“Leaking Faucet”-Rasha
Bayoumi writes, “The asylum claim had been unsuccessful , but Rasha’s father had hired a lawyer and was appealing the decision and looking for other legal ways to remain in the country…But the pace of progress in the immigration proceedings was like washing your hair from a leaking faucet. Nothing was moving except for Congress, which in 1996 legislated even more draconian anti-immigrant legislation in the wake of Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.” The allegorical ‘ leaking faucet’ underscores the sluggishness of the proceedings which would have made it possible for Rasha’s family’s immigrant status to be transformed.IT would take a long time for hair to be clean when suing a leaking faucet for the water is minimal. Similarly, the proceedings take place slowly which diminishes the family’s hopes of ever getting an adjusted ‘immigrant status’ in the USA.
Sand (‘Omen and Enemy’)- “Sami”
Bayoumi elucidates, “For the first month, it seemed as though the enemy were not Saddam Hussein but simply the sand. It was everywhere. Like an omen, a huge sandstorm struck them on their first day in Kuwait, turning the whole world beige. But even after the storm ended, the sand continued to be brutal. Even on normal days, it would hit them in the eyes, which would get all crusty.” Sami and his comrades in the Army face danger due to the sand which is omnipresent in the desert. The sand is both and ‘omen and enemy’ since it imperils their lives. Hence, they must overcome it before they face Saddam Hussein’s army.
