Reflections: UmmSalaamah

UmmSalaamah is an ICTC member, past MANA Vice President, board member of the Birthing Project USA, has built a midwife clinic in Senegal and is a serious supporter of the ICTC mission. She received the ICTC UnSung Shero Award at our 4th Black Midwives and Healers Conference in GA. She is one of the African American midwives who was trained by the midwives at The Farm.  She then went on to attend Emery College and The Frontier School to get her formal credentials. She has agreed to be the ICTC Director of Midwife Training to help begin the ICTC midwifery school and is in Ghana to find our clinical site. She currently lives in Nashville, Tenn.

May 2, 2010

It’s been a long time coming but I want to close out the story of my trip to Africa.  In my last update I was on my way to Kumasi to pack up and take a 3-4 day bus trip overland from Ghana to Senegal.

I arrived in Kumasi on Monday, late afternoon, tired and stressed from rushing around filling last minute requests at the market in Accra.  I rested on Tuesday, gathered and organized my stuff for packing, and went to the Wazifa (Sufi chanted prayers) in the evening.  Since the bus was scheduled to leave Thursday morning between 6 &7am, I was asked to come on Wednesday evening and spend the nite.  Less than 24 hours and not 1 thing packed!!  Dropped into high gear once again.

AlHajji Moro, my long time herbalist friend, came with his son on Wed. morning.  He brought with him herbs for me, for a friend in Senegal, my granddaughter, her 2 children and a friend’s young daughter battling Cancer.  We took pictures and he offered to come for me at 4pm and drive me to Shaykh’s compound, our departure site. My friend from NJ had a family member bring me a bag she had to leave behind, to be delivered to her son in Senegal.  Time to leave, I had 6 bags, 3 cases of water (Most of Senegal’s bottled water is imported & expensive) fruit and food bags for inside the bus, and my bedroll.

AlHajji arrived to pick me up alone, no son to carry the bags.  The man is in his eighties and all my stuff is heavy.  I worried he would keel over and I’d get the blame.  I grabbed a case of water and started to help him load his 4×4.  He took the case from my arms, told me “you’re not strong”, and loaded everything by himself!  He drove me several miles, very safely, to my destination.  He does not even wear glasses.

When we arrived at the compound, most of the people who would be on the 4 chartered buses had already arrived and were camping out in the mosque, various sitting rooms, with friends or relatives who lived there, on the stairway landings or in the courtyard.  AlHajji locked my bags in his car and escorted me to Shaykh’s salon.  As we passed by big chiefs, scholars and shaykhs BOWED TO HIM and he returned the greeting with a nod.  I was shocked, but I was cool.  He then questioned the Shaykh about where I would sleep and how my bags would be secured.  This is the head Tijani (a Sufi order) Shaykh in the entire Ashanti region.

My stock went up 100% just by being escorted by him.  A lot more people made a point of speaking directly to me each time they passed by.  I had a place to sleep in my young friend Khadijah’s room, along with 3 other women and a baby but Shaykh’s wife came to offer me a private room after AlHajji left.  It wasn’t necessary for just 1 nite and with so many guests, I knew it would be a hardship.  AlHajji didn’t unlock his car until he was satisfied that I and my bags would be secure.  I was invited to visit, see his land and meet his family on my next trip to Ghana.  I think I’m in love.

The nite was uneventful.  We all prayed Fajr (at 1st light) Prayer together.  Shaykh’s wife sent us breakfast then we gravitated toward the courtyard.  What with calling names, checking who had paid, handing out tickets and assigning us to busses, our bus that was 1st but left 2nd, did not pull out till noon.  We reached the border with Bakina Faso at nite, after the border had closed, and slept on the ground at the border crossing.  I was happy for my bedroll.  I slept like a baby.

At 3am I awoke to see the 3 ladies from across the aisle on the bus talking with 1 of the border guards.  They had been asleep next to me.  When we arrived we had gone to pee behind 1 of the buildings but there was a lot more activity now and that was obviously not going to work.  When they headed off into the dark, spirit told me that those ladies knew something so I followed them through the dark, past parked trucks, a good city block.  A woman was tending a fire under a 55 gal drum.  For 20 cents you could use the squat toilet, a building with several cubicles each with a hole in the ground, and for 30 cents you got a bucket of wonderfully warm water and the use of  1 of 7 cubicle made from roofing tin to take a private bath.  I borrowed soap from 1 of the ladies, had a heavenly wash and put back on the same clothes but I felt renewed.  We had breakfast on the other side of the border and pushed on.

