AFFORDABLE BABY SLINGS

Detective's Flashback

"Grampa, Grampa, tell me about Gramma and Shambhala again!"

"Come sit up on my lap, Daniel," the old man said, lifting the boy up with him. "That's your favorite story, isn't it? It goes back to when I was in the Great War. Our platoon was over the Adriatic Sea. We were taken by surprise. Was it the Italians? We didn't know, and we didn't take the time to find out. Bullets were flying everything which way. Everyone I knew was being shot down all around me. A few of us made an escape, including my big brother. The possibly-Italians gave chase. My brother and I and a few others flew until we were in the middle of a terrible storm. My plane was hit! A few more hits, and I was dropping from the sky faster than you'd-better-believe-it."

"And then?" Little Daniel hopped up and down on his grandfather's lap. "And then, and then, and then?"

"I don't know how long I was out cold. When I next woke, me and my plane were drifting along a river through the mountains of Asia. To this day, I never did figure that one out. But maybe the big guy upstairs put me there, because there was a beautiful woman lost in the snow mountains."

"That was Gramma, huh?" little Daniel said.

"Not yet she wasn't. She must have had 15 years on me. I was just a teenager helping an adult who seemed lost and confused. We couldn't even understand one another, as I spoke English, and she spoke some Asian language. I stayed with her and helped her, and in turn, she came with me on my return to America. Over the next 15 years, she stayed with me, and she learned to speak English fluently."

"That's when Gramma was your age, isn't it?"

"Yes, Daniel, that's when Gramma and I were the same age. I grew up those 15 years, but Panna hardly aged at all. I was barely into my 30's, and she looked not a day older than 35."

"Then the govament came along, right, Grampa?"

"That's right. Panna had never gone through the legal process to become a citizen. The government finally caught up with her. Rather than go through all that, we decided it was time for Panna to return home. We hoped into my sea plane, which let-me-tell-you I had really improved my baby over the years. We flew right out of the country and made our way to Asia. We went to China. To Tibet. To the Kunlun Mountains, where I had first met your grandmother. A storm downed my plane, but Panna and I survived. Rather than freeze in the blizzard, e found shelter in a cave, and on the other side we found a paradise of warm climate and green flora."

"Shambhala!"

"Shambhala. Panna's homeland. And I was welcomed with open arms, for having saved Panna fifteen years prior. There, I learned about the people of Shambhala. The people of this place farmed the land for food. Underground hot springs provided warmth. They even had all kinds of wonderful stones. Some stones collected the sunlight by day, and glowed by night. Other stones would heal a cut in minutes or even seconds. I barely aged at all those few years I was there, and I'm certain it was because of yet more of their mystical stones. It was a perfect world to live in. I never wanted to leave, but when I had to, I was given a jade Dalai Lama statue. I was told, once your father was worthy, the statue would guide him back to Shambhala, and me with him."

"That's the jewel Dad's always looking for, right?"

"Aye. To be honest, I don't regret the statue disappearing. If your father and I returned to Shambhala, you would never have been born, Daniel. Perhaps someone up above took the statue from me specifically for that reason."


Thief's Flashback

"Papa, Papa!" a light-haired boy cried out. "Jon-Jon ran away again!"

"Did he?" the boy's father asked. The man held out a hand. "Tell me, what do you see?"

"Your palm..."

The boy's father put his other hand on top of the first. "Watch carefully." He lifted his hand up, and a ferret peaked out from underneath.

"Jon-Jon! Papa, that was so awesome. How'd you do that?"

"You know a magician never reveals his secrets."

"But I want to be a magician just like you when I grow up, Papa. I want to make people go 'Oooh!' and 'Aaah!' and clap their hands for me, just like at Papa's magic shows."

The boy's father smiled. He walked over to his son, and kneeled down before him, the ferret jumping to the ground. He put a hand on his son's shoulder. "I will teach you a few basics. It will be up to you to develop your own magic from them. And always remember, whether your magic works or not, whether you impress others or not, you must always keep a smile on your face, and always be a perfect gentleman."

The boy ran circles around his father, his arms up in the

A UNHCR staff member meets Yemenis displaced by fighting who had walked through 50C temperatures to reach the safety of Al Mazraq Camp.
UNHCR/ L. Chedrawi

Terrible suffering amid Yemen’s beautiful landscape.

AL MAZRAQ IDP CAMP, Yemen, 15 October - The drive north from Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, to the Al Mazraq camp for people displaced by fighting in Sa’ada takes seven hours on mountainous roads that wind through a stunning yet rugged terrain dotted with small, traditional houses.

Yet, it was not until I reached the camp that I learned that for some Yemenis, this same beautiful landscape is a reminder of the long, exhausting, and risky journey they had to take to reach safety.

When we reached the camp the temperature was 50 degrees Celsius and a hot wind blew sand in our faces. All around us was desert, with tents erected in rows. Al Mazraq is home to close to 7,000 people, a fraction of the more than 150,000 Yemenis displaced by the fighting between government troops and rebels just 20 kilometres away in Sa’ada Province.

UNHCR is managing the camp and is distributing relief supplies such as tents, mattresses, and kitchen sets, while other UN agencies provide water, food, and health assistance.

Children in the camp learn to cope the hard way. They act like adults, fetching water, lighting a fire, or fixing a tent. But their eyes do not betray the longing for a lost childhood. As we arrived, children began chanting and dancing and asking us to teach them English. When we gave the youngest coloring pens and papers, we were surprised that they all made sure to return them when they had finished, not wanting to keep what was not theirs.

Six-year-old Elham did not join the other children. An explosion close to her house in Sa’ada left her deaf, mute and severely traumatized. When we approached to help her, her father rushed to explain that she could not hear us. “She lost her hearing in the bombing in Sa'ada,” he told us. “She also lost her ability to speak and her memory. She only claps her hands and walks astray between the tents.” The crowd of people which had gathered around us clearly upset Elham, who began to scream hysterically.

In the Amran Governorate, further south, UNHCR has begun demarcating another camp site to accommodate around 800 families. Some five or six families have already sought refuge in the area, using deserted mud houses as temporary shelter. The parents and their children gathered around and told us they would move to the camp once it is ready. Safety was what they asked for. “I want my children to be able to sleep at night,” a mother told us.

Many had walked for days with only bread and water, taking risky journeys through the mountains to reach a safe heaven. Others did not make it. A two-month-old baby passed away in his mother’s arms during the journey, we were told. Other women arrived pregnant and some delivered in the camp. But thousands are still stranded in Sa’ada, unable to flee.

The day after leaving the area, I heard that a rocket has fallen very close to the camp site in Amran. While we were there we had played with the children, taught them new songs and they had taught us new games. We saw them turn into children again. We never learned what happened to them.

Laure Chedrawi, a reporting officer normally based in Lebanon, was assisting in UNHCR’s continuing response to the emergency in Yemen

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