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..

Friday, November 23, 2007

The acclimatization we have is unbelievable !!!..

Hello friends, I didn’t write for long time, the computer didn’t work and it took me a lot of time to fix it .. as well as I was really busy with my exams, and homework, you know most of our teachers don’t explain the lesson well, & I have to depend on myself, and study really hard.
My mom was really sick, and I was also busy cleaning and organizing the house, thank god she’s feeling better now..

In this month a lot for things happened, and I have a lot to talk about, I have good news as well (YES GOOD NEWS).
The situation in Baghdad is much better than before, my grandparents were able to visit our relatives in a far away neighborhood, the municipality’s cars came and cleaned my grandparents’ neighborhood, they removed tons of dirt, they also put flowers and grass!!! That’s great , although it is still not perfect in many neighborhoods there ..
There is a huge improvement in the situation in Ramadi.
The situation in mosul is HORRIBLE, now it is the most dangerous city in Iraq, (4 explosions happened while I am writing this post) !!! and yesterday I saw two police cars completely burned ..
Let’s start from my news 4 weeks ago, till today ..
Week No. 1
On Saturday, there was a lot of shooting, and I had to study for my biology exam in the corridor near the stairs! (I did really good btw, and took one of the highest marks in the class).
Two days later, I was studying mathematics when a mine exploded, my room was full of dust and I ran to avoid the bullets, a big shrapnel fell in our garden (it’s size is twice the palm’s), it could kill any one, a window was broken, at that time my grandpa and dad were fixing the windows and handles because of a previous explosion happened in the morning. After the explosion there was heavy shooting, 30 minutes later i went to my room, to study for my math exam, after about 5 minutes I heard sound of shouting coming from my neighbor’s house, I said “ oh no, someone was injured” I ran and looked from the window and saw national guards in my neighbor’s garden kicking their doors to enter their house, they were nervous (no doubt after what happened to them). The neighborhood was inspected and MANY men were arrested, they are innocent neighbors, and have been living in this neighborhood for 30 or 40 years .. beside their houses has been damaged because all of these explosions ..
many mines were put in the street in front of our house and I had to change my way to school to another longer one to avoid them. I seriously thought of moving to another school but then I changed my mind and decided to stay..
Week No. 2
I had a lot of exams, and a lot of homework, and had to stay up late to study (alone in my room which’s far from my parents’ room, we didn’t have electricity, and I used the rechargeable torches, and my headlight, very romantic)..
Our biology teacher examined us a monthly exam without telling us, she simply forgot to declare!!!, She came to the class, stood for awhile and forgot what she wanted to say, many girls took 60% or 70% but luckily I took 89% !! my mistake was in the Latin terminologies .. (the other schools don’t study them but we have to do so) .
Snipers settled my neighbor’s house which is directly behind our house, and face my room ... I went back to sleep in my sister’s room, she’s nice and allowed me to stay, but she complains every night about that, I know she doesn’t like to share a room with a teenager .. but you know what, the mines became much less than before, the sniper killed a terrorist behind the house while he was implanting a mine.. after a week the sniper left, and the situation became worse, and mines were put everywhere in the neighborhood ..
On Thursday I was invited to a FAAAAAR relative’s birthday, I talk to her on phone but I’d never seen her, she lives 2 streets away (verrrrry close),
As my school is very far, I reached home late, the party starts at 2 pm !!! and I reached at 2:15 pm, after my sister and I got ready we reached the party , but it was over!!!!!!!! We had lunch there, then took pics in the garden, while we were doing that, the police came, and arrested allllllllllllllllll the guys who were in the street walking, or shopping or even riding their bicycles !! the girls stood near the fence watching, but I went inside the house, it wasn’t wise to stay out as the policemen might be attacked ..
On Saturday we were invited to a relative’s engagement party, we spent a long time in the car trying to find an open road leads to his house! I had a great time, Yahya (the groom) is a very dear person to my heart and I admire him a lot, His fiancée lives 3 houses away !!! so when all the relatives reached his house, we went walking cheering, and throwing candies in the air till we reached, it was a great party ..
Yahya’s wedding will be on 6/12 .. I can’t wait ..
Week No. 3
It was Tuesday night, when suddenly I had sense of optimism, I don’t know why!!! But I felt that the situation will get better!! in that day grandma phoned and said the situation is much better in Baghdad. And kept talking about the improvements, I just felt that it’ll happen to us in mosul too, because the capital of Iraq is witnessing progress.
On Wednesday morning, in my way to school, my friends were studying, but I was thinking of the old restaurants we used to go to in Baghdad, I spent the most beautiful days there, I miss those days a lot, and I was thinking of the situation in mosul in general, from where the re-building will start.
The governor promised by next January there will be no more car bombs, and the police manager and a leader of one of the national Iraqi troops promised to defeat all the terrorists (he’s a great man, I’ve seen most of his speeches and I support him a lot.
In our way back home, after school, the girls and I started discussing matters about the party we were planning to have on the next day at school, what food to bring and what to wear, and in my way home I was talking with my friend who’s 2 years younger than me about the party, music, etc .. it was 2:00 pm I was tired BUT extremely happy, the driver suddenly asked us not to look at the right side, before he finish his sentence I saw murdered man thrown in the middle of the street, with A lot of blood round him..
I came home with my face red and trying to hold my tears.. in the next day I was feeling better, and I got through that.. the party was good, but many girl couldn’t attend ..

Week No. 4
I went to al jameay street, my favorite place in mosul, and for the first time it was kind of crowded, it brought back good memories, about al Rubaee street in Baghdad , my favorite part there.. were there were a lot of shops, restaurants, and nice children city named “ Al Rayhana” .. I do have hope that those days will come back..
On Saturday we went to the market, we were shopping when a police car was attacked in front of the shop and shooting started, people were running to hide in a safe place, after awhile everything calmed down, and everyone started to do shopping again, just like nothing happened.. the acclimatization we have is unbelievable !!!..
On Wednesday I was sick and couldn’t go to school, I had to postponed the French exam to Sunday..
Oh, the most important thing I want to tell you about is, two days ago, there was on TV the leader of one of the national Iraqi troops in mosul , he caught many terrorists , he took them to different places in mosul and he asked the people to gather in one place to talk to them, the terrorists stood in a line, and he started to investigate with them in the street so that everyone knows about the horrible things they’ve done, he kept shouting at them and insulting them!!, then he walked in the street pushing them and letting every citizen see those terrorists who killed tens if not hundreds of people.
As they say the darkest part of the night comes just before sunrise, and now we reached the darkest point as I believe..
Sunshine..

Btw, I’ll reply your E-mails as soon as I have time, I have TENS on E-mails need to be replied ..