Day #2 we traveled thru Bakina Faso.  We stopped for prayers, lunch and dinner.  We reached the Mali border just before it closed.  We drove through the nite.  It was unsafe to stop.  The forest between the border and the Capital Bameko is a haven for armed robbers.  A collection was taken up to pay 2 Mali soldiers to ride shotgun into Bameko.

Day #3 The air conditioner on our bus only worked in the nite when it got cool.  In the heat it was useless and the windows did not open.  We stopped at the bus company’s depot in Bameko to get it fixed.  They gave us free tea and bread while we waited.  When I saw the repairmen sitting and staring at the air conditioner, I knew they weren’t going to be able to fix it.  They finally took the bus away for 4 hours.  The 3 ladies I had followed to the bath, cooked and sold lunch plates.  The food was excellent.  When the bus finally came back, we had lost 7 hours and the air didn’t work any better but we stopped complaining.  We crossed into Senegal in the late afternoon.  The end was in sight.  We stopped for the nite at a “truck stop” and slept on the ground.

Day #4 In the morning, after prayer, women came out of the huts on the property and set up tables selling hot tea and coffee, French bread and egg sandwiches, a good breakfast.  We reached Medina Baye Sunday, about 4pm.  Everyone on the bus went into the courtyard of Imam Shaykh Tijani Cisse, brother of Shaykh Hassan Cisse, and current leader of the worldwide Tijani Tariqa (Sufi Movement) since the death of his brother.

We all chanted prayers with great enthusiasm, we were so happy to be off the bus.  I was at the back of the crowd when the doorman, Sali Sou, saw me and brought me inside.  It had been 10 years since I was last in Senegal but he recognized me.  I was given food and water and a large salad.  After greeting the Imam, I went to find the house where Zena and the girls were, where I would stay.  A car was sent to retrieve my bags from the bus.  The crowds were already intense and new people were arriving by the hour.

7 busses came from Togo and were housed at the school so no more school until after the visitors go home.  There were 9 busses and 2 chartered planes from Ghana.  A group of Nigerians walked 3 months to get here.  9 busses came from Nigeria.  13 Nigerians showed up on our doorstep.  Someone had given them the name of the lady of the house.  The 1st nite they slept in the courtyard, but she was feeding all the American guests (over 100) and they were cooking in the courtyard.  The 2nd nite they slept on the roof and the next day her husband found them all other shelter.  There were 20 Americans on 1 plane.  The Mauritanians were out in force.  Estimated at 2,000, those without housing, not sleeping at the mosque, formed a tent city on the edge of the village.  They used to be the camel drivers but now they travel in 4 wheel drives straight across the desert.  There were contingents from Mali, South Africa, Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Morocco, Angola, Liberia, Algeria, even 2 vehicles from Dubai.  The Murids, another Sufi Order, sent their representatives.  One nite, at our dinner table, we had at least 1 representative from Kenya, Toronto, Jamaica, Gambia, Senegal, Detroit, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Nashville and Chicago.

There were so many people moving about on the sand, in the streets, that a fine haze of dust hung in the air and soon everyone was coughing and sneezing.  An announcement was made over the loudspeakers from the Minaret, asking people who live in Medina to please stay at home and come to see the Mosque after the guests leave.  The crowd on the day of the Maulid (the Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday) and the Grand Opening Ceremony for the Mosque that the Grandfather, Shaykh Ibrahiim N’iass, who died in 1975, started.  The Mosque and it’s courtyard sit on 4 square blocks.  By the day of the Maulid, Friday, the crowd was estimated at 2 million people, the prayer lines filled the Mosque, the courtyard, every roof in the vicinity and stretched 2-3 blocks in every direction.  It was impossible to get near the Mosque unless you slept there.

There were no fights, no alcohol, no one was stabbed, cut, shot or robbed.  A totally peaceful event. People fed each other and gave each other water.  You had to catch water late at nite.  The excess demand during the day kept the pressure too low for water to flow.  There was no bottled water left in Medina or the warehouse in Kaolack by Friday.

