Hala Al-Khatib - Beirut

“People think that whoever studies medicine becomes his heart hard,” Dr. Zeinab Ammar told Al-Jazeera Net as she tells us how Ramadan passes this year in light of the Corona crisis, adding that whenever she comes back from the night shift in the hospital, she embraces, smells, and cries.

Zainab is a doctor in the years of specialization in family medicine and her husband is an internal pathologist, a volunteer in the Corona Unit, both of whom work at the Rafic Hariri Governmental Hospital, and they have an eight-month-old child.

Difficult decision to volunteer

By virtue of specialization, Zainab begins her work at seven thirty in the morning until four in the afternoon, and in the second day from seven in the morning until the afternoon of the next day what is called the duty or (duty), to return to a normal day and so on, which requires her to leave her child with her mother when she sleeps in the hospital.

Zeinab met her husband, Dr. Wael Zarkat, while studying at the university, and they got married two years ago, and although their time is very stressful, they cooperated to face the difficult circumstances.

Her husband Wael decided to volunteer in the Corona Unit, and Zainab says that had it not been for the child, she would have also volunteered, but "there are many doctors, and my child has one mother," which led her to retreat.

Wael's decision was difficult to make, but he was very impulsive, as she says, and she says that his eyes teared while carrying his child to bid him farewell, but she refused to remain with her family and leave her husband to create the required social dimension, and instead they found a mechanism to keep the family together by devoting the necessary prevention and protection methods.

In her family’s house, there is a separate room with a bathroom that she and Wael use for dressing and bathing, before entering the house to bring their son Jaafar. She says that the child meets her with his smiles and applause when he sees her coming, and she sometimes has to let him cry when she cries and stays up all night thinking about it until the next day.

Three days a week

She adds that three days a week “In Ramadan, the month of mercy and family gathering, I break my fast in the hospital and my first prayers are for the family to come back and meet.” In these three days her child sleeps away from her, and when she sees her she is usually at the top of fatigue, which depletes her and touches her feelings as she says She adds that she is making a great effort to cover her absence.

And she says that the pressure at work became doubled after Corona, as the number of the team did not increase, but rather he worked for two hospitals, the Corona Unit, which became a full miniature hospital and a Hariri hospital.

Zainab embraces her child Jaafar, who was absent from him three nights in Ramadan because of her night shift (Al-Jazeera)

Prepare breakfast

There is no housekeeping employee who helps Zainab at home, and she says that her husband sometimes helps her, and she appreciates her fatigue, so he helps arrange the place after eating when the child enters sleep, and always asks her if she needs any help, but she tries as much as possible to manage her affairs because he is tired so much Especially in the Corona period.

She adds that in Ramadan she returns at two o'clock from the hospital on normal days, and arrives at her family’s house to take her son and spend a little time with him, returns to the house and begins preparing breakfast, and says that time until now is still acceptable.

Fattoush, soup and peel of potatoes are prepared daily, usually they are prepared for the main course a day before, meat is lowered from the fridge to the fridge and some ready-made foods such as kibbeh are prepared, and cooking begins at four, and when the time for breakfast comes, you only need to heat the food in order not to be late, especially with the presence of a child who may It requires attention at any time to eat, sleep or any other surprises.

Sometimes she has to cut vegetables for fetish a day before, while while preparing fast food such as hamburgers, Tawook and others, she will bring it at six, (about an hour and a half before breakfast), and her child usually sleeps from six to seven, and this gives her time and calm.

As for Suhoor, she does not wake up to eat it, neither she nor her husband this year, as she says she needs any time to sleep, especially since the child may wake up at any hour, and while working in the hospital, she only sleeps at night for two hours, "so we need to sleep a lot." 

Jafar, who is eight months old, who is being cared for by his grandmother during the work of his mother (Al-Jazeera).

Worship and adornment

Zainab says that prayer is sacred, and no matter how much work is done, she is keen to never miss it, but reading the Qur’an and other acts of worship is according to the available time. Sometimes you read a number of verses while waiting for the nurses while they finish preparing something.

She says that previously, while working in a hospital, she was not always pressured, so she finished reading the Qur’an during Ramadan during her spare time at work.

On some days, she recites prayers on her child's hearing, who also hears the songs and songs of Ramadan, such as Ramadan, which was manifested and smiled, and raised Al Bairaq and other new Ramadan songs dedicated to children.

Despite the difficult working conditions, Zainab decorated her home with lanterns, but not as last year as you remember, and says that Ramadan this year is free of breakfast invitations, which reduces the practice of beautiful Ramadan customs. There are no meetings for family and friends.

From behind the glass

Despite their efforts, the permanence of Zainab and her husband is rarely proportional and they try not to miss each other as much, and as far as possible, to obtain a joint day off.

Many times they do not meet, and their working hours are contradictory, even though they work in the same hospital, but they do not meet, because mixing is prohibited with employees of the Corona Unit.

Once they did not meet for days due to the pressure of work, so he spoke to her on the phone and asked her about her geographical location in the hospital, and they came near to the same floor until they met from behind the glass, where he was in a room inside while she was on the balcony, to watch each other closely.