A Star from Mosul

First, my school, still the same.. I took a close look into the water, I think if this lasted any longer, we can plant things in it!

Anyway, mom came to school today and talked to the mistress.. HNK was sick and she had to take the day off, and I've been pushing mom to do something for our school, so she came. The mistress said that there's nothing she could do that she didn't do. She called everywhere.. She also said that our new school will be finished sometime on March! What will we do till then? Something some of you didn't know is that our school always floods, but not like this (At least not in the last few years-- Teachers say it once flooded to more than half a meter height). It is located in the lowest part of the neighborhood, which makes all the water gather in it. Today, they made a whole in the wall and put a big pipe into the water, and started sucking (I'm sure this is not the right word for it).. After a while, they went away. It's either that they gave up, or that the water filled their vehicle that they'll go and come back later. For more information about my school, I've written some posts about it before.. Here is a link to all:

http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com/2004/10/back-to-school.html

And when I say there's no solution, it means, no one, not parents and not anyone can fix the problem.. That's what the new school is for. But we still need a place to go to! Where?

Latest photos, here:

This photo shows the mosque of Nabi Yonus I've talked about previously. If you look further, you can see it.


Here, you can see the clothes of the woman who clean our school and her family.. Very nice place and time!


Here is another photo of the school.

Now, let's get inside..


Here, you can see the door of the computers' room, and the door of the room of the one who cleans our school! She's moved upstairs because her house flooded with water.


Here's her washing machine :)


Here's something I don't know! All this is in our school!




Here's how she cooks..


And here's a close look to the clothes..


Here are my and my friend's new bags.. They gave every student a bag with stationary in it, some are very good things.. And this black thing in the middle is 10 copy books.




And here's our new school, just infront of our school.. :)

Aya came today, and since I feel that I'm getting sick, I am not getting so close to her.. As always, she looks adorable, and her cheeks always look more pink than her pink blouse!




About Syria, I can't say that I feel anything towards her, although all the criminals we see on TV say that the Syrian Mukhabarat sent them.. And although they say that Syria is the one who killed Al-Hariry. And this is for two reasons:

* I, as and Arab Muslim, always take the blame. Whatever happens in the world, we're the ones to be blamed.. And whether some individuals did it or other non-Arab parties did it, we're always guilty, and no one would believe that we're innocent. Simply because we're Muslim Arabs.

Arabs are being called terrorists because some crazy groups are doing things in their name.. Good examples are Saddam and Osama, they both do it as if their country and religion are proud of it.. One of the last inventions of Saddam were T-shirts students wear at school with his photo on it and a sentence that says :"If Saddam said, then Iraq said".. Iraq was somehow seen as Saddam, and although he's gone now, some still treat us that way.

** America fought Iraq, for a reason that still is not proven to exist. But, they (Away from Americans, away from soldiers) still think they're winners.. Saddam's capture is not THE victory.. Although we had him as a dictator, and you have him as a rat. He's no longer being feared of, but we have plenty other Saddams to fear from now.
America needs a stronger reason to occupy Syria, and it'll do what it takes to get that reason, and feed that reason with whatever lies it needs.. War was never a way of life, but it is turning to be, in the middle east, thanks to America.

I see a series on the satellite, The west wing, it's a nice series, and I really like the president in it.. But, the ad of the series (the one that shows what time they show this series) has a scene in which he says, "If yo kill an American, any American, we don't come back with a proportion of response, we come back with a total disaster".. This is what's happening. The blood of the Arabs, or of the non-Americans is so cheap.. The blood of Americans is the one that counts.

The thoughts that strike my head whenever I see a terrorism attack, are always the same, just don't be Arabs.. But I do not feel ashamed of being an Arab, nor a Muslim.. Some of you might think that I'm a religious person, but I'm known in the family (The small one) as the most unreligious person. Mom always fear for me that I'll forget praying, or get used to what I see on TV.. But, I know I won't, because I'm proud of my religion. There must be nothing as a religious person, when you want a religion, be that religion, it's your identity. Seeing someone on TV saying that she's a Muslim who married a Christian, An Iraqi who married an America. Well, she should stop using Islam as her identity, or she shall not marry that guy, unless he changes his religion, or she does!

I'm not turning to another Riverbend, nor joining the Jarrars, I'm Najma, an Arab Muslim, who just can't believe that her neighbors (Syria, which has very, very nice people, and Lebanon, who has very very nice people too) are fighting. Being in a war, for almost my whole life, I can see the war in a different angle than yours, as being set.. And I'm NOT brainwashed..And I think Syria is innocent, and a victim too.