Zena’s in-laws, Fatima calls them Grandpa Chief and Grandma Chief, arrived by plane from Ghana.  The children were able to spend time everyday with their paternal grandparents.  It was the 1st time they had seen Khadijah.  Fatima was only a year old on her visit to Ghana 3 years ago.  While I was there, one of the 3 ladies I had admired on the bus came to visit.  She is Chief’s older daughter and the children’s aunt!

I was sick by Wednesday.  I never made it out of the house to the Ceremony.  By Sunday I had pneumonia.   I’ve had it twice before.  My friend, a pediatrician from Atlanta, gave me some Zithromax (an antibiotic) and I started to mend.  Thursday, the 1st day I was well enough to go out of the house, I traveled 30 hours back to the States and had a setback.

I’ve been steadily improving, but my bounce back isn’t what it used to be.  I now have 2-3 good days when I get some good work done and then a day or 2 in bed.  I am getting stronger every day and making plans to return to Ghana with midwifery students next winter.  Love you all a lot.  Peace and Blessings, UmmSalaamah

February 11, 2010

Been on the road and out of touch having an exciting time.  Where to begin?  MY friend the herbal doctor visited me in Kumasi. I couldn’t sleep the nite before, I was so excited to have found him again. I’d been taking 15 or so herbs and vitamins every day for various issues including: blood pressure, spotting, irregular heart beat, depression etc.  He came at 7 am.  He told me that my blood vessels were very small.  I know this to be true, it is very hard to get my blood and I only allow experienced phlebotomists and they only get 2 chances. He showed me places to check my pulses for improvements (not palpable or very weak now). He took me off all the herbs etc I was taking so I could know how his medicine was affecting me. He also asked about symptoms I had forgotten to put on my list (like my knees hurting). I took the 1st dose that am and he left me 12 days worth. He says when the blood vessels expand, the weight will fall off and I can probably throw away my glasses. He admits to being in his 80’s, he was in his 60’s when I met him. He is neat, med build, wiry, soft spoken, very few words, pretty good English, with anatomy flip charts he uses to be sure we are talking about the same thing and several photo albums of people he has cured of everything you can think of. He looks the same as 15 years ago except his hair is whiter, his back is straight, there’s pep in his step, he doesn’t wear glasses, and though his son travels with him, he drives himself all over Ghana to the 7 offices he practices out of here. I want to be like that in my 80’s.

I went to the market from a 3rd direction that day with Khadijah, a young sister living in the Shaykh’s compound (the Tijani community I am traveling to Senegal with), who was in school with Zena in Senegal. We traveled thru the Zongo (Muslim area) past the Grand Mosque to another area of the Market. There are open sewers along the streets and as I backed out of the tro tro, 1 foot landed on the street but the other slid 2 feet down into the open sewer. A man grabbed my hand or I would be sitting in it.  I lost my extra glasses at the bottom of the sewer, I wasn’t going fishing for them and I wouldn’t ask anyone to do what I won’t. We washed my stinky foot with bag water and she walked me in a huge circle within the Market for the next 2 hours shopping for a bedroll, stainless steel cups and dishes, and other things I need for the bus trip. My energy was high, I kept up and I didn’t collapse when I got home.  I went to the market alone the next day and walked around looking for a bank with a Visa ATM and Melcom’s supermarket.  Couldn’t find either. Day 3 Ibrahim, the young man who recognized me from Senegal, came to visit at 7 am and took me to the market at 8 am to find an ATM machine and Melcom’s.  We walked the entire distance that almost killed me the 1st day at the market thru the busiest intersection I have ever seen.  He held my hand to keep from losing  me, and half that distance again up another hill. I got my money, did my shopping, and retraced our route alone as he works in the market. I walked 3 times the distance without any stress.

Getting to go to Senegal on this bus trip thru the desert has cut my time here short and thrown all my plans into high gear.  I left Kumasi last tues back to Abura Dunkwa district hospital to meet with the administration about bringing midwifery students from the US for practical experience at their hospital.  We now have a signed agreement with the medical director and the administrator to bring ICTC students to their hospital.  As the district hospital, they get all the problems from the surrounding villages.  They do an incredible job with very little resources.  Their C-Sect rate is only 9%.  Agatha, an ICTC member, has eliminated the preterm, boarder baby population by introducing Kangaroo care.  She is very proud of her work, has lots of pictures, even a father who did Kangaroo care for his baby as the mother had a C-Section.  She pointed out her babies and mothers all over the village.  This has saved many lives and lots of money.

