A bit before this incident, I had a dream of her. (I didn’t know she had passed away). She was wearing a blue silk hijaab and her face was uncovered (she always appeared veiled outside). This hijaab stretched out as far as I could see. I had to climb up it! I then lay next to her, stared into her eyes and said: “I love you…” She replied “I love you sixty three times.” To this day, I wonder about the meaning of that dream.

Some nights later, a brother told me that he had a dream about my family — although he had never met my wife. Mind you, I didn’t know about her death yet. He said that my wife was at a long white table that had such beautiful food on it. My children were running around playing. My wife then said to them, “Patience, patience he will be with us very soon.” In retrospect, I find these dreams to be amazing.

Arrest and Imprisonment in Kenya

So it is that we would, after thirsting and starving for two weeks, find a small village in Kenya. Being that the villagers were Muslims, some spoke Arabic. They fed us and gave us water. I remember walking into the village with all the brothers and falling prostrate to Allah crying and thanking Him for what seemed like an hour!

We were brought to a Masjid (mosque) where we could finally rest. After getting bombed, shot at with bullets whizzing by my head, having friends die, starving and sleeping in ant and tic infested areas, I barely noticed a rat in the masjid crawling on my leg. One brother shouted, “Akhee (brother), there’s a rat!” I brushed it off myself like you would a fly; I was so exhausted.

Suddenly someone yelled out “Soldiers!” The Kenyan military stormed in, pulled us out, laid us on the ground and beat many of us. Then we were thrown half-naked onto a truck on top of each other, to be driven through the jungle to the next town, in the freezing cold night. Thrown out of the truck, we were pushed around, beaten some more, laughed at, humiliated and filmed, then thrown into a dark, dirty cell. Four walls and a bucket, that’s it. Suddenly a Yemeni brother and I started singing “Ghurabaa” (The Strangers). We even wept. That night we would be pushed around, beaten and interrogated by the Kenyan police.

The next morning, we were woken up to be cable-tied, blindfolded, mocked and thrown into a truck that brought us to a helicopter. We were thrown off the truck onto the ground and put on the helicopter, then taken to an airport and put on a plane. The whole flight we were mocked and threatened whilst blindfolded and cable-tied. The brothers and I heard a sister on the plane with kids. One brother asked: “Are you okay, sister?” Suddenly one of the police or soldiers came around and said, “Shut up!” The he told her, “If you speak again, I will tape your eyes shut.”

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