After a stressful day at work, I went to the supermarket for shopping yoghurt and many other boring stuffs. I got even more stressed, because I detest shopping food. I prefer to go to clothes stores! I had that grumpy face until I came back to home and was very hungry. Made hamburger and added to it some fresh plum tomatoes.
I couldn’t avoid reading or following the news about Palestine, I tried to not get disturb by the bloody news. But it’s impossible. Even writing about it now, makes me confused, sad, angry and scared. Yes, I’m very scared to read any of my family’s names in the list of ‘killed by Israel at the Gaza borders with Israel’. More than 58 were killed so far. Palestinians in Gaza went for protesting against the Israeli occupation, they wanted to break down the borders, they also raged at moving US embassy to Jerusalem.
I shutdown my computer, I’m a helpless person. What can I do? Maybe writing a little about the Palestinian issue would help to raise the awareness. It’s petty that Gaza is like the ‘background’ of the world, it’s a forgotten tiny city, suddenly appears on TV and frontpages of newspapers, when there’s a war or blood-bath (as the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet described the situation in Gaza today).
I took Bullen, my Norwegian cat, went down to the building garden. Bullen is still not used to go outdoors. He got suspicious whenever he heard any sound coming from people behind the windows. He smelled everything around and he hide when a neighbour came with flowers. She wanted to plant some yellow flowers, but she didn’t find an empty place for them. That neighbour and her husband like taking care of the building a lot, I was relieved that she didn’t see Bullen when he was eating the grass and playing with the flowers. He was shy, so he didn’t show up for her.
After a while, more neighbours came to the garden. They were three women, it seemed they planned for having wine there. The weather was warm enough to stay outside at 21:00. I sipped a little wine to try the taste, it was rosy. The women looked elegant and happy. Another neighbour joined us, but from his balcony, he was planting herbs and talking to us. I still feel lucky living in such a building where people are very social and friendly which isn’t that common in Stockholm.
There are two diverse backgrounds of the world, bloody one in Gaza/Palestine. The other one is blooming at my building in the peaceful Stockholm/Sweden!
Kawther AbuHani 