Last week i was visiting the countryside in Anbar, the birthplace of my father and grandfathers. It was my first time there since March 2005. I was invited to my cousin's wedding who he's 19 years old only. Many reasons forced me not go there to the countryside earlier and the most important reason that the whole Anbar governorate was dominated by Al-Qaeda and other terrorist armed groups who terrorized the local citizens there and excuted many of them. My other cousin told me that it was a knightmare for him when a bunch of gunmen attacked him in the middle of the road and forced him to stop and get out of his car. They took him blindfolded to their headquarter and began to interrogate him in a voilent way. He still has faint remarks of bruises and contusions. They were checking if he was a member of the Iraqi police or working as a spy for the Americans. After 5 hours of merciless interrogation, they released him and blindfolded him again and drove him to nowhere, where he freed himself and got back home dead exhausted and horrified.
Another reason I don't like to go there; most of Iraqi villages are pretty sexists. I find that very depressing. I detest sexism! *sighs*
Anyway, I had fun there in "Jezeera" village. I swam down the river although it was a bit windy. I also milked a cow by myself only and without any help from any other person. In fact, it was my 3rd time to milk a cow. The early two tries were done by an assistance of my aunt. :P
I had taken couple of photos and I'd like to show you some of them,
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Here's my cow after doing the milking process! I let a cousin to shoot a vid but I forgot to take it later. :(.jpg)
My uncle's garden! Here where I spent my days in that village. Too bad they didn't let us to play football. :((
Lovely nature, isn't it?!
Green Green Green! Green is the colour!
An ewe and her little baby sheep! Her other Little baby is shown below.
The little lamb to my father: "What the hell are you doing?!".
Notice that the black n white appears above is the twin of this black white-headed babysheep below. Weird!
My father is trying to fool the little lamb.
A view on the river Euphrates. Here where I usually swim whenever I visit the country.
You can see here, the GSM base-station tower (aka base-station antenna) that porvides coverage of mobile communication services for this rural area!
I forgot to mention that I was busy helping my other cousin, Omar, in his new house construction works. Here are some photos....
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Here's Omar and he's pushing a cart full of debris. Thanks god, the weather was nice that day! We didn't get exhausted much at that sunny day.
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You can see here, the GSM base-station tower (aka base-station antenna) that porvides coverage of mobile communication services for this rural area! I forgot to mention that I was busy helping my other cousin, Omar, in his new house construction works. Here are some photos....
Here's Omar and he's pushing a cart full of debris. Thanks god, the weather was nice that day! We didn't get exhausted much at that sunny day.
Ok, guys! Let's take a break! Their house from inside! Except the one in the stripy green shirt on the left who is my brother. All of the rest are my cousins but from different uncles and aunts all from my father's side. They are 4 uncles and 3 aunties.
Kids! Those two little goblins didn't let us work in peace. They drove us mad and they didn't care about us whenever we yelled at them. At the contrary, they get more evil! My cousin, Omar, was spending the day chasing them. That was hilarious indeed.
Finally, I want to close this posting with this cute little girl pic, Dima! One of my cousin's daughter. Cute, isn't she?!
15 comments:
"They took him blindfolded to their headquarter and began to interrogate him in a voilent way. He still has faint remarks of bruises and contusions." Typical asshats! I'm glad he got out of that one in one piece, albeit shaken. That was a pretty cool post. The photos of the fields (minus the palm trees) remind me of a place where I went turkey hunting in Kansas several years back.
Construction work/moving furniture into a house, nobody likes it! Like my dad always used to say, "Once you're done, all you want to do is drink beer!" Well, since I know you don't like beer, it's Coke™ in your case :p
That'd be cool to have a house on any river, even more so on the Euphrates.
A very nice batch of photos. Iraq could be such a beautiful country without dictators, terrorists, and similar troubles.
Hi C, I like ur post,its very interesting and the kids and the lambs are pretty damn adorable!
Also all your photos are cool, I have to say Iraq is greener that I imagine ;)
I'm sorry to hear about your cousin, I hope he is alright now.
I'm sorry, fellas! I was busy doing ITP-TOEFL test. I've done the test and it was my first time to go for the TOEFL test. The results will be issued in two weeks. So wish me luck! :)
@ Matt,
I'm glad he got out of that one in one piece. Yeah, he was very lucky there.
