Wednesday 01/11/2023

A cold shower after 4 days of not showering gives you a sense of humanity. I went to the hospital bathroom to get a shower and I found a young girl waiting to shower as well.  ٍShe has a fair skin and hazel eyes. She smiled to me when my eyes met hers, and she started talking to me. I asked her about her name and age. She said her name was We’am and she was 10 years old. 

We’am insisted I shower before her. She made me smile, this little one, despite all the pain that we’re going through. As if she gently patted my heart with her palm. After we decided that I was going to shower first, she told me that I needed a plastic bag to put my clothes, and she rushed to get me one. I went into the bathroom, took my clothes off, put them in the bag We’am got me, and turned the faucet on. 

A few minutes later, I went outside to find We’am waiting. I was drying the floor  as she asked me how old I am and I asked  her to guess. She said she likes guessing and she started guessing until she reached 27. She said: ‘we left our home because my brother insisted we do not stay another minute. They still hit him while he was at a cafe, but he survived.’   She asked about my name and I said Esam and “if you need anything just come and tell me.” I finished drying up the floor and left her to get her cold shower. I stood outside underneath the sun and a few minutes later, We’am came outside with wet hair, looking like a princess, coming out to greet her people. Then she gave me a big smile and went her way

After her smile left my sight, the nurse came to tell me that my father’s surgery is next, “come prepare him” he said. It looks like We’am’s smile took away my sense of time, to the extent that I felt everything happened in a split of a second. 

My father underwent the operation and came out well, with platinum pieces in his arm and foot, holding the bones together. But it wasn’t all good news, we were told that he lost his right eye. The doctor said they might be able to restore his sight because the damage hasn’t reached the cornea but that needs care outside of Gaza. And with every passing moment, his eyesight becomes irretrievable.

With all this pain, my mother and sisters are now in Al Nasr neighborhood in the North of Gaza. We still haven’t managed to get  them out to the South, where we are now.