NOTE: I hate politics, I really do hate it, sending political articles to me isn't working, because I do not read them.. Maybe sending them to dad will be better.

I wrote this few days ago but couldn't post it because of the electricity, then, I had exams and became too busy to post.. But here it is now with the latest updates.

First, go read uncle's new post.. I remember him telling me that he doesn't write much because he wants to write positive things only, I think he got too tired waiting for positive things!

They transferred us to our flooded school again today. They seem to have took out the water of it, but it flooded again with yesterday's rain (It rained HEAVILY). Time passed more quickly than ever today, I couldn't believe that we had to go home, it was like we were there for only an hour! When I arrived at school, I saw my friends laughing and remembering how their taxi driver told them that the terrorists use remote cantarols (He meant controls) for controlling explosives..

Well, this man was only a driver who probably haven't finished school, and saying cantarol was an attainment for him. But seeing that a computer's teacher can't pronounce variable! This should be weird. I was in a war with the computer's teacher today, surely not because of the pronunciation of variable but because of a variable, she can't understand anything out of the book! And what makes me more angry is that the students always stand by her (Or any other teacher's) side. Want examples? I have plenty to give! Even if you don't, I just want to take this out of my chest.. She said, how do you spell choose, I said, c-h-o-o-s-e.. She said, no, this is in present, give me another one.. After giving her all the forms of the verb, we discovered that she wanted the noun, which she pronounced /tsu:z/ and spelt (choise). After telling her that it actually is spelt c-h-o-i-c-e, I couldn't hear but all the school telling me that it is S not C, and guess who was happy!
I decided to give up, maybe arguing with a computer's teacher about how to spell a word won't get me anywhere, but arguing about that variable will, and eventually it did.. I got the final word from her "That's right, you're right!". But I think I'll stop arguing with her, mom says that she might get an attitude towards me..

As the teacher went out, I took out the dictionary and searched for choice, and got relieved.. By this time, the English teacher came in.
We've been reading Oliver Twist for a week now, it's a long story for the 5th grade, we read it with the English book to learn how to use what we've learnt and to have some entertainment. And since we went to the other school, and with 60 girls in each class, the teacher decided to leave the English book and read Oliver only for a while. Today, she decided to make us, girls, read.. It was okay at first, but then, girls started making HUGE mistakes and she just wouldn't notice.. A girl was reading and making many huge mistakes, and then she said "And his doog cam in" this was supposed to be "And his dog came in", my friend couldn't stand it and she repeated, whispering "doog" and both of us blushed trying to keep our mouths shut and not to laugh.. She told me later that she was trying to avoid laughing and thought that if she looked at me and saw how calm I am she will get calm too, but when she looked and saw how I was, she just couldn't calm down.

Is it that the teacher DIDN'T notice those mistakes, or is it that she was so busy thinking of the situation! I honestly try not to make fun of those students making such mistakes.. But, our school is for girls who are distinguished from the others, we're supposed to be more clever (That's the purpose of the IQ test) and more educated and civilized, we're supposed to be recognized as SPECIAL, but no, we're not recognized but by our flooded school. Seeing them throwing garbage on the little part of the ground that we can walk on (There's no much space to walk on due to the flood), without even thinking that this is as much uncivilized as it can be.. When I can't find a trash can to put something in, I put it in my pocket till going back home. It's school, nothing can be too dirty to be put in your pocket! The only interest of some girls is that an actor is getting married, a singer is going to jail, etc... Isn't their education and their country more worthy for their concern.? The reason for which we're not going to the other school anymore although ours is getting worse, is that the other school's students just can't stand the dirtiness of our students! It's shameful for us.. But, for those who are dirty, I'd say that they deserve it. I lose every bit of respect for every girl who doesn't bother herself to walk few steps to the trash can.

I heard a friend saying that she's going to an internet center, she was so happy about it.. Next day, she said that she didn't have any fun there. I asked her about what does she do on the Internet, she said that she chats with her cousin's friends, and what made her visit to the center so boring is that the friends were offline, she "HAD to waste time", just to go home! Another one is really keen to the Internet, why? Because she wants to print songs' lyrics..

