ZIAD IN GAZA

 Cheese! Congratulations.” Two words written by my friend on a small piece of paper inside a tiny nylon bag that contains two packs of cheese, each is 250g.

Recently, my displaced friends and I have started helping each other to find necessary products. The challenge these days is that there is no specific place to find anything. You find underwear at a library; food in an electronics shop; and glue at a spice shop.

As a result, my friends and I share our needs and all of us search for all of them. We leave any “treasure” we find at a pharmacy that is relatively close to all of us. When someone finds something for another person, he or she sends them an SMS. However, the communications were cut again, and no one could contact any other person. So, I decided to go to the pharmacy, in case someone had found something I was looking for. And I was right: my friend found the cheese.

A couple of days ago, another friend was looking for Cerelac (it is the brand name, but it is a wheat and milk cereal for children). So, every time I passed by a pharmacy I checked for him, and I kept my eyes open. It was raining heavily, the sewage water reached our ankles and we couldn’t avoid it. After half an hour of walking under the rain I was able to buy an umbrella, but it was too late. I bought another one for my sister. However, the one I was using broke immediately due to the very strong wind. So, I used the other.

After hours of walking and searching for several things, I passed by a pharmacy. I was holding the umbrella, soaking wet, and breathing heavily. I stood outside and asked: “Do you have Cerelac or any other alternative?” One pharmacist looked at the other and they asked me in. They told me that they have small amount that they sell only to their customers after it was cut from the market. He said: “The desperation in your eyes, you soaking wet and the umbrella played in your favour.” They thought that I was a father looking for one for his child, and I did not correct them. They gave me one pack for its regular price, not a doubled or tripled one. Something extremely rare these days.

The list of items that we keep trying to find for each other is long; it includes medicine, flour, yeast, pet food, cats’ litter, clothes, coffee, etc. My friend who found cheese is looking for rice. I hope to find her some soon.

One thing I am unable to wrap my head around is how our lives turned around from having jobs and full lives, to simply caring about mere survival and finding the basics. I wonder what else we will be looking for in the future.