are a hero!".

Having left Gaza I'm beginning to see this experience with a little bit of distance and even though it has been hard at times I now have answers to many of the questions I asked myself in the beginning. I know now what I didn't know then and I am planning to use that to my advantage.

16 comments:

SavtaDotty said...

I'm really glad you are safe. Things took a turn for the worse at the crossing just after you left, as I'm sure you know.

Elisabeth said...

I'm glad to read that you arrived safe to Sweden!!! Welcome home!

Anonymous said...

So so happy to hear your and your little ones are fine. I look foward to more of your wonderful blog from Sweden. Keep up the great work, you have quite a following.

Anonymous said...

Glad to know you made it safely. Great to hear from you again.

Choco Pie said...

Happy to hear you are home safe and sound. I hope you will write more about those questions and the answers you found.

Laila said...

Ditto, Sandra. What are some of the answers you came across?

Missing u here! Finally began taking Yousuf to nursery-called "Baby home"...so nice for a chance I can relax in the morning!

Anonymous said...

Välkommen hem !!!!!
Ring om du kan !
040 494385
milena

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you are safely back. Your family must be so delighted to see you.

You sound like you're going to be writing some wonderful posts, and I very much look forward to reading them.

Anonymous said...

Dear Iman,

I have read your blog by chance and I really like it. I am glad to hear that you are home now.

BrainSyke said...

Do share what you learnt if it at all can be of any relevance for the rest of us.

أبو سنان said...

Glad to see you made it safe. I have been to Sweden before. Malmo mostly, and that as a base to visit Copehagen, but the people were friendly and every one spoke English better than we did.

It was the one place in the world where the average person was my heigth or better.

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

välkommen hem syster.

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

I wrote this poem from the perspective of a palestinian child, but indeed...it is the story of many children across the world who always suffer in times of war.

WAR CHILD

There is no sense of hope, nothing to make me smile,
no one to help me cope, to make things feel worthwhile.
A feeling of loss, a question, will peace return again?
When hate is the boss, all questions are asked in vain.

How could this be? What happened to all our plans?
Where is humanity? Has it slipped through all our hands?
Truth had one color, now it all lies in the eye of the beholder,
What about my brother, will he live to see me when we're older?

And all days just go by, and the sun sets upon our perished land,
I find no reason to cry, I find no one to make me understand.
The thorns beneath, are covering the roads that lead to posterity,
They prickle my feet, and my trail of blood becomes my legacy.

Anonymous said...

As-salam,

I found ur blog today. Very interesting.

Hope your family have a nice time and a Happy Eid.

Anonymous said...

hi!
found ur blog 2day. i liked the pics. a lot. u got a good taste.
i have a lot to discuss. i will be in touch.

Anonymous said...

To tell the truth, this is an internrt love story. But i want to make it true. I am an Indian Hindu Guy and in love with a girl from gaza. she is also in love with me. I need to knoe how to get to gaza. Or what to do to find my love. how will their parents react, will they react violently or moderately. her father is a goverment employee.need to know anything u may know, like passports, visas etc.
plz help this crazy lover
my mail:sgl_2005@sify.com
Her name is Rania Erheem, she did her BA from Islamic univ of GAZA.