Are the girls I know so immature? So pathless? So misguided? Or, so normal? Are they to be expected to be better if things calm down? Are we to hope that Iraq's future is better than its past? Or, is there really more good youth than I have noticed? Shouldn't they stop crying over small stuff, bad grades, having an argument with a friend, saying the wrong answer, hearing an advice from a teacher; and start thinking of important things other than getting married. I know the answer of this question is yes.. But, is what is happening just a result of the helpless situation they're living in?

This is my school, after seeing the mistress's assistant, sitting on a chair near our beach, staring sadly at the water, and watching the dirt that the girls throw from upstairs to the water.. I decided that this is unacceptable now, as it was before. We stopped going to our class downstairs and we now go to another class with other students, again 45-60 student in each class, but this time, small classes. Now, I'll publish some photos, as my sister already did publish some, and I'll go finish my homework, but I'll need some help from you, maybe you can make those photos reach someone who can help. I'll make some contacts too, hopefully tomorrow, or after tomorrow.. I want this to stop, I'll contact soldiers, journalists, and TV channels.. Everyone can help, if a terrorist blew this thing up, it'll be helpful too ;) Engineers say that there's no solution but to demolish the school, and that's why we're having a new school built (It was supposed to be ready this January, but it will hardly be ready next year). We need a temporary solution, a place to study in..













Our Mathematics teacher isn't coming any more, they say that her son-in-law got shot.. Some say he died, but I don't know. So now, besides the Math teacher, the Arabic teacher isn't teaching us, and the French teacher too (She's out, either to Baghdad or to France)..

Raghda had a small accident today, a car moved over her foot.. She still couldn't figure out how it stepped on it while she was almost in it! She's alright, she can walk, she had some tire marks on her foot at first, but it's now other marks.. She seemed okay when I talked to her on the phone, and she still doesn't know whether to go to school tomorrow or not.. I couldn't talk much with her, her voice is too low, and our phone (Which was broken for months and was fixed today's morning) is too noisy..

I will only write a little bit today, because I can't think of anything to write but those few things..

One: They say on TV that they'll change the week-end to Friday and Saturday.. It was first (Before the war) only Friday. Then, this year, it became Thursday and Friday. Now, this week, it became Friday and Saturday.. Well, will that really happen, or is it going to change again in the coming months!

Two: While surfing the net today, I found out that:

With MSN Spaces, you can now easily build your own personal Web log (blog) to share your photos, thoughts and experiences with whoever you choose. Open your Space to the public or just allow access to family and friends. Show your pictures; tell your stories; all this and more -- FREE!*

Well, isn't that exciting? I didn't try it yet.. But, from the examples I saw, it seems nice. But, I don't think anything can compete with Blogger. Unless if it has less bugs!

Three: I really want them to be three, so I have to think of something! Right now, the electricity went off, little Aya started crying, and all the family is singing to make her laugh.. Maybe a photo of her will make you laugh or at least smile..


Well, I somehow find myself with a Four, I get some e-mails that reminds me of what I should always remember but always forget..

Here is one, I sent it to friends but thought it might be useful to publish it here too..

It had been some time since Jack had seen the old man. College, girls, career, and life itself got in the way. In fact, Jack moved clear across the country in pursuit of his dreams. There, in the rush of his busy life, Jack had little time to think about the past and often no time to spend with his wife and son. He was working on his future, and nothing could stop him.

Over the phone, his mother told him, "Mr. Belser died last night. The funeral is Wednesday." Memories flashed through his mind like an old newsreel as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days.

"Jack, did you hear me?"

"Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. It's been so long since I thought of him. I'm sorry, but I honestly thought he died years ago," Jack said.

"Well, he didn't forget you. Every time I saw him he'd ask how you were doing. He'd reminisce about the many days you spent over 'his side of the fence' as he put it," Mom told him.

"I loved that old house he lived in," Jack said.

"You know, Jack, after your father died, Mr Belser stepped in to make sure you had a man's influence in your life," she said

"He's the one who taught me carpentry," he said. "I wouldn't be in this business if it weren't for him. He spent a lot of time teaching me things he thought were important...Mom, I'll be there for the funeral," Jack said.

As busy as he was, he kept his word. Jack caught the next flight to his hometown. Mr. Belser's funeral was small and uneventful. He had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away.

The night before he had to return home, Jack and his Mom stopped by to see the old house next door one more time.

Standing in the doorway, Jack paused for a moment. It was like crossing over into another dimension, a leap through space and time The house was exactly as he remembered. Every step held memories. Every picture, every piece of furniture....Jack stopped suddenly.

