And 10 seconds later

half a minute

a minute and 10 seconds

That is what I have been doing since wed. That and staring at the world going crazy on TV. Twitter is going to be the death of me! Literally over 100 new Jeddah Rain tweets every 2 minutes. I have the laptop on my lap, the TV on Alarabiya and my BB pinging every couple of minutes. This is not healthy. The true stories and images of the destruction is killing me. The lies are making me so angry. The people who have chosen this opportunity to incite hatred and try to hit us when we are down make me sick to my stomach but the truth comes out in the end inevitably. This is not us… We are better than this! We know when things are wrong and will not stand for it but we will not allow outsiders to instigate chaos.

When my eyes are burning and my head throbbing from the glare of these machines I leave them and start pacing my living room to get the feeling back in my legs. I walk outside to get fresh air and talk to my friends and family in Jeddah I regain hope. For every story of destruction and pain that makes me cry I hear a story of heroism and selflessness that makes me proud. I hear of the thousands that volunteered today and are helping in any way they can. I hear of the love people have to each other and their country that is the reason for all the anger they feel.

I feel like these two days are how epic stories start. This is the beginning of something.

If you are in Jeddah and want to help you can volunteer by physically helping the clean up. If you can’t, don’t send money, but send food, medicines and other aid. They dont need money, no one has time or the means of transportation to go buy things. They need the things to be brought to them. There are also many ways to help from other areas in Saudi. People from Riyadh got in a car and drove to Jeddah to help and have been there since early hours thursday morning. Some are getting together money and buying things to send to Jeddah. The least you can do is pray for all to be safe and for this crisis to pass and the underlying problem to be solved.

The place to send or take the aid to is Al-Harthi Center in Jeddah. Again, please do not send money, they need food supplies and medication. If you search for JeddahHelp on twitter there will be updated lists of what they need now.