Marḥaban 2

Marḥaban 2

Marḥaban! مرحبا Hello!

Kayfa ḥālak? كيف حالك How are you?

Egypt is also the source of my nightmares. Not the country itself, but the one person from Egypt causing them: my grandfather. He spoke to me in Egyptian Arabic, or English, never in Dutch. He used to be a scholar, played the violin and piano and owned a library that hardly fitted his large house..... And he owned me....

Without going into to much gruesome detail (hopefully), he lured me away from home by doing unspeakable things to me that made me a terrible infant at home. And my parents didn't understand why. I drove them up the walls apparently. But I was so small, and he had threatened me, if I said one word about what he did, ONE WORD. So I didn't.

He then told my parents that I could come and live with him, that he would sort me out, and so it happened. It was the start of a gruesome journey, travelling all over Europe and ending about 12 years later, when I was 15, in The Netherlands.

I would like to visit Egypt, but I fear hearing Egyptian Arabic, because the language triggers me, it gives me flashbacks and nightmares. And still I am  studying Arabic Poetry, I must be completely insane, right?

- to be continued -