"What's wrong, Jack?" his Mom asked.

"The box is gone," he said

"What box?" Mom asked.

"There was a small gold box that he kept locked on top of his desk. I must have asked him a thousand times what was inside. All he'd ever tell me was 'the thing I value most,'" Jack said.

It was gone. Everything about the house was exactly how Jack remembered it, except for the box. He figured someone from the Belser family had taken it.

"Now I'll never know what was so valuable to him," Jack said. "I better get some sleep. I have an early flight home, Mom."

It had been about two weeks since Mr. Belser died. Returning home from work one day Jack discovered a note in his mailbox. "Signature required on a package. No one at home. Please stop by the main post office within the next three days," the note read.

Early the next day Jack retrieved the package. The small box was old and looked like it had been mailed a hundred years ago. The handwriting was difficult to read, but the return address caught his attention. "Mr. Harold Belser" it read. Jack took the box out to his car and ripped open the package. There inside was the gold box and an envelope. Jack's hands shook as he read the note inside.

"Upon my death, please forward this box and its contents to Jack Bennett. It's the thing I valued most in my life." A small key was taped to the letter. His heart racing, as tears filling his eyes, Jack carefully unlocked the box. There inside he found a beautiful gold pocket watch.

Running his fingers slowly over the finely etched casing, he unlatched the cover. Inside he found these words engraved:

"Jack, Thanks for your time! -Harold Belser."

"The thing he valued most...was...my time"

Jack held the watch for a few minutes, then called his office and cleared his appointments for the next two days. "Why?" Janet, his assistant asked.

"I need some time to spend with my son," he said.

"Oh, by the way, Janet...thanks for your time!"

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away,"

Think about this. You may not realize it, but it's 100% true.

1. At least 2 people in this world love you so much they would die for you.

2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.

3. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.

4. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.

5. You mean the world to someone.

6. If not for you, someone may not be living.

7. You are special and unique.

8. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you trust God to do what's best, and wait on His time, sooner or later, you will get it or something better.

9. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good can still come from it.

10. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely turned your back on the world.

11. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.

12. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.

13. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know and you'll both be happy.

14. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great.

Send this letter to all the people you care about, if you do so, you will certainly brighten someone's day and might change their perspective on life...for the better.

To everyone I sent this to "Thanks for your time"

Marriage: Unless you're okay with the fact that you might not have any people in the wedding, and that even the bride might get stuck at her home (Happened once, a stryker was stopped infront of their house, and they couldn't do anything about it).

Dying: Well, you might not have an option not to. But, if you did, people won't be able to get to your funeral, and if you were killed, your family won't be able to get your death certificate (As it is happening now to my son-in-law's family).

Getting out: well, this is what this post is all about.. So here I go:


For two days in row, we get back home, exhausted, and thankful that we're alive...

Yesterday, at 1:15 PM, we went out of school and waited for dad. I turned on the mobile in case mom wanted to call and tell me something.. At about 1:20 PM, mom called and told me that she and dad are stuck in traffic because soldiers were searching for insurgents. She also told me that they might be late, and that we should get inside the school if nobody was around. There were many girls outside at that time, waiting for their parents, and so we waited for them.. At about 1:30, I called mom and asked her how everything was going on, she said that they're still stuck and they might be stuck for a long time, she gave me my cousin's phone number and told me to call him and tell him to come and get us. Well, mobile services aren't good enough to call a phone from them, so mom called my sis and told her to call him for us. In few minutes, we were about 8 girls who were left alone, we went back into the school, and waited (The other six girls had almost the same problem as ours, and they were friends of HNK so we weren't bored from waiting).. Shortly afterwards, the boys who attend the same school as ours but at noon instead (It is actually their school, but we are having our classes in it because we have no place to go) and we were only 8 girls at the entrance of a boys' school, very embarrassing! But, we managed to stay optimistic. At 2 PM, we heard horns outside, and found dad and my cousin at the door.. They arrived at the same time, mom has gone home on foot after negotiating with the Americans. Well, those girls' driver came and picked them up too... At the car, HNK discovered that she's switched her bag with one of the girls, and we had to go back to their car and switch bags.. :)

