Goat Days - Benyamin

Fiction

Read it

This was a recommendation from I can't remember where. Well well worth the money and read. 

Goat Days follows a Muslim Keralite, Najeeb, in his journey to the middle east to raise money for his family and the chaos that ensued from there. He finds himself without contacts when he lands and is picked up by an "Arbab" or boss, who wasn't actually supposed to pick him up, but takes advantage of ignorance. Najeeb finds himself in the midst of a desert on a goat farm. His life is quickly subsumed into taking care of goats. Feeding, watering, herding, etc. His horror at the hygiene of his fellow worker and the Arbab fade as he too becomes one with the goats. He eventually attempts and escape and almost dies as they trek through the desert. Najeeb submits himself to the police and spends some time in jail. His Arbab does come to claim him one day, but is not able to as he doesn't have proper papers and Najeeb is sent back home.

This book was a very interesting book (said to be based on a true story) on the plight of some Malayalis who travel to the middle east to work and earn money for families back home. As with any other vulnerable population, there are plenty who are subjected to exploitation of every sort. It's painful to watch Najeeb struggle because he comes across as so child like. His innocence is never completely dissolved and he never really grasps how he came to be in the situation he found himself it. Rasising money to support a wife and child he hasn't met cause him to go into debt just to get to the middle east. Of course the channels he goes through are slightly suspect so there's a trust about what will be waiting for him on the other end. 

Beyond Malayalis who go to the middle east for work, it makes you considere the difficulties of other economically vulnerable populations who are just trying to make it but get exploited at every turn. As in Goat Days, some never make it back and die in places they will never be found.

Read it.

~Becky~