Last Sat, I left there and traveled to a small village south of Cape Coast to visit another sister Khadijah (every muslim family has 1), I had been told was a midwife.  She wasn’t, though she had been in training when her “senior mother” died. The next am she went to Fajr prayer and had 4 midwives at the door by 7:30 am. 2 young women and 2 girls sat on the perifery while we had our 1st meeting of the Abrra chapter of ICTC. History in the making. I took pictures.

Monday I visited the Slave Castle at Cape Coast where Obama and wife visited. We had a guided tour. I don’t have words for that experience. Left there for One Afrika, a resort in Elmina run by a sister from the Bronx who has been in Ghana for 20 years.  It must be 1 of the most beautiful places on earth.  It sit up on some rocks above the beach with the waves crashing on the rocks and beach below.  I love it.  It’s a good thing I didn’t go there 1st, I might never have left.  They were filming an African movie when I arrived and I AM IN THE MOVIE.  They promised to send me a copy of the DVD when it is released.

Back in Accra with Mama Khadijah (another Khadijah).  Last minute shopping for Zena and the girls, collecting the things I left here cause I never expected to stay in Kumasi so long.  Plan to leave Mon for Kumasi and Thurs at dawn for Senegal. Keep me in your prayers, you are in mine. Be back in states Mar 11 or thereabouts.  I’m traveling space available. Will reactivate and replace my cell phone when I get back.  It took a trip thru the potty courtesy of our Khadijah.  Love to all.  See you soon, Insha Allah. Umm

January 25, 2010

Peace and Blessings from Ghana,

Communication has been a serious issue.  THE INTERNET FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY WAS OFF 1 DAY.  The library was closed another.  The person whose office I was using has returned. Etc, etc, etc.

So much has happened since I last wrote that I don’t know where to start.  My 1st trip on the tro tro was exciting.  I didn’t want to try the market alone for my 1st visit so I arranged to meet Joanne, the cnm, at the “Tek” (Kwame N’Krumah Univ of Science and Technology) Station.  I took 3 vehicles and 2 hours to meet her there for a total of 70 pesowares (about 47 cents).  The market in Kumasi is said to be the largest in the world.  It is easily a square mile including the “main” market that is 5 stories high and so crowded we didn’t even attempt it.  We shopped along the street and along the railroad tracks and at a “supermarket” with thousands of people rushing and pushing everywhere.  The Ghanaian people are warm and kind and helpfull.  Someone always stops to help when I am struggling to be understood or to find the right tro tro.  They have taken me by the hand and put me in the right vehicle and told the driver where I need to get off.  Everywhere but in the market.  There it’s watch your toes and everyman for himself!  They have young girls (14-15 yo) that carry your accumulated groceries in hugh bowls on their head, and they can really move, uphill!  Since I came with Joanne, I didn’t know where to find the tro tro that would bring me straight home.  We got directions and she took off, uphill, a mile.  I was just trying to keep my bags in sight.  Thank God she stopped every once in a while and looked back for me.  By the time we got to the tro tro I was huffing and blowing, thought I was going to die or throw up, but I made it back alive (the tro tro stops in front of my door or I’d probably be still sitting by the side of the road) and laid across my bed along with the groceries.

My 2nd trip to the market, I went by myself on the tro tro ( 30 pesowares or 20 cents).  Now where you get off at the market is not necessarily where you get back on so I was standing in the street trying to get the driver to show me where to get back on with thousands of people rushing past and cars and trucks passing inches away from my body when a man stopped to help me and take me to where I needed to go.  On my 1st trip I was just trying to keep up with my bags and get enough oxygen so I didn’t pay attention to where we stopped.  When he got me out of the street, the man said, “Don’t I know you from Senegal?  Aren’t you Tauriq’s grandmother?”  I was floored!  I haven’t been in Senegal for more than 10 years.  He hasn’t been there in 15 years.  He was a boy playing with my grandchildren.  I would never have recognized him and if we planned to meet in the market with all those thousands of people we couldn’t have done it!  I was wanting fresh yoghurt that day and he took me by the hand and walked me several blocks into the market showing me foods and herbs and explaining how they are used.  He found the Fulani women with fresh milk and told me how to make yoghurt.  He carried my bags and put me in a shared taxi (4 people only 50 pesowares).  It was late afternoon and lines were forming for the tro tro.  We spent 2 1/2 hours together in the market.  I am so blessed.

