Excellent Eid (part 1)

On Saturday 15/12 we went to Baghdad , we heard from people that the road now is better and safer .
We left mosul at 8:00 am and arrived Baghdad at 6:05 pm!!!!!!!!!! Can you imagine the delay?!! We usually reach Baghdad in 3 hours and half, or 4 hours if we stop in the restaurant !!! but because of the so many troops we reached Baghdad after 10 house! Thank god we didn’t sleep in the street, when the US vehicles drive we have to stop aside, or drive 100 meters away, slowly with the lights on, if we drive nearby they point with lazer on our car or shoot !..
We were about 5 minutes away from Baiji when someone’s car stopped working so our driver spent an hour trying to fix it, but he couldn’t, in that car there were 3 guys and a girl in the first year of collage, the girl came with us, first she was shy and didn’t say a word, but we invited her to have lunch with us, and I introduced myself, we soon became friends, and spent the time talking and joking. . she’s studying mechanical engineering in mosul ..
We had our breakfast, lunch , and even dinner in the car, we drove in unpaved roads for long time, my sister was feeling nausea, and my brother started to cry, I gave him my cell phone ,he spent some time playing games.. my dad was extremely angry, dust was in everywhere, and the dark fall ..
When we arrived Baghdad, I could barely walk !! because of the small space and long time sitting , we had supper my grandma made her famous chicken and red rice (it is like a tradition in my family, when we go to Baghdad our first lunch should be chicken and red rice with soup and salad, and when we come to mosul my grandma make delicious okra and rice)
At 10 am I went to bed, the weather in Baghdad is cool, I didn’t freeze at night, and they also can close the windows because they don’t have explosions. .
On Sunday we went to nearby shops, in the evening my mom’s aunt and uncle came with their families, I spent Monday and Tuesday cleaning and organizing the house, & preparing the house for Eid, because grandma had pain in her back and couldn’t do the housework, we also made tons of klecha (Iraqi dessert), we gave a lot of Klecha for our friends and neighbors as well, on Monday our neighbor brought Biriani (Iraqi dish has rice, currants, almond, onion, meat, potatoes, and other stuff ), she always make Biriani for us when we go to Baghdad.. what a lovely woman, everyday in the morning she kindle candles, and spend an hour praying for god to protect her children and protect us .. and in such dangerous times she used to go to church and pray for my mom when she was sick..
The First day of Eid was on Wednesday, we had a family meeting in our eldest uncle’s house, we were only 21 people !!! the other relatives left Iraq, or left Baghdad, so we spent the first hour talking to them by phone .. after that we talked about different things (not policy, thank god), and we had really good time, after we had lunch and delicious Iraqi tea with Klecha, we went to my mom aunt’s house, to pass on good wishes to her husband because he couldn’t attend the family meeting (he was sick), at 6:30 we came home, then an Armenian neighbors visited us ..

One of the things that made me happy, is the streets in Baghdad were clean, and in the road junctions there were beautiful gardens with roses and some of them had fountains..
it’s strange, how people in Baghdad slept on one day feeling afraid from the unknown future, and had no idea what’s happening, then in the next day suddenly the killing stopped, the situation calmed down, and the sun shone after long time of darkness, no one knows how nor why .. is it a Truce? or it is a bargain?!!!.
Many shops were destroyed , we saw the shop owners cleaning their shops and fixing them. I felt happy to see how they were re-building their shops and I am looking for the day we’ll re-build Iraq.
In the second day we had lunch in my grandma aunt’s house (yes she’s alive, but really old woman), her grandson has a tortoise, it was the first time I see a tortoise and hold it, I had really good time there. And in that evening we had dinner in my mom uncle’s house, we spent a lovely evening, the last time I saw my mom’s cousin was when she gave birth her son and now he’s 2 years old!! We came home at 9:30 pm ..
In the third day we didn’t go out, but we received guests , our neighbors came to congratulate us, they are very kind and good Shiites neighbors ,the Father “A” is an engineer, the conversation interested me a lot, “A” talked about how silly is the differences between the first day of Eid for Sunnis and Shiites (for the Sunnis the first day was on Wednesday, for he Shiites who follow al Sadir the first day was on Thursday, and for the Shiites who follow al Sestani the first day of Eid was on Friday), it’s wrong and ridiculous , because it depends on the moon, everyone knows the first day should be on Wednesday, “A” said “ the religion should gather us, not separate us, if the religion separate it’s people, then I don’t want to belong to any, but I am sure this thing is made by the government , they want to see the Iraqis separated, but anyway it’s not going to happen” I loved what he said and wrote it at once.. well I celebrated Eid for 8 days, with the Sunnis, Shiites , and Christians.
Later at that day our friends visited us as well as my mom’s uncle , they stayed for dinner , I spent the best time ever, but I had to wash a lot of dishes..

To be continued ….
Sunshine

NOTE: I have a lot to talk about , and I also have some pics .. so keep waiting and I’ll write whenever I have time ..