2007

Ammar Humadi Al Naimi spent a year in London as an MBI Scholar. Here are some of his thoughts on the experience:

Wednesday 21st February

This past week was supposed to be the happiest week in my year but, unfortunately it was not. On Valentine’s Day, I got really ill. I got a bad flu with a complicated tonsillitis. I had to spend all the day in bed. I ate nothing and drank nothing. I was feverish and I was delirious. I was thinking of how lonely I was and that if I died that day, nobody is going to know anything about it and no one will care. It really put me down.

The illness was getting worse next day that I had to go to the doctor. I could not meet him because the outpatient clinic opens from 2 pm to 3:30 pm only. I tried to book an appointment but the doctor was booked for a month ahead. I gave it up and decided to take analgesics to relieve the pain and wait till the illness goes away.

I felt better with analgesics. On Sunday the 18th, I went to the Institute of contemporary arts. I watched a documentary movie called ‘Iraq in fragment’. It showed how fragmented Iraq is and it reminded me of how sad the situation in Iraq became. I felt really bad and I cried my eyes out while I was watching it. I was moved emotionally and I was a wreck.

Tuesday 20th February

Tuesday 20th February was my birthday. I became 25 years old and everyone was telling me that I became quarter a century old which made me feel sad that I have not accomplished what I wanted to do at this age yet. Yesterday was awful. All of my friends in London called me to wish me a happy birthday but, the people that I care most about did not call me. My parents did not call me to wish me a happy birthday.

I got so worried about them that I called them. They told me terrible news. They have been threatened lately. My dad had been threatened because he is a doctor and the death squads are trying to get hold of him or his family. It shocked me to the core that I did not know about all of these stuff from my family. They did not want to tell me so that I do not get worried. I feel terrible. My mom said that they will have to leave home soon if they want to keep their lives. I do not know what to do. I am helpless in London. Suddenly, life is not as glamorous as I began to see it. I realize that I left home while my family is facing the worst things of life. I wish if I can sacrifice my life to guarantee their safety. All that I can do right now is to pray for them. Please pray for the sake of me and my family. May god keep them safe…….

16th of January 2007

Today is the 16th of January 2007 and this morning I remembered why I do not like talking about politics. Carolyn had sent me an invitation a few days ago for a lecture by the vice president of Iraq, Mr. Tariq Al-Hashimi at SOAS. I woke up early so that I did not miss the lecture and I arrived at 10:45. I was really shocked at how secure the place was and to see a metal detector and many policemen outside. I was not on the invitation list and I had to wait for a vacancy. About five minutes passed until I was asked to go into the lecture room.

It was not a large lecture room and I recognized that most of the people there are Arabs or Iraqis in origin at least. I took my seat and waited for a couple of minutes until the vice president arrived. He was very frank, direct and sincere. I really liked him because he did not lie; he did not deny how bad the situation in Iraq is. He admitted that people are dying and that the Sunnis are being persecuted in Iraq. He talked for only 30 minutes to allow a lot of time for questions. I was the first to ask him a question. I had two questions, the first about death squads and the second was asking about his comment on Sunnis being driven out of Baghdad. He answered very clearly.

The audience did not like the fact that he said that he asked Bush for more troops in Iraq to keep the peace. The audience accused him of being for the occupation and said that the Americans are the cause of all the Iraqi problems. They defended the Shiites militia and the death squads. I was so frustrated because these people were talking about the occupation as if it is the main problem in Iraq. I was there six months ago and people are dying in dozens everywhere. My country is being torn apart. 90% of my extended family had to leave Iraq in the past year. I remembered that I do not like talking about politics because I can not stand hearing people with no pain or suffering talking about solutions to Iraq’s problems when they are not acknowledging the main problem. I know that I may play a role in politics some day because when I reach the place that I have in mind for myself I will be an influential person that has to get involved in politics. I decided that I will keep myself from getting involved in politics for the time being and just get on with my life.

The lecture was a great experience for me and it showed me how tolerant the vice president was for the harsh and rude questions he was asked. I respect him a lot at the moment and I totally agree with his plan and strategy. I hope that in the following few months I will hear that he is able to accomplish something for soothing the bleeding wounds of my country.

Monday, September 18, 2006

It has been two weeks since I came to London. But to write about the time that I am going to spend in London, I should mention how my travel was. It was a long tiring trip that took more than 5 hours from Amman to Heathrow airport. I had to throw away some of my books before boarding the plane because my luggage was way over weight! Even then I had to pay for excess luggage after throwing away the books because I was still overweight.