I have connected with the Tariqa Tijani people here in Kumasi.  That is the Sufi community I belong to that is based in Senegal.  I have been going to prayer and zhikr ( short repetitive prayers that are chanted) in the evenings.  They treat me like family and bring me home after.  There is going to be a huge gathering of Tijanis from all over the world in Senegal on 26 Feb. and several days either side, for the Mauluud (birthday of Prophet Muhammad) and the grand opening of the Masjid (Mosque).  My Shaykh ( some of you knew Shaykh Hassan Cisse) died over a year ago.  The Masjid was started by his grandfather and is finally finished.  A BIG DEAL.  I was trying to go since Zena and the girls will be there but the airfare is $610 one way.  Not a possibility.  Well, the Tariqa people here have chartered a bus, 4-5 days cross country through Mali for $220.  I AM GOING.  We leave 18 Feb.  Another adventure!  I am too excited.  I miss Fatimah and Khadijah and Zena so much.  I will see my clinic and birth center 10 years later, and all my friends and loved ones from so long ago.

So I’ve gone from having all the time in the world here, 2 more months, to having 3 more weeks in the country.  I leave Kumasi this weekend for Abura Dunkwa, Cape Coast, Elmina, and Accra, then back to Kumasi on 16 Dec to catch the bus 18 Feb.  Whooo!  I’d better get my buns in gear.

The man who recruited me for the college was just here and left.  There may be hope for the position here after all.  He is the financier and you can tell he really loves the school.  There is a serious need for midwives here especially in the rural areas.  There are also only 3 qualified midwifery instructors, or so he says.  He really wants a midwifery program.  But it is work that will be done from the states.

I have also been in contact with Al Hajji Moro Garba, a world renowned herbalist.  He has 5 offices in Ghana and Columbia University sent a team to follow him around and record everything he did and said.  I met him in Senegal when Shaykh Hassan brought him there to treat his mother.  My friend, a pediatrician brought him to Atlanta where he did some miraculous work.  I was treated by him there and most of my friends.  My mother went to see him in New York.  Amazingly, he remembers me and he is traveling to Kumasi to see me on Wed.  My cup runneth over.

Going to be on the fly and out of internet range till God knows when.  I’ll keep you all updated as best I can.  There is greater internet access where I’m going in Senegal.  Lots of little internet cafes.

Love and Peace, UmmSalaamah

Dec. 31, 2009
Peace and Blessings dear loved ones and families,

We have lived to see another century, another year and another decade. I remember when the thought of the year 2000 was too far in the future to contemplate and I needed a pencil and paper to figure out how old I would be.

May we all have a Healthy, happy, prosperous New Year.  It’s strange to be hot on New Year’s Eve.  My father had a policy that no one could leave home before midnight on New Year’s Eve.  We had to see the New Year in as a family, together.  I’m really missing my folks today, especially Fatimah and Khadijah.

The people here are really treating me well.  I told them I only take fruit in the morning so Mama Khadijah (I’m at her house in Accra) has 2 slices of watermelon waiting for me every morning along with papaya or bananas.  Other friends and relatives come by with pineapple, soursop, oranges etc.  I feel well taken care of.

Last week in Abura Dunkwa, the next door neighbor, who is a high school biology teacher, took me on a tour of the neighborhood and showed me a cocao tree and 10 other kinds of fruits growing close by.  A few were cultivated, but most were wild.  Chocolate is made from the fermented seeds of the cocao but I got to taste the ripe fruit, very interesting.

Next week, Monday the 4th, I travel to Kumasi.  Keep me in your prayers.  I made a new connection today to the American, expatriate community here.  A Sister from Atlanta who lives and works in Kumasi.  I look forward to seeing her while I’m there.  I wanted to write today ‘cause it will be at least a week before I get back to you.  Peace and Love to all.