Today, at 1:15 PM, we went out of school, in my way out, I heard a loud sound of a plane, looking at the sky, I saw it throwing rockets (Many others did), but I didn't hear explosions or anything.
I went out of school, eager to see dad and tell him about what had happened. I reached the door, and saw a crowd outside, in the middle, there was a beautiful baby, Aya.
apparently, a classmate of HNK found dad, asked him if he was HNK's dad, he told her that he was, then she asked, "So, this girl should be Aya, right?" dad agreed. And at this moment, half of HNK's classmates came looking at Aya who was acting as if she didn't care! Well, when I went out, I brought my friends too :) It was a nice thing, I mean, girls watching my niece and admiring her! Then, I gave dad my bag, and carried Aya to the car showing everyone in the road my dear niece.. Well, I didn't have to show them, they couldn't avoid seeing her :)

I got to the car, and here we are again, the neighborhood is surrounded! Dad called my cousin who always gives him the latest news and he recommended that we leave the car and come on foot. We left the car in a nearby street, some neighbors offered to put it in their garage, but dad thought putting it there won't do any harm. In the same street, our neighbor's car was stopped.. You see my neighbor (Who's Christian) is a taxi driver, he was driving three teachers to their homes from school, when a man in the car infront of him took a gun and shot in the sky.. And guess what was there? A stryker. The soldiers shot the car whose driver ran away with it.. And our poor neighbor was the victim, well, not him, the car and a teacher. The teacher got shot, and the car had about 4 bullets in different places. One got from the back window, to the part of the seat in the back of the driver's head, and then to the front window.. Our neighbor just can't believe how his head wasn't hit.
When dad stopped our car their, I started inspecting our neighbor's car.. I've dreamt to be so many things when I was younger.. An astronaut, a scientist, a detective, and a shrink.. Still thinking of some of them!

We then walked home, mom was just so sick of waiting.. But, Aya gets all the wounds to heal. Really, she's a living miracle in this family.

I finally finished my program.. It is programmed with (Visual Basic 6). It was about electricity, titled "HOW MUCH electricity?", will hopefully be followed by more of the HOW MUCH series :) I was just so happy to finish it, it took lots of the time I really needed to rest and have fun. And I really needed to sleep without having millions of things in mind. Instead, I had to dream of explosions and robberies after what I've seen of what happened in Lebanon yesterday. It's hard to believe that tens of this accident have happened in Iraq in the last couple of years.

From: jay franks
Date: 02/10/05 23:53:49
To: nblog04@gmail.com
Subject: your blog

i dont understand why you always post dumb comments, like how americans are constantly shooting randomly like scared idiots. grow up. american soldiers receive 2 years of training in the US before they are even sent to iraq, so i highly doubt they start shooting any anything that moves during a conflict. it's disturbing to see the increase in your propoganda for the terrorists and your blatant lies about americans. are you a racist? i'm positive no one in your immediate family voted or even cares about freedom. you would probably prefer to live in a stricly islamic society with a government like the taliban. your english is poor and you're a spoiled ignorant muslim fool that knows nothing about what is going on in your own country. show a little respect before you post such stupid things..

Very encouraging, very beautiful.. I like the part about being a spoiled ignorant muslim fool, more than the rest.. Althought the part about my poor English seems interesting as well!

And here's my reply, Jay. You probably have received it in your e-mail.. But since I promised to publish your letter on my blog, I thought it would be biased not to publish my response too..

Well, thanks.. I'll be sure to post this in my blog, so that people will know who they're listening to.. And who they are supporting. I've put a link in my blog (Review my blog) on the sidebar.. Some people did review it. SO, guess what they said? http://www.blogarama.com/index.php?show=review&SiteID=14676

Weird huh? A 16-year-ol-girl can get this much of support from Americans and non-Americans just for lying!!

Najma
PS: If you don't like my blog, don't bother yourself by coming to it..
I'm not writing for you, I'm writing for hundrends of others.
PPS: I dare you to find English mistakes in my blog, more than you'd
find in any other teenager's American blog.
PPPS: I'll grow up, even if you didn't ask me to.. Just for your informations.

Then, today I got another reply.. Which made me more sure that this guy is one of the victims of the western media.. And one of those people who my American friends always tell me not to listen to!

First of all, i can find several mistakes in your email, so i wouldn't even need to look for errors in your blog. and you know very little aboutamerican teens, so i really don't know why you are so arrogant and think you are better at english grammar than they are. you're just a childish little girl that doesnt know what she is even posting most of the time. most of your information probably comes from al-jazeera and michael moore movies. you probably think the americans and the jews are responsibile for all the car bombs. i dont believe in your God, allah, and i dont support your racist egotistical views of the world. you are a follower of a sick and evil religion that enjoys cutting peoples heads off and killing innocent old ladies. you people are scared and very disturbed mentally. sick sunni people, like you and your terrorist loving family, don't deservefreedom. you only deserve more car bombs and more death.

