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| Our apartments seen from our neighborhood – Barrio Fatima. |
Our apartments are on a large piece of property with a river on one side and some large property with no house visible on a second side. But the other two sides have houses as part of our Barrio (Spanish for neighborhood) called Fatima. This intrigues me because in West Africa the Mandinka usually named their first daughter Fatima. Their use is from the Arabic meaning “captivating” or “the shining one” and the name of the prophet Muhammad’s favorite daughter, Fatima Zahra.
One Catholic website says that daughter of Muhammad, Fatima, converted to Christianity and that the Virgin Mary made an appearance in Fatima, Portugal, named after Muhammad’s daughter. Interesting! I think I will take “the shining one” until I learn the story of the neighborhood’s name.
When I tell people in town where I live, many will say, “Oh yes, the large yellow apartments on the hill.” Shining light? The building is just 2 1/2 years old.