HAJ GLOBAL BLOG

THE GIRL WHO FELL FOR A GOAT HERDER IN THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS (PART 2) ********** I could have screamed. I could have thrown the remaining shards of the love potion jar into the river, or run barefoot until my feet bled on the shale-lined paths above the terraces. But instead, I went home and scrubbed the soot from the bottom of our bread oven. It took two hours. I didn’t cry. In our world, women were expected to fold grief into the dough. Bury it in herbs. Knot it into a carpet design. But I—I folded it into silence. For weeks, I said nothing of Idris. Not to my sister. Not to the old women who stared with curiosity when they saw me walking alone. And not to the goats, who surely sensed the shift in my rhythm and bleated at me with more confusion than usual. But I watched. I watched her. Her name was Samira. Her teeth were too perfect, like she’d never bitten into anything tougher than boiled eggplant. Her voice was gentle but commanding, the kind that made the village boys forge...

We all have high hopes on love and relationships that comes with it. Because of this high hopes which are often brought down, people prefer not to fall in love.     They often say that love does not exist not because it really does not exist but because its hard to find. Or better still, maybe because its hard to find true love. Yes! That's it - true love. Its sometimes hard to find two people who have equal love for each other. Its either the boy loves the girl more or the girl loves the boy more. Love that is only one-sided is very frustrating, this is because at some point you'll expect that person to reciprocate the love. Most time people say " the love I have for you is enough for two of us" but is it really true? Is it enough? I don't think so, a time will come when your love alone won't be enough "it takes two to tangle" you'll feel rejected when you fail to make that person love you just as you love the person. But as they say "ther...

At a point in our lives we all want to fall in love - when I say fall in love, I mean to fall in love with a girl or a boy. To have that person who you'll share your problems with, talk to, laugh with, and spend your life with apart from your parents, siblings, close friends and other relatives.         There's a point in our lives where we say yes, we are ready for a relationship with a male or female. We often think about good things that comes with love and being in a relationship and we hope and pray that we will find love some day.       But what if the love we so hoped for comes and its not as we expected. What if you find that love and it happens to be that you are the one who is in love with that person and the person isn't equally in love with you. What if your family does not accept the person you are in love with. What if the person you are in a relationship with or in love with is brutal, beats you all the tim...