REFINED BY FIRE 2

I neither had the papers no the experience. Up until that time, I
believed in a higher power. I was neither a born again Christian
nor a spiritual person, but I believed there was a higher power
working behind the scenes to help me. The fact that our
troubled marriage had survived the hatred was the first miracle.
The way God kept Justine, Patrick and I at King Faisal Hospital
out in the cold was a miracle. Claudia grudgingly offering me the
10,000 francs was more than a miracle. And now, here was the
benevolent God again working behind the scenes to help me.
Nowhere in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine myself
working in the United Nations. It was a miracle. In one day, I
came from having one pan and two cups to earning a salary in
dollars. My first salary was $350. I did not know what to do with
my first salary because I literally had nothing. But as it were, my
happiness
was always short-lived. It always felt like I had been born for
misfortune. Even with this wonderful job, I was sad because my
husband had been jobless pretty much since he had left
university in France. First, this made him sad and depressed.
Secondly, it meant that I was the sole financial provider for my
family. When I was three or so months old into my new job at
the UN, Patrick was arrested and imprisoned. He was suspected
to have colluded with a friend who was now in prison, after
being found in possession of the car the said friend had lent him.
The season of Patrick’s imprisonment was another tough turn in
my life. The loneliness was excruciating. I was at home alone
with my daughter. Neighbors and passers-by only pointed
fingers at me, no one ever visited me. Even at my place of work
where there were people from many nationalities, no one liked
me. The UN had a bus that would rotate picking up employees
and dropping us at office. Not even on the UN bus did anyone
ever strike a conversation with me. I was always lonely. My
bosses were French, and it is only with them that I worked
harmoniously; none among the locals ever paid me any
attention. I had to painfully endure a life of stigma and
loneliness. Soon after that my father-in-law returned to his
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