Lyna

This post is for lovely Lyna, I will truly miss you once you are gone. I will miss the nights we used to drive around trying to figure out what we want to do or what we want to eat. I will miss the days we would drive to Bukwara for your Lebanese Cocktail. I will miss the times at Starbucks talking about the most random things and trying to make conversations with the Americans from the base. I will miss the times you were afraid to be who you are and struggled to come out and share it. I will miss you at weddings, at family gatherings, at AIESEC meetings, at coffee shops…

In less than a year I have made a very dear friend, a friend who I shared a lot of my life with without her knowing it; A friend who understands me more than any one else in my life. A friend who has supported me in all of my doing no matter right or wrong. A friend who has always been there for me. I will miss you Lyna I truly will.

This post might be one of my worst because I can’t really write. I cant tell you how much I will miss you or how dear you are to me. I will struggle without you here with me; It has already started.

You will be missed.

So Sad, Yet So Happy

Last week on Tuesday night, we had our usual once a year cooking at my Aunts house. Every year my whole extended family gets together and cooks ‘ash’ and distributes it to everyone for the death of our Prophet’s daughter Fatima. This is supposedly a sad event and everyone wears black and works their asses off for the prophet’s daughter. The day goes like this:

All the women go to my Aunt’s house early in the morning to start preparing the ingredients and what else is needed for the rest of the day. Later on all the women (somewhere around 20) sit in the main hall and cut the vegetables and clean the beans etc. Around 12.30 pm most of the women just sit around and drink tea or smoke ‘gadoo’ (something like sheesha but smells like weed); while some of them cook lunch for the rest.

During lunch hours, some of my cousins and their fathers drop by during their lunch hours to have lunch at my Aunts house. After everyone had lunch, usually all the lazy and old women go into my Aunts room and take a short afternoon nap; while all the energetic ones just sit around and joke & chat very loudly as if it was on purpose not to let the rest of them sleep. While most of the ladies are talking and sleeping, a very few are preparing to cook the meat and beans so they will be ready to add in the ash at night. Later in the afternoon more people start showing up; these are usually my cousins with small children that go to school in the mornings, the cousins and aunts that work, the cousins that study etc.

The most fun part is in the evening when all the men and the rest of the family start arriving; everyone is happy to see each other. The women that were working all day take a rest while all the fresh women get into the kitchen and start shredding the hot meat that had been cooking all day. Some men linger outside next to the big hot pots and help with stirring the mix. After everything is put into the pot and everything begins to cool down a bit, dinner is served. Every year one of my cousins who owns an Iranian restaurant brings dinner; usually I don’t like to eat in a very loud or noisy place, but I love eating on this night with the rest of my family. More than 50 people sitting around dinner while a couple run back and forth to make sure there is enough supply of chicken and meat kebabs, hummus, motabal, warag ainab etc

On this night, almost everyone is making a joke out of everything. Be it from the men making fun of their wives or vice versa, to the hummus at dinner, to my cousin’s wrong sentences … Everyone is happy on supposedly such a sad day.

After everyone leaves, some of the women stay over to help with distributing the ash to our houses early in the morning. So the next day when we wake up we can continue to enjoy the family gathering by tasting the wonderful ash that almost everyone had a hand in.