Soomaalinimo and Islaanimo at its best

[xiinfaniin]

Mohamed said she had exactly one loaf of bread and a few tomatoes for her own family when Ali arrived last month. She divvied it up.

 

She had a bit of room in her house, and Ali and her children are still sleeping there. She had an extra dress and a piece of pink cloth, which she gave to Ali. "Without her, the problem would have been very bad. We're grateful she has a good heart," said Ali, who was wearing the dress.

 

Others arriving here have found refuge with local Somali groups such as one run by Mana Abdurahman, who has taken in more than 200 orphaned children this year, as well as families from Somalia's more marginal clans.

 

"I don't care where they're from," said Abdurahman, the daughter of a prominent clan leader.

Among them was Hawa Robleh, 45, who said she was receiving food aid for the first time in her life. She has to feed not only her own eight children, but also a family of distant relatives from Mogadishu who have been with her for two months.

 

"Life is difficult for me, but it's more difficult for them, because they left their homes," Robleh said. "We've shared everything we had."

 

She added, though, that even with the food rations, her generosity may not be enough.

 

"Since they arrived," she said, referring to her guests, "the children have become thinner."

But this qoute nearly broke my heart:---

 

Abdurahman walked through the place she calls her "village," a swath of sand and huts and shady palms, greeting two recently arrived families and

a young girl named Asha, who had been dropped off by her Mogadishu neighbors.

 

In a small gesture of mercy, Abdurahman has decided to wait a while before telling the little girl she is the only one left of her family of seven. The rest were killed in a bomb blast in Mogadishu.

 

"Where is Ibrahim?" Abdurahman asked her gently.

 

"He's at home!" Asha said brightly.

 

"Where's your father?" Abdurahman asked.

 

"He's at home!" Asha said.

 

"Where's your mother?" Abdurahman asked.

 

"She's at home!" the little girl said, and on it went, as Abdurahman hugged her.

 

Read the rest here-->A Wealth of Kindness Among Somalia's Poorest

[Baashi]

Depressing read