Home Away From Home

Published in The Tripoli Post

Mabel loved Tripoli extravagantly. She exulted in its oriental enchantment, in the Roman arches and ruins, the Moslem funerals and weddings, the mosques and minarets, the caravans, the desert wilderness, the scorching heat of the sun, the limped purity of the days, the black star-shining nights that made it different from her home in Massachusetts.

At the end of her stay, she wrote of Tripoli: It did remain quiescent in the sense of world progress but its charm was never to be resisted. It was a city of enchantment, white dreams of paradise.

An American, Agnes Newton Keith, documented Mabel's description of Tripoli, the capitol of Libya, in her book entitled The Children of Allah. This book, written following Agnes's nine-year stay in Libya from 1955 to 1964, describes her experience and the feelings of Mabel, another American woman who had stayed in the country.

According to Agnes, "Mabel came to Libya with her astronomer husband to study the total eclipse of the sun in 1900 and again in 1905. Their telescopes were set up on the British Consulate's roof terrace in the medina inside the city walls. This building, constructed in 1744, still exists today."

Like Mabel, Agnes loved Tripoli too. The following extract from the book reflects this feeling. "Tell me Mabel", said Agnes, "did you, as I will soon, look back with deepest love to the spicy shores of Tripoli?"

And when it was time for Agnes to leave Libya, she wrote: It is a magnificent North African day…The time is here when Harry and I must shake off the desert sands of Libya, abandon its seductive sea, its singing desert winds, its lucid sky, its blazing sun, its beauty, elegance, and its enigmatic, contradictory, prodigal, pious people whom I love."

Mabel…Agnes…I am walking in your footsteps now. Do I see what you saw? Do I hear what you heard? Do I feel what you felt? Do I love what you loved?

Like both of you, I am also an American living in Libya where the life and the culture are hardly known by the outside world. Nothing has changed and everything has changed. The desert wind still swirls the sand, thus the sand shifts and moves like the constant movement of the sea. The desert has its own allurement and beauty different from the sea but as captivating.

Libya offers the beauty of the desert and the sea. The best beaches in the world are here, a secret that only a few of us know. Tranquil water reflects a rainbow of bluish colors ranging from deep blue to turquoise to green lapping waves.

So, as both of you once experienced, I can still see the desert sands dancing. I can still dive into the cool refreshing sea, and I can still enjoy long walks along the beach where the Mediterranean sun provides a beautiful, bronze tan quickly and effortlessly.

Sunrises and sunsets splash rays of orange colors. Such moments are Mother Nature's artistic gift to us. Even the most famous painters cannot capture the full essence of these moments because the color continually changes from one spectacular scene to the next as the sun rises or sets.

The days continue to be lavished with blue skies and plentiful sunshine, although we have rain during the winter months. The rain is always welcome since Libya remains primarily a desert climate. The winter rains bring spring flowers with fields covered with bright yellow blooms.

There is a quiet peacefulness in the early mornings as the song of birds can be heard and the nights are enchanting with the sky full of bright stars.

Like Mabel and Agnes, I love what I have seen in this country. But, I am also experiencing some things that they did not. That is because I went one step further than the two of them. I married a Libyan man and lived with a Libyan family.

There were difficulties in the beginning of having to adjust to a different place and culture. There were times when I threw up my hands in exasperation, ready to pack my bags and return to America, but I found myself unpacking my bags again. Why? I had been captivated by the city. A city enriched in historical sites and ruins. A city where shopping was like a treasure hunt. A city where the most difficult things were easy and the easiest things were difficult. I had discovered that my initial boredom had been replaced by a longing for a little solitude because there were too many social activities to attend that were coupled with the demands of my work.

But mostly, the people had captivated me. The Libyan people continued to be kind, gentle and friendly. They were genuinely happy to meet me, an American, just as Mabel and Agnes had described years before. I found the Libyan people to be proud people who welcomed foreigners with open hearts and arms but simultaneously kept them at a distance. I laughed with them and I cried with them. I celebrated happy occasions like weddings and newborn babies and grieved with them at funerals. I understood them completely and I didn't understand them at all at times.

Because I was captivated by the charm of the people and the city, Libya became my home away from home.