The Kid's Online Concert

It was only few days ago when I found "the kid himself" on line for the first time. He's been asking for my help for quite a while to find him a female violinist to play with his band on his graduation ceremony. In his point of view, they would be more attention-grabbing if they had a female playing with them in their band.

Actually most of the violinist I knew left Iraq and the other I have no idea where life took them. It was hard to find him any violinist, let alone a female one.

Luckily one of my high school found me on "find your classmates" and we've been in touch for about two months. The old friend new a female violinist and to make it luckier, the girl was in the same University the Kid goes to. This university is a small society. Everybody knows everybody.

So, now we have a group who wants to have concert but they lack a violinist and we found them one. As everybody knows, we don't know The Kid's real name and to make it worse, the girl refuses to give her name as long as she doesn't know with whom she would be dealing with. The thanks go to our society that girls can't trust guys and vise versa.

The chat between me and The Kid was an unordinary one. For first of all we don't know each others and we only know what the other wrote in the blogs. But music was the reason that made it easy to communicate. We started with salutation and a little chat about jobs and then he offered me to hear him play guitar.

I told him that I haven't played violin for two days because I was busy. He said that he would die if he didn't play guitar a day.

The first tune he played was "fog al nakhal" (= above the palm tree). It's one of, if not the most, famous Iraqi folkloric song. I haven't heard it for so long. I play it on my violin and I wanted to accompany The Kid in playing but unfortunately my baby girl cousin put the microphone in here mouth two weeks ago and it stopped working.

Then I told him I wanted to hear Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" and that I used to play the first very few cords. He played the song and other songs I requested and then he started playing and my job was to guess the songs.

Then we chatted about the music issue. He needed the violinist so bad but I shouldn't say a word about it but I couldn't help myself helping him. I started to give him hints about her grade and high school she went to and names a bit similar to her name. But The Kid was in despair and I gave him a frank hint. THEN just like any normal chat in Iraq, he disappeared and I figured that it was the power.

Few seconds later he came back and he thought I was the one who disappeared. Any way few lines and I had to leave the chat to sleep and we end with the salutations and out.

A Removed Post

Dear readers..
I removed this post for personal reasons.
Regards

Let's Pray

Let's pray they would hear our prayer.
To neglect the fear of mysterious horror
To stand side by side and fight together
That they may be the water for our fire

Let's pray they would hear our prayer
To hope we can make tomorrow better
To live a day without the noise of a hammer
That imprisons us in a world of terror

Let's pray they would hear our prayer
To stop killing innocence and sow danger
To build a new home with a bright picture
That shines through the ages forever

Let's pray they will say a sound word
To stop the screeching owls in the wood
To stop the screams we still hear form childhood
That is born with every child all over the world

Let's pray there will be enough time
To read and examine this rhyme
To understand each word and prime
That would be the key to stop their crime
......................................................

This is your challange Olivebranch.

Pastry Day/ Genie 'n' a bottle

Yesterday Grandma and I had a pastry day. She made "kubba" which looks like and is almost an English shepherds pie, "arais" (like lasagna but instead of the pasta we put bread), and I helped her in making "kleecha" (the most famous Iraqi pastry or cookie stuffed with dates also known in other Arab countries as Ma'mool). I baked a coconut cake and made coconut cookies.

I remember how we used to have "kleacha" festivals few days before Eid back in Baghdad. I remember I used to steal from the dough and eat before it was baked. I did that yesterday too :)
We had a nice day. In the evening my mom's cousin came with three of her kids. We had the pastries with tea.

When I went to bed I remembered my mom's word "Don't leave the cake uncovered". I remembered I took it back to the kitchen but I didn't cover it. Then I thought my grandmother is so insightful, she must have covered it before she went to bed. Guilt plays its role and forced me to go to the kitchen at 2 am just to check the cake.

I looked where I left the cake but it was gone. I said "yes, I was right" then I wanted to check where the cake was. I checked where we keep the cookies but no luck. I checked both refrigerators with their freezers but no luck. I checked the cupboard but no luck. Then I thought it could be someone who wanted to eat it and took it to the living room but no luck. As long as it's missing then it must be somewhere. It was a big cake and only three or four pieces where eaten. I remembered a friend who had a tale to tell about her duck.

My friend had balloon like a duck, which she used to take with her swimming when she was a child. After she got older, she left the duck resting on her closet. She used to go to sleep and look at the duck. Four years and the duck up there was smiling in her face every night. One night she looked as usual at the duck and fell asleep. Next day, she opened her eyes to see the duck was gone.

She ran to her mother asking her about the duck. Her mother had no answer. She asked the neighbors who visit but they knew nothing. She called cousins and friends and told them that the duck is gone and she wondered if it was someone playing a joke on her. None knew anything about where the duck was.
She went back to her mother asking if she gave the duck to someone and didn't want to say. She assured her mother that it's alright if she had done so; she only needs to know that the duck didn't disappear.

