Memories of the Kuwait War~Chapter 13~ “There is water in (the) sea!!”

Picture courtesy: Google

 

We were given a number, the number of our tent, and all of us walked to find it. It wasn’t very far, and we  walked with our luggage until we reached tent number A-21 (I’m not sure if it was 21 or 24.🤔 Anyways, that’s not significant here!!) It was much bigger in size, when compared to the No Man’s Land tent. It could house up to  25 people. This one had a sturdier canvas ‘door’ too.  Just like the other tent, there was nothing here to line the floor. It was full or rubble and tiny prickly ‘weeds’, struggling for existence. 

Amma quickly went in and conquered the top left-hand corner and marked her territory with Acha’s lungi (yes, the very same one from the previous part). This thin mustard coloured cloth, with fancy ikat-like prints was to be our ‘orthopedic mattress' for as long as we had to stay at the camp. The only way each of us had decent contact with this magic carpet, was if we all lied down on our sides, tightly packed like sardines in a tin. One by one, more families started coming in and each of them arranged their spots in preparation for the night. The Red Cross volunteers had handed each family a queen size blanket. It wasn’t bed time yet, but it was slowly getting dark. For dinner, we were given Khubz again and some cucumber and tomatoes which went down so quickly into our empty tummies. 

Sleeping was a punishment, I should say. First it was the ‘bed’! Then the ‘mannequin challenge’ we all had to maintain until morning, if possible, to make sure nobody fell from the ‘bed’, and all this while sharing one blanket which was not enough in the freezing weather. From the far end of the tent, it was Acha, my sister, Amma, my brother and me, lying down in this order. I can’t really say that I wished it would be morning soon, because mornings would be so hot and of course, what do we do just sitting in a hot tent! Not knowing which was the lesser evil, and shivering beyond control, I fell asleep. 

The family occupying the space next to us in the tent was a familiar one. They were also from Mavelikara...Soman uncle, Ambika aunty and their two little boys. They were familiar people, and we shared a ‘hi-hello’ relationship with them, but we were not ‘friends', if you know what I mean. As I was waking up slowly, I could feel an arm over my shoulder. I quickly opened my eyes to see, Ambika aunty tucking me in under the blanket along with her little children. “You were so cold all night, and the blanket wasn’t covering you well”, she smilingly said as I looked at her in puzzlement. This lady was so kind to care for me just like she did for her own sons. I turned around to look at my tribe, only to find them all fast asleep. I had rolled off our ‘lungi mattress' and escaped the blanket at some point during the night. It wasn’t morning yet. “Molu kurachukoodi urangikko, neram veluthittilla”( you sleep a little while longer, dear. It is not morning yet), she said reaching over and patting me gently, as she herself put her head down for a while longer. I was so touched by her gesture. “What a loving woman”, I lay there thinking when suddenly, phaatt!!...I got a kick in my tummy from her younger son, who turned over in his sleep, his foot landing on my belly. 

It was morning soon and one by one everybody woke up to a warmer day. People were talking to each other about how the slept, how their backs hurt, how cold it was....and the million dollar question, what do we do about the toilet, is there a proper facility? Can we shower? Acha joined the conversation saying, “There is water in ‘sea’!” 

“Surely, he can’t be joking!! People are seriously guarding their bladders and it’s neighbours from going off and here sits my father letting out a stale joke!!”, I thought. “And it’s not ‘in sea', it is ‘in THE sea' “, the grammar police in me couldn’t bear the error. At the same time, I was wondering, is the sea close to this part of the desert? But Jordan does not have a coastline, and I was sure of it. “There are pipes and also water tanks in Sea, just take a bucket and go”, there he went again while I was getting more and more confused. What sort of a sea is this with pipes and water tanks!! I wasn’t confused with the bucket part as each tent had a bucket or two for use. “Oh, that’s good! Who’s coming, I going to sea now”, said one uncle getting up. I think my brother too had the same doubt, his eyes were widening at the word ‘sea’. Soon we too were on our way to (the) sea. We walked quite a bit crossing many rows of tents till we reached an open place that had two to three big tents, around five single standing short asbestos/tin towers in a row, and a long horizontal pipe fitted with taps at close intervals, sitting on support stands on either end.

“Ithaanu makkale...Sea!” ( This, my children, is Sea), announced my mother, in a sarcastic tone. It was clear that she was also tricked by the word. What my father actually meant was C!! Our tent was in section A, then there was B and here now is C!! (Yeah! You can see my expression clearly, can’t you!?)

The two big tents were shower rooms, or rather, halls!! One was for men (maybe), and the other for women, but I did see some men having their showers beside the pipes themselves. The tin towers I was talking about, those were the toilets. Imagine the cardboard box of a tall new fridge, that’s how spacious it was. There was a door to it, and inside, a deep hole covered with a lid (as large as a manhole cover, with a handle. It was a remove-the-lid-and-use toilet system. My mom and I decided that this is going to be our toilet cum shower cubicle. There’s no way we are going into that ‘Hall of Fame'. Period!!

It took us a while, but we had finally finished our shower in the “Sea”, and was heading back to our tent. I saw that Amma had managed to wash our used clothes, under those pipes, while I was in the shower. “She doesn’t let a minute go waste”, I acknowledged with pride. Walking back, I was careful not to get sand on my wet feet, and so was walking with slow, carefully planned steps, and this reminded me of Mavelikara. In Acha’s old family house, the bathroom was outside, and every holiday I would do this exercise of escaping the sand after my shower. Though I hated it then, it was now a sweet memory. I didn’t mind some sand on my feet, as long as it was the Mavelikara sand. 

~priya~