UmmSalaamah

Jan. 12, 2010

Greetings from Ghana,

I have been out of contact for over a week.  I’m in Kumasi at a small private college on the outskirts, behind the airport a few miles.  The internet cafe in Accra was down the last 3 days I was there.  My first 4 days here I was in a small hotel away from everything.  My mac is not compatible with magicjack or the plug in cards they sell here.  I left it in Accra and I am using a borrowed one but no access in the area except lugging it up a long hill to the college where everything shuts down at 5pm and on weekends.

…..

… Late Friday, I was moved into a huge beautiful house the college just bought.  I can see the college across the road and up a long hill but I can get there on my own.  The drivers here were good about making sure I got fruit and food from the market but it was always late at closing time and they don’t get overtime.  The traffic here is awful and there are more people on the street, walking and pushing and trying to get transport home, at the main market, at 6pm than in NYC at lunchtime.

The American expatriate community is very strong and I have 3 phone numbers to call here.  I hung out yesterday, Sunday, with a young CNM from Texas/California who has been in Malawi since she graduated.  She is married to a Malawan (?) brother who is in medical school here.  We had a ball.  I am going to enjoy this 4 bedroom, 6 bath house I am the only one in, and explore the possibilities here in Kumasi for another week or so.  It’s lovely country, drier and not quite as hot as Accra.  That may because I’m not all the way in the city.  My next adventure will be trying to get around on the “tro tro” the van-taxis that most of the locals take.  Even though most people speak some English, they don’t understand my accent and I have trouble with theirs, but I’ve learned to say the names of the junctions or places I want to go with the proper inflections, I hope.

Love to all, UmmSalaamah

Dec. 28, 2009

Peace and Blessings to Friends and Loved Ones,

I greet you from Ghana, West Africa.  I am very excited to be here, in the Motherland, enjoying the heat and fruits and the friendly, helpful people.

I arrived 11 Dec. It does not feel like I’ve been here 17 days already!  I came full of snot and exhausted.  I slept on and off for most of the 1st week.  Last week I traveled to visit an ICTC sister midwife at Abura Dunkwah Regional Hospital, in the Central Region, about 25 miles from Cape Coast.  I rode the State Transport Bus.  It was clean and cheap.  But if you don’t want to touch people, don’t go to Africa!  It was a pleasant 3 hour trip with air conditioning and a Nigerian movie.  The bus driver, however, told my friend Agatha (we both had cell phones) that we would be there in 2 hours, so she was waiting for me at the junction for over an hour questioning each bus that came along.

We had a wonderful time, talking midwifery into the night on the 1st night.  The next day we went to her hospital and I was well received by the administrator, the medical director who is also the ob/gyn, the director of nursing, the head midwife on the labour ward and everyone else I met.  They took time out to have a short meeting with me even though the Year End (Xmas) Party was about to begin.  My 1st mission on this trip is to identify sites where ICTC members and others can get NARM approved, clinical experience, including prenatals, births, both as primary and assist, newborn exams and post partums.

The authorities and the staff were very interested.  They say they are looking for this type of collaboration.  I left them an information packet and they asked me to return in January to meet with the full staff, get my questions answered and answer whatever questions they have for me.

I attended a birth as an observer, got a full tour of the facilities, including the Out Patient Dept where  I talked with a Cuban Pediatrician, the women’s ward, children’s area, pharmacy, lab, mortuary, adolescent clinic, kitchen, operating theatre, and I went to the party.  There was a dance contest, food, soft drinks and beer, speeches and prizes for the most helpful and caring employees of the year.  The head midwife on the labour ward won 1st prize, the lab guy 2nd prize and the young man who cuts the grass won 3rd.  Each employee received a live chicken, a bag of rice and a bottle of oil as their gift.  A good time was had by all, especially me.

This is a very small town with no internet access.  The district hospital is quite large and accepts patients from a large catchment area.  They do from 90-150 births a month, perform their own C-Sections, and only transfer a patient in the rare instance when their OB/Medical Director is away at a meeting or on vacation.

I took lots of pictures but I’m not very computer savvy.  I guess you may have to see them when I return.  Next week, after New Year’s, I go to Kumasi, in the North, to visit a small private college that has a nursing program and has been trying to start a midwifery program but their application was denied.  I haven’t been able to get the particulars on exactly why.  They need at least one experienced “lecturer” with a Masters and “evaluation tools”.  I’ll know better after my visit when I’ll get a copy of the denial letter.

Love You, UmmSalaamah