Thanks a lot for the Coke. ;)
@ Don,
Iraq could be such a beautiful country without dictators, terrorists, and similar troubles.
That's true! Every country would be cooler without these things u mentioned and lemme add other items to the list, such as corruption and unemployment.
@ Cicily,
Thanks for the compliment. :)
I like kids. And I always dream of having a little daughter one day. Yea, that would be cool.
@ Pandora,
Hi urself! Tee hee! Since Iraq has two great rivers (the Tigris and the Euphrates) of course it would be greener and loads of grasslands.
My cousin is fine. He was smoking sheesha and relaxing when he was telling me his horrible story.
I'm glad u all liked this posting!
Sexism has its advantages in Iraq, and its useless to deny it. :P
amongst everything life goes on mu?
i'm tempted to sing to you...
al rumadi al rumadiii *gunfire*
*everyone duck!*
....seconds later..wedoonee al rumadiii
anyway, am glad that you and cousins are safe, i bet anbar is a lot nicer without those evil looking mrab things. (yes i know its mrap)
i am going to read opening verse for the poor little lamb...bless its soul..:D
good to see you had fun. :)
@ Touta,
Sexism has its advantages in Iraq, and its useless to deny it.
And what the fu*k are the adavantages or the benefits beyond sexism? You know I thank god million times a day that I wasn't born as one of those poor women in such fu*ked up society? If I was a woman brought up in such place. I would get married at the age of 15 and quit school at the age of 9. I would spend the day hiding in my husband family's house. My job would be to serve them, clean, cook, feed the cows and milk'em, and be a sex-slave. Imagine doing that everyday for the last days of ur life!
hahahaha, oh dear God.
:P
it does have its advantages
for example, do you know how many guards checked my ID/passport? I get smiled through most checkpoints rather than searched.
If you use the mentality of sexism, it can be advantageous, because Caesar it is *useless* to try to change the minds of the majority of iraqi guys thoughts about women, so instead clever girls have just learnt to use it to their advantage.
If they think we are just good for cooking, cleaning and being a sex slave, then thats their fault, but by smiling at such idiotic guys, i usually end up the winner.
right now there's nothing much iraqi girls can do other than intelectually ass whoop iraqi guys, and hope it earns them respect. If not, i'll resort to flirting to get the iraqi guys to do what i want.
And that caesaro is why sexism has its advantages-because it makes every iraqi guy do darn easy to predict.
i'll resort to flirting to get the iraqi guys to do what i want.
Use your womanly ways you mean?! ;)
I'm not talking about you, dear! U live in a whole different society. And u when come to Iraq, you come only for a visit. Anyway, are you serious? Not to be searched at airports or check-points is a benefit. Well, here's news! Since the recent terrorist attacks are done by suicidal women, women are being searched and examined at most of check-points. Unfortunately no fake smiles can fool those inspectors anymore.
mmmm, you're right i suppose.
However amongst the iraqis in this 'whole different society', the exact same mentality exists (though obviously lesser).
one of the reasons i realised i couldnt study in baghdad, was that noone took me seriously. No matter how much work i did, how many high grades i got, i was patronised ridiculously as if i was a little child. It meant i gave up on getting good marks, because whether i did or didn't had no effect on how i was treated.
You act all outraged caesaro, but i spent half my childhood and some of my early teen years in diyala. Which doesn't even compare to Anbar when it comes to sexism. You haven't experienced or lived through it, if you had experienced sexism daily, at some point, you will accept it, and just find ways around it.
Many girls are doing the whole emo/rocker/slut/man hater persona, but eventually they're all going to end up in the same place, regardless.
It is pretty sad, but it is in no way the biggest of Iraq's problems.
Many girls are doing the whole emo/rocker/slut/man hater persona, but eventually they're all going to end up in the same place, regardless.
Perhaps, you are talking about Baghdadi girls. However, I know couple of Iraqi girls that are interested in the stuff u've mentioned who don't actually live in the capital.
It is pretty sad, but it is in no way the biggest of Iraq's problems.
I know that! Sadly, you are right. *sighs*
Lovely pictures, Caesar. You visited your cousins again? Nice to hear. Cousins? As in...oh, you know what I want to ask. Everything is good again between you two, I hope. :)
I've been hearing that Ramadi isn't so quiet at the moment. Not good at all.
i bet anbar is a lot nicer without those evil looking mrab things. (yes i know its mrap) Touta
It would be a lot nicer without the bomb makers showing off their wares.
