As I stepped out of the airport at 8 pm a welcoming breeze greeted us before we were rushed into a friend’s vehicle. Never met him but he’s been a good friend to my husband. Two Necks craning to see outside and grasp as much as we can despite the exhaustion we were feeling, the little one was out for the count. That night, after the kids were asleep, we sat down for a much needed chat. One with a glass mug and the other with a paper cup, catching up on the journey to Adelaide.
With the dawn of the first day in Adelaide, looking at the rising sun in three layers of clothes, coffee in hand, a lump rose in my throat. Allah has given me what I asked for. If Allah was in person I would have hugged Him, The Most High. My go-to line was :
يا حي يا قيوم برحمتك أستغيث ، أصلح لي شأني كله ، ولا
تكلني إلى نفسي طرفة عين
“O Ever-Living, 0 Sustainer of All, by Your mercy, I seek help; Rectify all my affairs, and do not entrust me to myself even for the blink of an eye.”
Allah, The Almighty fixed my affairs. Set my coffee aside and fell down in prostration, a Sajdah shukoor. Standing up with blurry eyes I tell my husband we did it. I see him gently shake his head ” it’s the beginning….”
” Yep. It is the beginning” I reply with a mighty sigh.
Thus began our adventure in settling down in Adelaide. I’m not from Kandy, not from Colombo or Galle….I’m from Wattala, Sri Lanka. I have two kids Safaa 12 and Thalib 4. I was born and bred in Kalutara, moved to Wattala after marriage. regardless of where anyone is from in Sri Lanka, during the first week upon arriving I received hot meals, hundreds of dollars worth of groceries along with warm and comforting company. Subhanallah, I don’t know any of the people who visited me. Haven’t heard of or seen any one of them. Id randomly get a call asking if it’s okay to visit, as all brown homes, we rush around straighten long whatever we have of furniture and wait for the visitors. When my kids ask “who is coming ..” instead of saying I don’t know them, I learnt to say ” the kind people who want to make sure we are okay in our new house, that’s all I know about them. They are the kind people from Sri Lanka” There are some who immediately hit it off with us, took us shopping, some shared a Saturday evening with us enjoying a cup of tea and home made patis and that I felt like family. Muslims and non Muslims alike.
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