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by Omar Hash
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Take with me a though experiment. The night is early most of your family arrived home; some went to bed, some in the kitchen while others are comfortably in the living room channeling through the television. The telephone ringed bringing everyone’s attention. It brought something that every family prays against – you daughter is missing.
This became reality to one Somali family in Columbus, Ohio, when they received telephone call from Westerville police asking them confirming the ownership of a car found in Sharon Woods Park in Westerville, Ohio. The family responded that that car was theirs and driving by their daughter.
There were more questions then answers – the family wondered. Where is our daughter? Why did she go to the park? Why did she leave the car? Where can she possible be? What happened to her and where could she be found? You can imagine the confusion, fear and anticipation germinate through the minds of the family members.
Friday night became long, seconds became minutes and minutes became hours as the family awaits with silence prayer - they couldn’t wait the morning to shine, although they had no clear indication as to what to do, they cling on hope and optimism that the morning sun will bring relieve.
Family called for help. The help was overwhelming. Dozens and dozens of Somalis gathered with the help of the county police. They started excavating through the park shouting on the top of their voice. Some more joined them after Friday prayer searching the park until the sundown without success.
Tensions were high and speculations about her where about with both discouraging and encouraging.
The night darkness enforced the searchers to take break but some refused, instead they brainstormed and re-strategize coming up with new tactics – laying out flyers that informed Somalis of the missing girl and requesting them to join in the search. They distributed the flyers to the densely populated Somali areas and posted on business places.
Saturday morning arrived, at 9am search resumes. Everyone pledged to use the daylight to the fullest. The most anticipated news arrived at noon – the lady was found alive.
This sad incident brought to the surface our sensitively Somalistic parts and showed what we Somalis can do with unity. Friday night the lady was a lost daughter of her family but on Saturday she became a missing Somali girl, bringing all ages together under one intention, if it was the imams of the local mosques, parents and students of all ages, looking for her.
Their efforts paid off proving right the old saying that in united we prevail. It also taught us that we are still people that are capable of breaking away from individualistic behavior that are driven by our ancestral way of thinking tether and can come together pursuing greater purpose. With good leadership we can be better Somalis than we are today. We are strong and our strength is in our numbers.
Omar Hashi
E-mail: [email protected]