True Humility

Mira has a friend at school, Jasmine, and Jasmine's mother's name is Debbie. Debbie is married to an Egyptian. Jasmine also has a brother, Karim, who is 6. Debbie's husband, Hani, works in Sharm, so almost all of their time is spent apart.

Recently, Debbie traveled with Jasmine and Karim to visit Hani in Sharm over Spring break. They seemed to have a wonderful time. Then the Dahab bombs hit the area. I was worried about Debbie, but knew that they were not in Dahab, so I knew they were ok.

When Debbie came home I talked to her on the phone and asked her how her trip was to Sharm. She said they had a wonderful time spending time with Hani and was glad to have the family together for a week. (Debbie lived in Sharm with Hani and the children were born there.)

The other evening Hani made a surprise visit to Debbie and the kids. They were all thrilled to see him, and he was certainly thrilled to see his family. Hassan, Mira and I met them at the club where the children were swimming. Debbie and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for Hassan and Hani to meet because they had never met before. We walked around the club, then went to a really good shisha bar in Rehab called "Amsterdam." Actually this had been only the second time I tried shisha, and it was really good. I took a few puffs, and that was it for me.

As the four of us were talking about Sharm and smoking shisha, and Hani was showing us a video of his "coffee shop" -- a rather large and beautiful one at that, Debbie casually mentioned that they went to the Sharm hospital the night of the bombings to assist the doctors. (Debbie is a dental hygenist, so she has a lot of medical training.)

Debbie described how the victims of the bombings were from all walks of life, and how it didn't matter if one was Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. She described how children and adults had burns all over their bodies, and she cleaned the patients, then delicately put burn cream on their charred skin to ease their pain. Remember, this was all said in a very casual fashion.

Hassan and I were in awe not just of Debbie's courage to assist those who had burns showing their knees, but moreover of her humility in not mentioning it before. She had never made mention her experience before about how they volunteered at the hospital, how they assisted the patients and doctors, or how they overcame language barriers to reach a common goal of helping their fellow human beings.

It just goes to show that in a crisis, people help out however they can -- sharing the gifts they have been given.

Ma'salaam,

~Marian