The friend lived her life after giving up and she still has no doubt that there are creatures living among us but we can't see them. She was certain that their home was haunted or they had genies around.
One day she was missing a Pepsi-bottle from the case of 24 bottles and she needed it to exchange the empty case with a new one. She searched everywhere but she just couldn't find it. She started running and shouting in her house "You took the duck. It is fine. But give me back my bottle".

A note: I found the cake today in the pickle jar. It was a clean big jar but had some pickle smell. My grandmother has lost her sense of smelling when she was a child :)

Staying Alive

Staying alive is an easy job for leading actors staring in movies just like Jacky Chan, Silvestre Stallone, and especially for Batman, Superman, James Bond and even some evil characters like Doctor Evil. They just keep surprising us for staying alive.
The topic is true for other characters acting in dramas like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whose been even brought back to life. Let alone those who are already dead like Angel.
We all know bad guys drop dead with one kick while shooting the heroes arm or/and legs or/and shoulder… (Add anything you want…) is not enough to hurt them.

Let's take a break from movies and series. People stay alive every ordinary day and overcome obstacles. People hold on to put food on table to feed their children, get their jobs back and stay alive. People over come drugs problems or drinking issues and stay alive. People hold on to do the best they can to stay alive. Some had to overcome heartbreaks and they just move on to stay alive.

But wait a minute, you think it's amazing how real people over come their problems and stay alive? You should see people spending their dark nights, and by dark I mean real dark, not just the dark sky but their dark homes, and they still alive. People who hear gunshots, not on TV not in Polo game, but gunshot above their heads. And they are still alive. Those people who lose a family member, a friend, a neighbor or even a pet. They lose a beloved everyday and they are still alive. They are no heroes, there are no scripts, no directors, but they still alive. Those are the ordinary Iraqi people who have to go through pain and bitterness but they still hold on to live another day.

A movie star needs miracles to stay alive and spells to beat a beast. Iraqis are no Supermen. Yet everyday is a miracle just for staying alive.
Great salutation to the brave fellow citizens of Iraq.

Non-Iraqi Iraqis

I have been away from Iraq for two years and three months and 24 days. I lived in Jordan about two years and I met a large number of Iraqi families. All these families live just to go back to Iraq and all their hopes are about going back to their homeland.

Staying in the UAE for four months I met many Iraqi families and what astonishes me is that they never talk about Iraq, excluding a very few individuals. What astonish me more, were their children. Those Iraqi children left Iraq when they were very young (few years-11 years old) and they know nothing or remember nothing about Iraq!

I don't know whether we should blame them or their parents. There are to versions to this story: the parents got really busy with work that they forgot to teach their children about Iraq! Or is it: they just don't care. Each version is worse than the other.

What about the kids themselves? Don't they want to know anything about their homeland? I knew many foreigners who just love Iraq and the old civilizations used to be there.

They don't even talk the Iraqi dialect. And when I wanted to get to know them they just speak few words and switch to English! (Even those who were raised in Arabian countries !!!!). I've been studying English just like any other Iraqi child living in Iraq, since grade five; in addition to four years collage and I've been away from Iraq as mentioned above. Did I speak with Arabs but in Arabic? I don't think so.

Those kids or grown ups, who left Iraq early, went to the best schools. They've been to more cities that any Iraqi people can visit in Iraq itself. And they never bother themselves to ask about Iraq. They eat, drink, dance and enjoy their lives even better than non-Iraqi people who do care about Iraq.

What made me feel sorry for them is that they don't have a real nationality. They don't feel they are real citizens of the country name written on their passports because they know they were/are Iraqis. On the other hand they don't feel they are Iraqis and they don't even know or remember Iraq.

I'm sorry for them they never knew what "Shorja, shari3 al nahar (river street), al mutanabi (best street where you can buy books), abo Noas, Karada, Mansoor, Masgoof (kind of grilled fish) and many many other things and places in Iraq. Sure those who've been to the Eiffel tower would never think of the dusty archeological places in Iraq nor would they care about it.


What is really hard for me to take was those people are the same Iraqi people who went for voting just because their friends, family or religious chief recommended certain list numbers.

Those are some of the people who will decide Iraq's future even though they are non-Iraqi Iraqis.

Happy, Happy Eid

This is what I wrote last Eid:

"Happy Eid
Happy Eid for all people I know and know me. Happy Eid to all Iraqis people. Happy Eid to the Islamic world.

Hope to spend next Eid in Iraq with the family and celebrating Iraq's victory and real freedom from the occupation and living peacefully."

