RAS GHARIB: Usama, a young teacher, died after he lost his way in the expansive desert. It was a place which offered him hope of finding a paid job as a miner, having been told to move to Ras Gharib, where the mines harbored a wealth for young graduates.
But regrettably what that desert harbored for Usama was no more than mirage, death and heartrending grief for his family.
Two weeks after Usama set out for Ras Gharib, his family anxiously waited to hear news from him.
His brother Mohamed reported him missing at the Ras Gharib police station, which a few day later called back to tell him that his brother Usama had been found dead in the middle of the desert.
At the Ras Gharib hospital, his family was told that Usama had died of thirst and starvation.
Al-Masry Al-Youm, which reported Usama’s tragedy early this week, said that the young Port Said-based teacher, who finished his studies in 2000, had continued to look for a teaching job for the past few years.
Finally he got one at a school, earning a salary of LE 170, of which he paid LE 160 for transport.
Because he was left with only LE 10 a month to live on, he decided to look for a better job to please his father who had pinned hope on Usama and his two brothers.
Their mother dies when the children were young. When this happened, their father pledged that he would invest in the education of his three boys.
Because they lived on their father’s limited income, the boys used to work during the summer vacations to cover their school fees.
Usama and his brother Mohamed joined the Faculty of Education, Suez Canal University and when Usama graduated he thought this was the end of all hardships and the beginning of a bright future.
He didn’t know that a new struggle lay ahead of him. He spent a good few years combing the country in search of a teaching job, but to no avail.
Watching his brother’s situation unfold, Mohamed began to worry and feared a similar destiny was in store for him.
Following a search that continued for four years, Usama had to ask for the help of his teachers, who managed to get him a job in a school located 30 km away from his home.
When he was left with just LE 10 month, he kept looking for a worthwhile job. Finally Usama told his brother that he would travel to Ras Gharib to work at one of the mines, at a salary of LE 600.
Apparently the young teacher must have heard bits and pieces of news about work at the mines so wasn’t certain about what the situation was like exactly.
In a moment of desperation, he took a cab and headed off.
Asking the cab driver about the location of the mines, he was told that they were behind a mountain chain.
Obviously Usama had been misinformed. After the cab left, he kept walking towards some mountains and when he failed to find anything, he decided to go back.
But the trip back was not as easy. The poor young man had lost his way in the desert.
Usama had died twice over: first when he was stripped of all hope and another time as met his actual fate which was no less symbolic, as on the desert sands his aspirations had been dashed into a mirage and turned into a void with no end.
