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..

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The tires passed over the hill !!??!!


The last couple of weeks were great, we were invited to 3 Nishan parties and wedding party, as well as my best friend Y visited me, I didn’t see her for about a year, and we had a great time together, we've been friends for long time, I know her since I was one years old!!
the best event was Najma's nishan party and seeing the old friends, it was the best party ever, when I saw Najma walking with Bookish wearing her classy and gorgeous dress I got emotional and my eyes filled with tears of happiness, I look forward to see her in her wedding dress.
The other awesome event in this week was going to Arbil (or as it is called Hawlair), my family and I went with 40 relatives (my dad's uncle with his wife's big family), we had amazing time together..
we prepared lots of food (Iraqis eat a lot during picnics) we made pop corns, chips, candies, sandwiches, choorak, Erooq, pizza, and sooo many other dishes. it was decided that all relatives who live in our side of the city should gather at 6 am in our house, and we went to pick up the rest of relatives..
My relative and friend (B), bought drums, so we spent the whole way singing, and the guys said amazing poems, I was surprised to see such a wonderful talents !!
We were 9 teenager girls, and 9 guys.. and the rest of the group were kids and adults .
There were so many check points, each time, they used to check our identities, and bags, search our pockets, and they even took pics for us !!
Near Arbil, suddenly, we heard sound of crack and the bus slanting, the bus was full of smoke and dust, the driver was excellent and he controlled the situation and everyone remained calm till the bus stopped and that was the best thing to do, pray and be quiet...
Couple of cars stopped and men started to run toward us, I didn't know what was happening as I was busy singing and everything happened quickly and suddenly !! but the men near the windows saw the whole thing, two tires in the behinds were separated. One of the Kurdish men who ran towards us said " I saw one of the tires flying 10 meters in the air, you are lucky because the bus didn't turn over"
Uncle A said that he saw the tire rolling, and he added " it passed the hill and I think it is in the other side of the hill" I laughed because I thought it is impossible that a tire passes the hill and doesn't stop for at least 50 meters, the distance was huge, and we didn’t drive fast, but it was true !!! I took some pics !! the tires rolled for 100 metes and climbed a hill !!!
There was no way to fix the bus , so the driver called his company and they said within an hour and half a buss will come and we'll continue the one-day picnic !
We are so lucky because we weren't driving in a mountain, and the behind tires separated and not the front ones, otherwise we wouldn't be alive !.
What should we do during this time ?? I had a speaker and mp4 , the guys started to dance dabka in the street !!!
And we the girls, made a party and danced inside the broken bus!! Iraqis have amazing ability to make every reason to celebrate.
Then we played Bingo till the new bus came..

We went straight to shaklawa, but we found it neglected and dirty, it was a waste of time only, so we went back to Arbil , to the playing city ..
What a wonderful, free, and amazing time we had , I was the leader of the group although I didn't visit it before and I don't know the place, but we felt it will be better if someone leads the group, so the girls chose me. We were 9 girls age 13-27 years old. The guys went alone because they wanted to play "dangerous games!" , and our parents took the kids to the children's games.
For the first time since so long, I walked in a place feeling free, knowing that there will not be any shooting or kidnapping, it was awesome.
We played a game called " the serpentine", and a water game, and at the end of the game we were completely wet .
Then we played the "car crash", and " crazy dance" twice, it is the best game I've ever played in my life ..
The best thing in crazy dance is a singer was sitting in front of my seat, when he knew that we were Arabs, he sang Arabic song, we sang and clapped with him, it was a great time, we didn't sense this happiness since so long.
I find the Kurds very nice and good people, I hate their government and ours, but I respect the citizens, their cultures, and the way they dress.
Everyone was nice in arbil and I found a difference between the kurds in arbil and dhook (in my opinion)
For example, in Dhook some of the sellers in the malls who understand and speak Arabic refuse to answer us or even take a look, but in arbil, I asked about the price of a nail colorings, the seller didn't understand Arabic, she left and after awhile she brought a man from a nearby shop to translate, I felt shy and I bought two !! and the same thing happened in different places, when someone didn't speak Arabic he/she would send for someone else to help us, no one turned his back and left without understanding our question or request....
The funniest thing, I was in the WC, and I heard a woman shouting something in Kurdish, she was opening the door to the opposite direction and she thought that she was trapped and started to scream and call for help in Kurdish, my relatives and I hurried towards her, but she was out of control screaming (maybe she had a phobia from closed places), I shouted CALM DOWN WE WILL NOT LEAVE YOU, but she didn't understand us, and started to kick the door till it was stuck this time!! my relative know few words, in some way the woman understood that we'll help her, so my relatives and I started to kick and after all we forced our way in and she was talking in Kurdish and hugged me a huge hug !! and I was thinking "oh no, she just used the toilet " and my relatives were laughing about me!!
So many things happened in that day, and they'll always be in my heart and memory, I wish my whole life, and all Iraqis life will be as fun and safe , and everyone can feel joy and happiness as I did that day, for a while I forgot that I live in a war zone..
I took those pics and I hope you'll live the moments I did through them.
Sunshine