Days of My Life

Talk about daily life of a teenage girl in Iraq, and days of suffering and success. My nick name will be Sunshine..

Thursday, March 08, 2007

At least we are alive !...

School started on Sunday 4/3
I got my marks, my family was very much pleased, but I wasn't happy and my eyes filled with tears , I don't like to take less than 95% in English.. I was really worried about my physic's mark I took 83% one of the highest marks!!!!!
I got 90% in chemistry, 100% in religion, 95% in history , 94% in geography , 91% in biology, , I got 96% in math (I felt upset too, I had 100%) , I got 85% in Arabic the teacher said "very good, Arabic is really difficult , in French I got 90% , the funniest thing is I got 82% in Art ,hahahahahah , we didn't attend any art lesson.
we didn't attend any Art , sport, Kurdish lessons, the teachers don't give them any attention although they are useful!
I heard a shocking news , the poor widow who used to clean my class was killed, I feel really sorry for her children, they lost there parents, the cleaner before her was also killed.
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I didn't have internet services in the first few days of the holiday , I felt really bothered , the company sent us the engineer 3 times , and finally he fixed the internet connection.
I read 2 books , "Country comes up , country comes down" I read that book about 10 times , it is written in Arabic , it is gorgeous, I also read " 25 natural ways to manage stress and avoid burnout " written by James Scala, , I also finished a book I was reading " family first " written by Dr. Phil , I started to read " 1000 French sentence mostly use" but I didn't finish it yet.
I read my 700 E-mails and answered most of them.
My dad had to do some work in a village near Mosul , called Bahsheeka, grandpa , mama , Miriam , Yosif, and I went with him, we stayed in my grandpa friend's house ( the Kurdish man who took grandpa to a hospital in Dhook) , we had the best time ever , they have a nice farm , the farmers where working in the farm , it was fun to watch.
They are very friendly, and there traditions is to take off your shoes , before you enter the house, there house was clean, Bahsheeka is a nice village , and safe too , I didn't hear any explosion nor shooting , it was great , they brought us breakfast ,although we had breakfast in our house before, but they insist to join them , their mother brought hot bread she baked early in the morning ,tea , milk , cream , clotted cream, yogurt , and eggs .. grandpa suggested to go to an ancient Der near Bahsheeka, it was gorgeous .. we visited the cave first , then the church , it is name is Der Mar Mattie , and what a fantastic surprise , when we saw scouts there , playing music , then we went inside the church, we visited the monks' cists , and chaplains' and read their stories , I saw a monk , I went and asked him the story behind the Der , we talked for a while he told me the history and the story of monk Mattie.






