This letter is from a sister struggling to stay alive in Lebanon. She is a
good friend of Abbas who is our brother from the MSA who we have protested
with and graduated from RIT this past spring. Abbas gave me permission to
forward her letter.
Letter received from Beirut, Lebanon July 17, 2006
I admit that I may not personally know many of you to whom Im sending this
message. But I do know one thing and that is we all need to pray for
Lebanon. I have been in Lebanon for more than two months now. I was
scheduled to fly home this Wednesday but in light of recent attacks on the
country I may not be going anywhere for a very long time.
When my parents, friends, and family periodically call to check in on me
they ask me if Im scared. Am I scared? Well I sleep at night with Israeli
jets flying over head., A sense of calmness comes over the city and then
BANG! My body jumps, and my heart begins to race. I hold on tight to the
covers and wait for the next bomb to drop. I feel like Im playing with a
jack in the box. But scared? NO IM NOT SCARED, IM SAD! They have ruined my
country, they have killed my people, they have isolated us and crippled our
economy. For a country that has come so far and been through so much, the
hands of time have been turned back in Lebanon.
They have bombed every bridge and all the roads that lead anyone to safety.
I dont think you understand..I literally mean EVERY bridge. The Israelis
tell us to get out of cities and villages 2 hours before they attack but
they have left us with no streets to get to safety. You see nothing in
America compared to what we see on arabic news stations. On T.V. I see dead
bodies, body parts in the streets, mothers, fathers, and children crying
cause their families are dead. Its not a fair fight. We dont have ships, or
jets. The American embassy is telling us to stay put while the Italian and
french are evacuating all their citizens. They tell us if they do evacuate
Americans the only way to get them to Cyprus where its safe is on a road
near Syria that is under fire. And once in Cyprus, if we dont die on the way
it may be weeks before we return home .
The mood here in Beirut is NOTHING compared to what it was a week ago. The
streets should be filled with people, cars beepin g in traffic jams and
downtown packed with tourists. But the streets are empty. Its as if the
whole city is at a funeral. I feel bad to laugh or even crack a smile. I
feel like this is all a dream. I can never describe to you the noise of the
bombings here. Its so terrifying. To anyone from Bint Jebail, I hope you had
a chance to see your village in prior years because it is currently nothing
more than a cloud of dust.
So the purpose of this email is to get you all to stop what your doing now
and say a quick prayer on behalf of Libnan and all its people that are
suffering. Thank you and please forward to as many people as you can.
Al-Fatiha
Kamila Dakroub
July 17, 2006
Beirut, Lebanon
good friend of Abbas who is our brother from the MSA who we have protested
with and graduated from RIT this past spring. Abbas gave me permission to
forward her letter.
Letter received from Beirut, Lebanon July 17, 2006
I admit that I may not personally know many of you to whom Im sending this
message. But I do know one thing and that is we all need to pray for
Lebanon. I have been in Lebanon for more than two months now. I was
scheduled to fly home this Wednesday but in light of recent attacks on the
country I may not be going anywhere for a very long time.
When my parents, friends, and family periodically call to check in on me
they ask me if Im scared. Am I scared? Well I sleep at night with Israeli
jets flying over head., A sense of calmness comes over the city and then
BANG! My body jumps, and my heart begins to race. I hold on tight to the
covers and wait for the next bomb to drop. I feel like Im playing with a
jack in the box. But scared? NO IM NOT SCARED, IM SAD! They have ruined my
country, they have killed my people, they have isolated us and crippled our
economy. For a country that has come so far and been through so much, the
hands of time have been turned back in Lebanon.
They have bombed every bridge and all the roads that lead anyone to safety.
I dont think you understand..I literally mean EVERY bridge. The Israelis
tell us to get out of cities and villages 2 hours before they attack but
they have left us with no streets to get to safety. You see nothing in
America compared to what we see on arabic news stations. On T.V. I see dead
bodies, body parts in the streets, mothers, fathers, and children crying
cause their families are dead. Its not a fair fight. We dont have ships, or
jets. The American embassy is telling us to stay put while the Italian and
french are evacuating all their citizens. They tell us if they do evacuate
Americans the only way to get them to Cyprus where its safe is on a road
near Syria that is under fire. And once in Cyprus, if we dont die on the way
it may be weeks before we return home .
The mood here in Beirut is NOTHING compared to what it was a week ago. The
streets should be filled with people, cars beepin g in traffic jams and
downtown packed with tourists. But the streets are empty. Its as if the
whole city is at a funeral. I feel bad to laugh or even crack a smile. I
feel like this is all a dream. I can never describe to you the noise of the
bombings here. Its so terrifying. To anyone from Bint Jebail, I hope you had
a chance to see your village in prior years because it is currently nothing
more than a cloud of dust.
So the purpose of this email is to get you all to stop what your doing now
and say a quick prayer on behalf of Libnan and all its people that are
suffering. Thank you and please forward to as many people as you can.
Al-Fatiha
Kamila Dakroub
July 17, 2006
Beirut, Lebanon
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