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Photos by Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
NOORA RELIEF FUND
NOORA'S FAMILY has sold almost everything they own, and borrowed money, to pay for her medical expenses in Iraq.
MAINE DOCTORS, the Maine Medical Center and the Ronald McDonald House all donated their services. But Noora and her father will be returning to an uncertain situation when they fly home to Iraq. Because he has been gone so long, Noora's father has lost his $200-a-month teaching job.
A RELIEF FUND has been established for the family at Key Bank in Portland. Checks should be made out to Noora Abdulhameed and sent to: Key Bank 1 Monument Square Portland, ME 04101 Attn: Noora Abdulhameed relief fund
JOURNALISTS REFLECT
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD/MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM Staff Writer Meredith Goad and Staff Photographer Gregory Rec have followed the story of Noora Afif Abhulhameed and her father, Afif Abhulhameed Otaiwi, since they arrived in Portland in July 2008. Here are their thoughts:
GREGORY REC: "One of the things that impressed me the most was Noora's resilience. She bounced back quickly from her surgeries and always seemed to retain her exuberance. As I photographed the story of their time in Maine, I was amazed at the many people who helped Noora and Afif and by the depth of the relationships they formed with some of those people. As a father of a daughter about Noora's age, I could relate to the worry that Afif experienced as Noora went through her surgeries and to the anxiety that he felt about being so far away from the rest of their family."
MEREDITH GOAD: "Journalists are supposed to get at the truth. Covering Noora and Afif's stay in Maine reminded me that there is no single absolute called The Truth, even though that would make life so much simpler for everybody. Some readers immediately drew conclusions about my own political and spiritual beliefs simply because I wanted to write about Noora's journey. To me, all of that was irrelevant. All I wanted to do was tell Noora's story – her truth – not make some big statement about the war. Her story, and telling it honestly, was my North Star. If part of Noora's story stirs something inside you, gives you hope – makes you uncomfortable, even – then that is the universe's way of telling you there is something you should explore inside yourself. That's the job of journalism, to help you find your own truth."
PORTLAND — Noora Afif Abdulhameed is a notoriously late sleeper, sometimes staying in bed until 11:30 a.m. But on Saturday, she was so excited, she got up at 8:30.
“Today she wake up early,” said her father, Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi. “I told her, 'Time to go home.’ She wake up, she take a shower, she eat.”
Saturday marked a year to the day since Noora and Afif embarked on a 3,500-mile journey to Portland for surgery to repair damage to Noora’s skull caused by a sniper in the Iraq war. One year later, dozens of Mainers came to the Portland International Jetport to say their goodbyes.
After a brief layover in New York, the father and daughter were to fly 12 hours to Amman, Jordan, where they expect to stay for a couple of days. Then they’ll take a 12-hour taxi ride to their home in Heet, Iraq – and to Noora’s mother and siblings, whom she hasn’t seen since departing for America.
Otaiwi, wearing a blue rugby shirt and a green baseball cap stitched with the word “Maine” on the front, said he was “so much happy” to be going home. “But,” he added, “I’m sad.”
“I want to thank everybody in Maine, especially in Portland,” he said at the jetport. “Everybody was so nice, so generous, so kind to my daughter and to me. I’m excited to come back to my family, but sad about leaving those people – friends, nice people.”
Wearing embroidered jeans, a purple shirt and her favorite pink Barbie cap – a gift upon her arrival in Maine in July 2008 – Noora ran around the jetport with her friends and had one last American hamburger, a Coke and some french fries. Seth Warner of Falmouth, whose daughter is a friend of Noora’s, bought her a bag of Cheez Doodles – one of her favorite snacks – for the plane ride.
During their stay in the United States, Noora and her father have been affected by the Mainers who have helped them, comforted them – or simply befriended them.
The feeling was mutual among those who came to say goodbye Saturday.
Among them were Phyllis Hayes of Cumberland and her daughter Becky, both of whom volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House, where Noora and her father stayed while in Maine.
“I happened to be on the shift the night they came in,” Phyllis Hayes said. “So besides knowing them the whole year that they’ve been here and doing things with them, I really wanted to be here today, just to sort of complete it.”
Debi Ward lives on Brackett Street, just across from the Ronald McDonald House. She bought Noora a snow globe when she first arrived, and her quilting club gave Noora some jewelry and makeup.
As Noora started learning English, she would come over to Ward’s doorstep to talk to her and play with her 5-year-old grandson. Ward admits that before she met Noora, she was “very prejudiced” against Iraqis. The little girl, she said, changed her.
“It’s opened my eyes to the fact that (Iraqis) might think all Americans are jerks,” she said. “But if they came here and saw us and met us, and we saw and met them as real people – as families, not as soldiers – we wouldn’t all be killing each other, you know?
They have feelings, and they’re moms and dads like we are.”
A few final hugs, and Noora, wearing a heavy backpack, stepped onto the escalator going up to the security line. She turned around, smiled, waved and yelled “Bye!”
Everyone waved back and bid her farewell. As Noora reached the top of the escalator, the crowd broke out into applause.
IMPACT OF IRAQ WAR HITS HOME
Noora and her father were brought to Maine by No More Victims, a nonprofit group that helps children injured in the Iraq...
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