At the Barbershop

I was once at a barbershop getting a haircut. I was sitting on the barber's seat, and the barber is cutting and combing my hair.

I was thinking of something, when I noticed that he -the barber- had stopped. I noticed his pause because what he was doing was rhythmic.

Now, he's standing to my right, doing nothing, but who cares man, I thought to myself then I heard him say something like "flip a coin."

I looked up and smiled at him, but that smile was a fatal mistake, that's because I looked nice to a person of a society to which being nice is still perceived by both genders as a sign of weakness.

I thought: Those barbers here, at this barbershop, are lazy and their life is quite peaceful, hmm... maybe I should become a barber. Then another barber, who was setting on a chair behind us, said to my barber: "Do you think he's thinking of your question! He didn't hear you!" and he looked at me. Now wait a minute, those guys are talking about me?! Oh Dear Lord of Abraham and Moses!

My barber looked at me and informally said: "what did you decide on?"
"Pardon me?!"
"What do you prefer to apply on your hair? Cream or gel?"
I replied: "oh yes sure! Gel err... I mean cream. Pardon me I didn't hear you!"
"I thought you were waiting for some divine revelation to come down upon you", said the barber sarcastically.

I laughed at me and him, then I tried to return back to my thoughts, and I thought to myself: either those guys need to get training in customer care or I need to get training in salesperson care. Heh!

One should be careful not to lose one's chain of thoughts when getting pensive in pseudo-tranquil places.

Sweet Somali Banana

Ever since I was little innocent Omar at my early school years, poor Somali refugees symbolized misery to me; I remember seeing them in person in the streets of Jeddah and Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

I later saw many poor people in Syria bravely endure their disabilities, but the disabilities that many Somalis suffered from were, in most cases, far much severe and challenging.

Back then, in Jeddah, Somali banana was without a doubt little Omar’s favorite fruit. It was beautifully yellow, easy to peel off, soft and simply tasted good; only one should never toss its peel on the ground!

At home, I remember that I once didn’t want to complete eating the food in my dish, so my parents, as yours perhaps did, reminded me that people in Somalia are starving and we should never throw away food.

From time to time, I felt guilty to eat while people are starving in hot dry Somalia. I knew their suffering couldn’t be put to an end by money only, as there were boxes to gather monitory donations for them in every commercial center in Jeddah. After all, there must be a reason why their misery carries on.

At school, I had a lucky Somali classmate; he was a hardcore soccer player and one of the best players of our school team, he was well built, strong and peaceful. One time, I was standing in our schoolyard during PE class; I was supposed to be playing and running, but I was daydreaming when he unintentionally kicked a heavy, almost standard, soccer ball straight to the area between my chest and stomach; Man! It was a missile, so tough and painful that I hardly could breathe. We were at our third or fourth grade when that accident occurred. He was tough, even his accent and pronunciation of letters was tough. Anyway he was far much luckier than most of his Somali citizens to be able to attend a private school.

Nowadays, I feel that Somalia is associated in my mind with an odd mix of something sweet and yellow, classmates, a sweet friend of mine, misery and severe disability. I wonder if poor Somali people were able somehow to enjoy the taste of their banana.

Sadly, the misery of Somali people continues while I’m writing this post; it seems to be developing, as if they haven’t suffer enough already.

Some international organizations are trying to provide humanitarian aid; I wouldn’t praise any of them, make no mistake about it, but still I would like to say “God bless you” to everyone who is faithful to humanity and acting upon good intentions to help the others.

I pray for every good person, and I still praise the Lord for the sweet Somali banana. It is a [great] blessing.