A very nice post Caesar! I'm glad that the situation in Anbar is finally peaceful enough for you to visit your relatives there. I'm sorry to hear of the terrible ordeal that your cousin suffered.
What do you mean when you say that the village is sexist? Do you mean that women are not treated as the equal of men?
I tried to milk a cow once, but I couldn't get any milk to come out. I was just a child and maybe I couldn't squeeze and pull hard enough. Have you seen the movie Witness starring Harrison Ford? It has a lot of funny scenes of his character trying to fit into the lifestyle of the Amish (They are an old group in the U.S. who live very simply according to a strict religious tradition. Many are farmers.). One scene shows Harrison milking a cow. Pretty well too! :)
I am amazed by all the green and the trees! I didn't know there were places that looked like this in Iraq. It looks like a beautiful place.
The little black lamb is very cute! I wonder if it will keep its black color as an adult? Maybe the black wool is more valuable than white wool?
The river looks very big, and the water is so calm, almost like a lake. We would call it a lazy river here. ;)
I see some very nice brick work on the house that Omar is building. He must be a very skilled builder. I can very much appreciate good construction as an engineer and as one who has built many small projects.
The goblins look like very mischievous little boys! ;) Yes, Dima is a very cute little girl. :)
I am reading the comments now. I understand what you mean by sexism. It sounds like life can be very bleak for village girls and women!
So, you have take the TOEFL exam. I know what that is. When I was in college, I had a part time job tutoring international students and helping them to improve their English skills. They had to pass the TOEFL before they could start regular classes at my university. They talked about the exam so much that I decided to take it myself. Even as a native English speaker, I did not get a perfect score. It is a rather difficult test! I wish you best of luck! So, are you thinking of coming to America or maybe England to study for graduate school?
Very very very nice post. i loved it!!
the cow's pic seems so great! especially , i love the cows! lol
and with what, milking!!!!!!! omg!wonderful! if i could come!
e 3eni, lesh la, il cute turkuth warak!! lol
allah ykhalleha wekhallekum inshallah
my dad has many friends in al-anbar, i think we should plan for a visit.
your posts always inspire me of a visit to a place, thnak you!!!
Hey, fellas! I am so sorry for being out of sight. I've been very busy. I was about to get a job as an ATC (Air Traffic Controller). I had to go through several of tests in order to get an Air Traffic Control job. However, I didn't get the job.
@ Lynne,
I haven't talked to her since that
incident. What happend, is happend! Now, she's married to someone else. I really don't wanna talk about that much. It's good to see u back, Lynnie!
@ eda,
Ok, whatever! Spammers! *rolles eyes*
@ David,
What do you mean when you say that the village is sexist? Do you mean that women are not treated as the equal of men?
Yes! Which implies that men benefit from certain rights and privileges not available to women. I hate this male chauvinism guts.
I tried to milk a cow once, but I couldn't get any milk to come out.
Milking a cow should be fun. When you start milking your cows start with the front teats first.
Pinch the top of the teat (closest to the bag) with your thumb and fore-finger (pointing finger). Close the next finger, then the next, then the next (one at a time) over the teat as if you
were trying to work water out of a hose.
Release your pinch at the top of the teat (and your other fingers too) and allow milk to enter the teat. Pinch the top of the teat (closest to the bag) with your thumb and fore-finger and repeat the previous movements and you'll
get a good flow of milk going.
So, what are you going to do with all that milk once you have milked your cow? Thinking of making cheese? :P
And I know Amish! I've seen this movie "sex drive" which parodies an amish society. It's hilarious.
As regards TOEFL, I got 553 out of 676 and if u do the math, that would be 82 out of 100, or even 8.2out of 10. ;)
And yes, I'd love to go to UK or the States to finish my study. But right now, it's only a dream. *sighs*
@ Sandybelle,
Shukran!
I'm planning to go to Hadeetha. They say it's more beatiful there. I would love to take more pics of that place.
If you wanna visit Anbar just tell me. I must inform heads of the city to pave the roads with roses and candy once u come. :P
I really don't wanna talk about that much.
Okay.
It's good to see u back, Lynnie!
Thanks. You too. :)
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