After reaching Heathrow, I had to carry my heavy luggage and it really hurt my back. The Underground was not working from Heathrow but there were bus services to compensate and I took the bus to reach the nearest underground station then I took the Victoria line and got to Russell Square station and walked from there to my accommodation. It was about 5pm on a Sunday afternoon. There was no one in the accommodation reception because it was a weekend: I had to call the emergency number and then person responsible came out, welcomed me, showed me the way to my room and gave me my keys. I was finally able to put down my backpack and hand luggage and got the rest that I longed for.

It was just then that I first felt I had finally settled, and I couldn’t have been more mistaken. When I took my first shower in my en-suite bath, I found how much stuff I needed to get. I needed shampoo, soap, sponge, tooth brush and paste…etc.

It was a long list of essential things that you need to use on a daily basis. I thought that I shouldn’t get them from home because I was able to buy them from any store in London, but I now know that I should have brought them from home because they wouldn’t add any significant weight to my luggage and they would have cost fraction of the price that I bought them for. Therefore, I suggest that whatever you think that you need to use daily, and whatever your parents suggest for you to take, just trust me and pack it in your suitcase.

After buying the things that I needed, finding a nearby cheap market to buy the food from, and making a phone call home to tell my family that I was doing fine, it was time to visit my sponsor, the MBI Foundation and meet Carolyn Perry.

Carolyn was very helpful, then it was time to say ‘have a good day’ and I left the Foundation to have a walk in Oxford St. and buy some clothes.

For the following days, nothing big happened. Life was going on smoothly. I met new people in the accommodation and got to know my neighbours who are a guy from China ‘Bing’ and a girl from Korea ‘Heusang’. They are very nice people and I am trying to bond with them as much as I can, as we are going to share a flat for a whole year.

To sum up the things that I experienced in London so far, I got to meet Antonio Banderas and David Hasselback, people are very nice and friendly and they will help you when you are in need, getting an Oyster card is a very intelligent move for paying for public transport in London, getting to know how to move around London by the bus is much more cheaper than by the tube, it is a very good thing to arrive early to the accommodation to be able to get things from the students who are moving out for free and this would save a lot of money, opening a bank account takes a lot of time….

That’s about all that I had in the past two weeks and I will keep writing about my time in London as days go by.

17th September 2007

It was two days before the 17th of September when I received an email from Carolyn asking me whether I wanted to go to a Reception at the House of Lords. I definitely wanted to go there. I went to MBI and got my invitation to a reception hosted by Lord Stone of Blackheath in the House of Lords for the Olive Tree Project.

It took me a long time to prepare for the reception. I wore my suit but I was so worried that it would be a black tie reception because I wanted to fit in more than anything on that day.  I arrived at the House of Lords at 6 pm which was the time when the reception starts and waited in a queue to get into the reception room. In the queue, I was the only one who is not talking to someone and I thought that everybody knows everybody and that I was the only person with no contacts. But then I introduced myself to someone who turned out to be a Judge and one of the Trustees of the Olive tree trust at the same time. He introduced me to an Australian lady who used to work in courts and is associated with law office work.

I got into the reception to find out that I did not have a tag badge so I had to write my own and I was so confused about what to write on it. Who am I exactly and why I am in the reception?! By answering this question I knew what to write. I wrote ‘Dr. Ammar Al Naimi / MBI scholar’ as I thought that this is the most proper title for me.

I met Diana, the administrator from the Olive Tree Trust, and she introduced me to the Olive Tree Scholars. I learned about their programme which sponsors Palestinian and Israeli students to study in university in London and live together until they finish their studies to go back to their home countries to work in joint projects. The idea of the programme fascinated me and I found it to be very moving and clever. What surprised me is that I had not heard about this programme before which was a shame. I was so happy that Sheikh Mohamed was one of the sponsors of the Olive Tree Trust  which gave me another reason to respect this man more and more.

I met a lot of people afterwards and they were very interested in Iraq and me and I told them all about MBI and how they gave me my life chance by giving me the opportunity to study in London. The thing that touched me most is that they encouraged me and asked me to look back at my time in London. I have been in London for one month and I am already in the House of Lords. It really hit me hard when they said that because it is true. I am progressing so far and I am looking forward to my life in London. At the end of the evening, I went to Lord Stone and thanked him for a perfect reception for a great cause. I went back home so happy and ecstatic about my evening at the House of Lords. And now I am looking forward for more and more.