It never leaves you

I've been home in Norway for more than two months now, but I'm still thinking about my Saharawi family, my friends in the camps and all the other wonderful people I met there. I think about them every day.

I could be sitting in the library at the university reading French grammar when suddenly I'm back between the small sand houses walking to feed the goats with my Saharawi cousin, drinking tea with some friends under the Saharan starlit sky or making food on the gas stove with my mother who is wearing the most colorful melhefa you could imagine. The memories keeps coming back, and I think back on the time I spent in the camps as more and more important. I didn't see it when I was there, but I think my stay has shaped me in more ways than I thought at that time. It's difficult to point out exactly how, but definitely in a positive way. I am sure of that.

Some days when the stress gets to me here in cold Oslo, i miss how life went slowly in the camps. I miss peoples friendliness, how everyone always had time to make tea and talk to you if you stopped by. I had never thought that I would miss the camps and life there. But I guess everything is possible when you get some perspective and distance from them. It's no secret that I had though days there, because life is not easy for anyone in the camps. But today, I mostly remember the good times. It's the good days that make the strongest memories, and those are the memories I'm left with after spending 3 months in El Aayoune.

This is one of those experiences that will never leave me, that will never stop to affect me. And I will never forget. I will never leave the Saharawi cause until they get what they have the right to. I will always care.

I guess many people would pity the Saharawis, but I don't. Mostly because I don't think they would want that. I think that they want the world to see them as proud and strong people. Because that is what they are! They are incredibly strong, beyond anyone I've ever met before. They have been strong enough to survive 33 years in the middle of the desert. And they will survive another 33 years if that is what it takes to get their freedom. They will never give up!