http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/libyan-woman-nixa-watches-and-waits-for-gadhafi-surrender_19711.mp3
Hala Giryani is a native of Libya living in Nixa, Missouri. Her mother and cousins are still in the north African country, where rebels stormed the compound of their decades-long dictator, Moammar Gadhafi in what appears to be the final throes of revolution. KSMU's Jennifer Moore checked in with Giryani again Wednesday.
She said she spoke to her mother on Monday, and everything was different.
“We were crying. And for the first time, I didn’t care about crying over the phone with my mom. Normally, you try to sound happy, and that everything is going well. And this time, I was crying, she was crying…and it was the good kind of crying. I think we were exulted by our tears, knowing that a huge weight was lifted from our shoulders,” Giriyani said.
Like others around the world, Giriyani has been watching video of rebels storming Gadhafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound. Still, Gadhafi’s whereabouts are unknown.
“We are close. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
She said she hopes wherever Gadhafi is, he is somehow inspired by the holy month of Ramadan, and spares lives by surrendering. Ramadan is a 30-day period on the Islamic calendar during which Muslims abstain from all food and water from sunrise to sunset.
“Right now, we’re happy for the Libyan people, and that includes us,” she said. A dream that has been without reach for over 40 years is finally coming true, she added.
When asked whether she will return to Libya, given the recent events, she said she doesn’t know. She acknowledges that leaving her current lifestyle would be difficult.
“We have set roots here, on this glorious land. And we have made a family here—a surrogate family, but nevertheless, a family. We have made a lifestyle that would be very hard to leave behind,” she said.
“Our future is as blurred as that of Libya right now,” she said.