We took many pictures , and returned to the house , we had lunch then the electricity came at 4:30 , I was working on the computer and heavy shooting started , mortars fall on the neighborhood, this lasted for an hour, 3 mortars fall in the street , 2 in the street behind our house , and one in front of it.
The situation in the next day wasn't better , we woke up early , I organized the house , grandma cooked , at about 1 pm , my parents' uncle , his wife and his daughter arrived from Baghdad, we had lunch , then my parents' cousin left, but her parents stayed in our house, we had so much fun , at 3 pm , they visited Najma's uncle who had a surgery, then their grandson came to our house , it was very emotional meeting.
In the next day , mama and I cleaned the house , and windows (ALL OF THEM) the house looked perfect, the guests very much liked our cleaning.
Uncle didn't see grandpa for 4 years , because of the war.
It was a gorgeous shining noon time, we were laughing , and having a great time , although there was shooting every now and then , but it is something usual.
At 1pm , mama and I were in the garden, Mariam was in the back yard garden, Yosif was running he wanted to go to the garden shoeless ,but our uncle catch him in the corridor , Dad ran upstairs to bring Yosif's shoes , grandma was behind the house bringing fuel , uncle's wife was in the living room.
BOOOM , heavy explosion (a fuel tank full with explosives exploded near my house) , my ears were closed !2 seconds later BOOOM again, mama ran and shouted "Mariam" , I was panicked , there was thick smoke everywhere , I shouted while I was running I wanted to reach Miriam :" something fall on our house", " mariam , where are you " I stopped for a while to have a look, the windows were broken , and the glass was falling down on me , I started to cry and shouting "Mariam" , I turned and saw black smoke and blaze I realized that the explosion wasn't inside the house , I entered the house , everyone was alive !!!!! a true miracle.
The door was broken, the door after was broken into two halves , they fall on my uncle and Yosif , the bluster throw Yosif inside the closet, there was blood on aunt face , a shrapnel injured her above the eye-brow , the living room was full of windows' glass , and slivers of wood, there was smoke and gunpowder everywhere , mama asked me to bring her the mobile phone , I went upstairs and found the secondary ceiling down!
We lost all of the windows , even their hooks and handles , the air-cooler , air-conditioner , 2 wooden doors, the ferric doors were twisted , glass entered the couches , walls , mirrors, carpets , closets , clothes , beds , blankets , it was in everywhere , my mobile was thrown away , some of the curtains were disrupted, as well as many things.
It was a very loud explosion , it was heard in all Mosul, people called us from the other side of Mosul , they said " our wooden door was opened" my relatives who lives in nearby neighborhood, lost their windows ,and their TV. Was thrown out of it's table !!! relatives lives three or four neighborhoods away from ours lost some windows too!!!
Who see my house at that time can't believe that we are alive , when dad saw us alive he started to cry.
I was worried to death before I see my family members , I was afraid that they might be injured . I can't thank God enough , mama bought two muttons and allocated the meet among paupers and orphans( that's how we thank Allah (god))
We kept cleaning and removing the debris and glass for 3 days , in the first day , we kept hearing glass sweeping in the whole neighborhood, we slept without windows nor doors, I couldn't sleep because I was terrified , we slept in one room , in the next day , the smith , and large No. of workers came to fix the house and to put new windows , and of course we kept cleaning and cleaning , the carpenter couldn't come.. we kept hearing the sound of the hammers all day long.
Our relatives came and helped us for two days , because it was impossible to do all of the work alone. We didn't know from where we should start.
The neighbors brought servants, but we didn't , we wanted to do the work in our way , we finished in 3 days only, but the neighbors didn't finish until now!
Our house is made of bricks , cement , and iron that's why it didn't fell down , nor damaged completely.
Many glass entered my hands and my mom's while we were working , but we are alive that is the most important thing.
Thank god , grandpa wasn't at home , he was in the other side of the city , he take Warfarin tablets, because he recently had a CVA , and this medicine cause bleeding.
I was so tired , I wake up early in the morning and work ALL DAY LONG, without sleeping enough , nor eating well , I lost 6 pounds.
85 innocents were injured, and more than 25 died
May god protect us all
Sunshine ..


Now , it is your questions time:
A question from Mary and Cassidy:-
I'd like to know more about your faith. Can you share some of your beliefs and traditions with us? What inspires you?
well , sure I believe in God , and try to do the good things always, I believe that people should help each other , be kind to everyone even people who harmed us (be merciful with people in the earth , god be merciful to you..) shouldn't lie , shouldn't cheat, nor kill in the name of a religion , we should be peaceful, appreciate our life , don't hurt anyone by act nor words , those are some of the things that my religion say , as well as the other religions.
What inspires me to do good thing all the time , is that god is always there with us , watching us , and a great example for that is when this explosion happened he protected us.
About our traditions , can you specify ? wedding traditions ? or what?
For more questions , you can e-mail me on livesstrong92@yahoo.com
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This is a great article my friend Wayne sent me it touched my heart, and I would like to share it with you..
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BTW , I took pictures and videos I will publish them later , as soon as I learn how to publish videos ( one of them is about 8 MB) and have electricity and internet services..