So... I'm spending "next Eid" and I'm still faraway from Iraq and the family, and as obvious not "celebrating Iraq's victory and real freedom from occupation and living peacefully" BUT all I want to say this will happen if not this Eid then it must be the next and if not the next I'm sure it will happen some Eid later.

Happy Eid to all the people round the world. May God bring you happiness, health, contentment and above all peace all over the world. And I keep saying my previous Eid's wishes.

Greetings for all.

Some of my wishes/plans/needs for 2006

I want to understand the people and how they think.
I want to understand myself more ( sometimes I wish if there's a way I would be hypnotized and record my deeds so I'll see how would I act).
I want to have more confidence in myself.
I want to get a job.
I want to get the scholarship I applied to.
I want to collect more information about the novel I want to write.
I want to exercise more and go jagging everyday.
I want to be the best daughter, sister, friend I could be.

I need to sketch more, exercise violin more, read more books (I’m really slow in reading, I just want to understand every single thought, and sometimes I reread pages or even chapters).

I wish I could be a volunteer in a hospital or in the elderly houses. I even wish if I can be a volunteer in an aid organization against poverty, starvation, natural disasters, and mostly against wars.

I wish if there's a way that everyone can have a sweet heart or a soul mate if you like to call it. There would be less sadness and less broken hearts in 2006.

I wish there would be peace all over the world and mostly in Iraq.

I'm sorry if I unintentionally broke someone's. I might be too friendly that sometimes I'm mistaken to be treating you in a special way.

I still want to learn guitar but what can I say, I might be able to do so in another life ;) just kidding.
I want to say thank you to my family and friends for being there for me .and I want to say I love you all and I appreciate everything you do for me.

I bet I hadn't written any post with this many "want"s ever.
I can't add anything but "In God's will"

God bless everyone.

Goodbye 2005

I can't believe it. It's only 8 second to the New Year and I'm spending it on line writing this post. I'll disconnect and come back after kissing the family happy new year and will tell you everything.
It's 11:58
BRB
So… officially

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I just have a few words to say, not to me not to you not to anyone but 2005

It's going to be a long post…
The kids are in bed (my cousins)
The adult are with their Champaign's glasses
Me… writing this post without any glass (I'm a bit religious)
12:09
First off all I want to review 2005

I welcomed 2005 with my little sister babysitting our cousins in Amman/Jordan. We were watching Harry Potter (all the parts that we could get on DVDs). Then their parents, my big sister with her fiancé accompanied us at 4 am.

It was my first new year with my parents.

Then I'll jump to other thing… it was my first new year as "single" for 6 years. I bit lonely but I got over it.

In 2005 I had the chance to do marvelous things that I dreamt of for so long.
I sang on the stage. I acted the lead part in a drama. I record my song in a studio (a song against smoking).
In 2005 I faced one of my deepest fears and stud in front of a large audience and sang. It was in the center of the University of Petra.

That's about the fun

For my study, I had my graduation in this year. And I have to add I'm proudly one of the best students in 2005 winter (my name was the 5th in the list near the collage gate) and 2005 fall (my name was the 1st and it's still on the board). I graduated with average 3.46/4.

In 2005 I had a wonderful, caring, funny group and my best friends were Ghada H. and Ali R. Thanks for being one of the best friends I had both of you. We hanged out almost everyday and had real fun.

In 2005, I took a course in "Critical Approaches to Literature" in this course I read few books (chapters) bye Plato and Socrates and I liked them. And I took a course in "Shakespeare and His Age". In this course I read Shakespeare's life and three of his dramas ( King Lear, The 12th night, and Macbeth). The other courses I enjoyed were "Socio- & Psycholinguistics", "Applied Linguistics", "Renaissance Drama".

The other two courses were not in my major were "Aesthetics" and "Music & Drama in teaching". In these two courses I learnt a lot of things not only about teaching or history but also about humanity.

In 2005 my big sister got engaged. I wish her all the best in her life.

In 2005 I left Jordan and flied to UAE.
Here in UAE, I took the Art course and painted some good paintings, sculpture a very good sculptures, made a lousy ceramic peaces. Now I know that I'm really talented and I have to develop this gift and work harder to present perfect works.

In 2005, I faced the real world and understood the harshness of being "not a student" (in searching for a scholarship or searching for a job). I'm still trying to find a temporary job.

What else in 2005?
I created this blog and I am trying to post as much as I can start.

2005 was another year in keeping a promis I made in 1998 and I didn't stop praying for God since then.

Still 2005 and the occupation forces are in Iraq.

That's all for now but I'll add more soon.
So .. all I want to say is thanks to you 2005 for coming and bringing all the joy and thanks to you 2005 for leaving and hopping that you'll take all the sorrows.
Goodbye 2005

Take care all
Wish you all a happy 2006