I Came Home from School to Find Sewage Flooding the Place Where I Sleep
I came home from school exhausted after a long day. We spend hours sitting on the floor because there are no chairs or desks in our classrooms. All I wanted was to return to the place where I sleep and rest for a little while. But what awaited me was far worse than I had imagined.
I found my mother and father carrying buckets of sewage water and emptying them outside the place where we live. The water had flooded the space, and its foul smell filled the air.
I looked at the place where I sleep and felt deeply discouraged and broken. I had already used up all my energy at school, but I couldn't just stand by and watch my parents face this problem alone.
I put my exhaustion aside and began helping them remove the sewage water. Afterwards, we lit a fire and tried using the heat to unclog the drain and clear the blockage. We did everything we could, but in the end, we were unable to fix it.
All we managed to do was remove the dirty water from the space and get rid of some of its suffocating smell. The underlying problem, however, remains unresolved.
We now need a specialist to repair the drain, but he is asking for 100 shekels for his work. This is an amount we cannot easily afford given the circumstances we are living through.
I am writing down these details because I want to share an honest picture of our lives, beyond the larger images of destruction. Sometimes suffering lies in small details that few people notice: a girl returns home from school exhausted, only to find no clean place to rest. Instead, she has to help her parents remove sewage from the very place where she sleeps.
Frustration and misery have become part of every detail of our lives, from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. That is why I write. Writing gives me an outlet, a small space to release some of the worries and burdens weighing so heavily on my already exhausted soul.