Meeting Enstar in the road less traveled

“Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” - Robert Frost

Enstar, a 28-year-old mother of eight, just tucked her one-month old baby Khatsa in a makeshift crib inside their tent at the Hakshim Camp in Erbil City, at Iraq Kurdistan. She was quiet and smiling all the time. Her husband, Amer Eza, 85 years old, shared their harrowing experience running away from their town in Mosul in Northern Iraq. From time to time she lovingly glanced at the crib while listening to our conversation.

Pregnant and fleeing

In the cramped tent where we all huddled together sharing the warmth of a gas heater, it was not hard to miss any talk or activity. Privacy does not exist here. I wondered fleetingly how Enstar adjusted to that. Amer said before, they lived comfortably in their town, with the children in school.

World Vision providing much needed supplies to displaced Iraqis

How can a mother accept leaving a place that she has probably been all her life and lose all the resources for her children’s good future?

Enstar was nine months pregnant when she had to walk for two hours with the rest of the family from Mosul to Duhok. They arrived in Erbil last August 2014 after being told the camps in Duhok were full and they need to go to Erbil.

I cannot imagine how she survived the ordeal. Every pregnancy is a delicate time in a woman’s life – and Enstar had to endure the stress, hunger, exhaustion and threats of violence around them.

A UN Report released last August 2014, eerily at the same that Enstar’s family fled, said around 10 million women were affected by the Syrian Crisis, over 400,000 of them pregnant.

This made me cringe with sadness - that there are hundreds of thousands of women sharing Enstar’s plight and are helpless to change it. I will not meet all of them,  but now I have had a glimpse of the life these brave women are enduring - unfairly - across several countries affected by the crisis.

We often complain even about the most trivial things. I do. Many of us believe life should at least be within what lifestyle and standard we think we deserve. Often we fail to count our blessings, or take them for granted, too caught up about our many angsts and frustrations.

Her smile will stay with me forever. 

Enstar woke me up one more time with the courage she has I cannot even match in half. She has that radiant smile in the midst of a miserable condition. Clearly she hardly has time to whine and grumble that life is not fair. When we entered the cramped tent, her smile was the first thing I noticed. When we left, her smile clung to me like it meant to stay; a reminder meant to stick in my mind forever. Enstar has radiated inspiration and hope as she waved goodbye to us.

Let us remember her story of courage and resilience as we battle our own trials – and acknowledge that each of us go through a road less traveled – by choice or not – and muster our strength to rise above it.

Enstar did. Why can’t we? 

(Note: Above excerpts from Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken.)