Today, my older sister said goodbye to her husband who's going back to Baghdad, and then she shut the door after him and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes when she heard heavy shooting, very close to their house.. She got so terrified for her husband and looked from the window and saw his luggage, but he wasn't there! She started crying and didn't know what to do.. Her sister-in-law tried to comfort her and sweared that she saw him under a tree. In few minutes, her husband opened the door and saw her crying.. After calming her down, he went out to continue his SAFE journey..
This is just to let you know how DUMB my comments are.. I don't know who were shooting here, and I won't assume that they're the Americans. But whoever did it, it still is unsafe in Mosul, not even close to being safe. And my dumb comments are reality! (I did it.. I said DUMB not DUMP).

And I got a message from a friend of a kidnapped French woman, she wanted me to post this in my blog hoping that it'll get to her friend, Florence. Well, I doubt it will get to her, because if the terrorists read my blog, I would've been killed by now.

Here's the letter:

Unwillingness to understand …

Florence,

Now it's 37 days you disappeared and that I feel the omnipresence of your absence.
Absence of a journalist involved in defense of democracy values; absence of a very appreciated woman.
Now it's 37 days there is a lack in the journalist profession, as it was missing some letters in the word "liberty". Or as an arrow -the arrow of intolerance- sanked into "liberty".

Your absence, this lack, this emptiness are growing every day. And I stumble over the sentence "unwillingness to understand…".

That's absolutely certain that the pen of the journalists and the image of the photographs are essential defences facing the war, facing exactions, facing corruption. Your articles, as those of your colleagues, are so much pillars for democracy. One of these pillars will lack, and democracy will shake! So your presence in Irak bother. As Ingrid Bettancourt in Colombia also does. As Enso Baldoni did. But I always do not understand how one can kidnap or murder…

Then, which French people could ignore that you disappeared ? Which one and more, which journalist ? Which student in a school of journalism ?

Nevertheless, this morning, I read only 650 messages on Liberation's forum and hardly 1200 on this of "Reporters without frontiers"… Hardly 1800 support and sympathy messages. I read them all. Only a few come from colleagues. Even so, certainly your kidnappers have direct access to these. Since the beginning of the invasion of Irak, we noticed that terrorist and islamist fighters are masters in the art of communication with internet. But, we… here? Where are the supports of thousands of journalists, press correspondants, photographs, local reporters, students in journalism? More the days flow, less I understand these absences…

So, Florence, all that, that's too. Too much.
Get back as soon! It will give meaning to the word "liberty", always drastically reduced this morning. Then, I hope we will work together to resolve these unwillingness to understand. For no more Abdel Hussein Khazaal, Guy-André Kieffer, Fred Nérac, Giuliana Sgrena and so much at the cover of world newspapers or sticked up the front of town halls!

Thierry

A little note: Please, if you saw a man, who has a beard, shouting Allahu Akbar, please don't assume that he's a Muslim.. The sentence Allahu Akbar has a great meaning, and I'm afraid some people are trying to make it look as dark as possible.

Okay, now back to what's happening.. Well, it snowed on Wednesday. And my sister posted about it! If I knew she would write all this about the little conversation between us, I would've said some jokes, I would've at least thought a little more about it before correcting her.. Anyway.

Our school flooded with water that it became impossible to stay in it any more.. Although nothing is impossible in Iraq, but I think it won't be at least acceptable. So, the mistress moved us to another school in which the first 3 grades of my school study. It's big, and much better than ours, but it's not big enough for all of us. So, we're now 60-75 students in each class (Each class is about 4m*5m, maybe more, but surely not enough for 60 students).. We sit on desks, 3-4 students on each desk in my class. I sit in a row which's too far from the teacher and the blackboard, I can hardly see the blackboard, so I copy from my friend.

I'm so busy with my program, I'll do the very last things in it today, copy it on a CD and give it to the teacher tomorrow (Well, she gave us much extra time to do it than we expected.. But I'll give it to her tomorrow in case any problems showed up).. It's not like last year's though. While looking at last year's program, I lose faith that this one will have a chance to win.. But, I certainly have learned much more while
doing this one than last year's.

Now, I can't remember what else happened these days.. So, good bye.

I've been planning to write earlier but didn't have time to.. I'm spending lots of time on the computer (Working on my program), and then doing homework, that my back has started to ache me a lot.

We went back to school on Saturday, and I got my marks. They're much better than the first part of the year, and hopefully, the second part will be better. I managed to raise all my grades, the average of every subject's marks are now above 95 except for Arabic.. It's 87! Yes, what can I do? Well, fortunately, the teacher won't agree to teach the 5th grade any more because of all the people who called the principle and told her how bad she was! And, I and other friends who are planning to skip the next year, went and talked to an Arabic language supervisor. He promised to look at our exam papers and took a look at the grades card too.. We'll see what he'll do.

Yesterday, an American soldier was shot in our neighborhood and the Americans blocked the street. We came back from school to my aunt's house and stayed there till the roads were opened again. Mom and Aya were at home.. When the soldier was shot, the American soldiers started shooting randomly (My cousin who works in a nearby office said that 3 bullets got into his office) mom just lied on the ground immediately, and then went upstairs to check the windows, but nothing was broken.

I, while writing this, am watching my uncle by his webcam.. He's in Australia. Oh God, I think my cousin is crazy!

Okay, I'll try to concentrate..

The school has become a river like always.. We sometimes like to call it "The green sea". The employee who's encharged of cleaning the school lives in a small room in the school. Well, this small room is now full of water so the mistress gave the employee a class and the students who study in this class were divided and are studying with other classes till the new school is finished. So, some of my friends of last year's class are now with me in the same class :)

Now, here are some blog news.. The new blog from Mosul (The days of our life) is updating his blog.. Pass by him and wish him luck.
Another cousin of mine started blogging, Hassan, in (An Average Iraqi), he's 19, and he's studying civil engineering. And he recently was robbed (In fact, it was his father's car) ... Well, he's willing to have a more successful blog than all the other relatives. Let's see ;)

The situation doesn't seem to be changed.. But, and I don't know why, my uncles are going out and visiting people! I see an uncle aday :) And sometimes, we go visit them! Dad says that the situation is safer now than before the elections, but I didn't notice.

I'll try to write today if I had time.. But I just wanted to clarify that it wasn't me who did that petition. It was made bye a site called (From Baghdad to NewYork) ..

And since many people couldn't sign it because they didn't know where to go to sign it. The link was with the title, if you clicked at the title you would've been led to the petition. And here's another link to it.

http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/MSNBCHumanCost/

Regards,
Najma

MSNBC.com has a section called "Iraq: The Human Cost" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3359080/ , ironically the list contains only coalition deaths during the war. We the undersigned think that all Humans are equal and when we count the human cost of this war we do not look at their passports.
We ask MSNBC to solve this by including the Iraqi civilian deaths in this list, We think that we should honor all who lost their life during this war, and more importantly those who are paying the price even though they are not fighting the war. That's what "Human cost is"

Everybody has had problems with blogger, when I push the button (Publish) and I get an error message, I know that I've lost my post with no coming back.. That's why I started copying my posts before publishing them! But, there's another problem that can't be solved that way. What if the electricity turned off? I usually don't worry about this because we have a UPS, but depending on the UPS is what brings me problems.. I wait for the electricity to come, or for the generator to be turned on and the UPS beeps and beeps and then suddenly, it turns off taking my post with it with no coming back!!
That's what happened now, and what made you lose your time reading this paragraph which was not intended to be posted here.

We went out today, we visited my uncle's house after dropping dad at his clinic, and then went to dad's cousin's house because her son has went to hajj and we wanted to congratulate them. I had fun there, they're nice people and make great jokes sometimes.

We went back home at 5PM. Meanwhile, the sky was perfectly gray, and it was raining lightly.

Everybody wrote nice letters the past couple of days. None blamed me for anything, thank God. I'm just guessing here, but I think the percentage of the people who voted is exaggerated! although it did give me hope. I was actually starting to hate us, Iraqis before the elections day because of some acts, but then when I saw how much some are ready to change, it gave me my hope back..

Dad is willing to write tomorrow.. His great daughters have occupied his computer but he might get some time to write tomorrow!

Well, the post seems much nicer but shorter while writing it for the second time! I keep updating my sidebar with links and new features.. If the new map is slowing down the blog, tell me and I'll delete it.