A Star from Mosul

It's been about seven months that I've been hiding this secret. I don't even know why it is supposed to be a secret, my sister allowed me to declare it long ago, but then I didn't find the time to tell you about it. Today I'll just talk and it'll go out itself.

Let's start talking about Sunday, last Sunday: first school-day after the explosion. Unexpectedly, all the parents allowed the students to go to school!! And so we did.. And it went so smoothly in school I couldn't believe it.

That day, the rumor about the delay of the exams started to spread.. And the rumor was confirmed today, the final exams are delayed to the 11th of June because students in Baghdad have been going to school so irregularly, either because of parliament meetings, or Shiite ceremonies, or curfews.

I was glad to hear those news, we have finished 5 chapters of the Chemistry book but have 4 chapters to finish till the forty-days-recess*, we have finished 6 chapters of Physics but we have 4 chapters left, we have 2 units left of English, 2 lecons of French, 4 lessons of Religion, about 10 lessons of Arabic, and I don't know how much of Biology, all to finish till the 10th of April now, or else we'll have to finish it ourselves, which will be a pain. I'm sure some schools in Baghdad will have serious problems with finishing the curriculum, but we'll all have to take the exact same exam on the exact same day, an exam that will literally determine our futures.. Above all that, I will become an aunt all over again! SURPRISE! I still have a difficulty in believing that myself, and yes, you ARE the last to know :)

Here I am, neither happy nor sad about it.. This baby will certainly change my life, but I'm not quite sure to which direction. This completely slips my mind when I try to make a schedule for studying with my friends, I wonder if I will ever be able to keep up with a schedule, or if I will be able to study with too much noise in the house..!

My sister is worried about Aya's feelings, we have visitors at our house today, and they brought children. I know if it wasn't for us, Aya might have harmed one of them. She's so loved and spoiled but she can not stand the presence of another baby in the house.
Mom has bought her some gifts that the baby would give her when it meets her :)
Mom is also trying to figure out the way so that all the crying and noise would not reach me.. We did some trials today and I think it may work.

Other than that, I am hot-tempered and bored, but also fine. I am not replying to e-mails as most of you have noticed, I can't find the time to do that, I started to mark e-mails I should reply to but it's now a very big number I think even when I finish the exams I wouldn't be able to reply to all of them.

PS: Please check the new feature in the sidebar :)

* The-forty-day recess is period of time students of both the 3rd and 6th grades in secondary schools in Iraq take before the final exams. Not to have a rest, but rather to prepare themselves to the exam.

Technorati Tags: exams, aya, baby, news, school

It was about 6PM last night when dad's mobile rang, dad was in the mosque, my aunt was calling him and so mom picked up the mobile instead. Mom's emotions on the phone only led to one conclusion: Someone is dead.

At that time, my brain was trying to figure out who that "someone" was, hoping it wouldn't be someone I know, or someone I really care about. Dad came back from the mosque and stood beside me and HNK trying to figure out what's happening himself. Mom put the mobile aside and said: "Uncle S is dead".

Uncle S was dad's only uncle from his mother's side. A man in his late seventies, peaceful and young in the heart. Last time I saw him was after Eid, I gave him a kiss on his cheek when I greeted him, and he kissed me on my forehead before we left. There's nothing that would make me happier than a kiss on the forehead, especially from a man like him. (He was happy with his new mobile then, and he really knew how to use it unlike many, and I was impressed that a man his age, could understand such up-to-date thing. )

Yesterday, he was shot by Americans on his way back home, and he died. Like many others, he died, left us clueless about the reason, and saddened with this sudden loss. He was shot many times, only three reached him: One in his arm, one in his neck and one in his chest. But they said they're sorry.. They always are.

The police called the first number they found in the mobile, and that was my cousin's: A woman in her twenties, preparing for her engagement pary two days to come, who went in total shock after the phone call although they didn't tell her he died.

***

The clock rang at 5:10 AM, I woke up to the morning prayer, prayed and started studying for my French exam since I didn't study well yesterday. I wasn't so sad, I was a little bit shocked. I told you I'm heartless, and I keep proving it.

At 7, I changed my clothes, had breakfast and headed to school. The driver dropped us a little farther than he usually does, he was hasty trying to get mom to the university, my sister to the hospital and Aya to the kindergarten in time.

It was a bit strange outside the school, it felt strange but I didn't know why. I went in and saw some girls crying. That can be normal sometimes too.. Then I overheard a friend of HNK talking about a bomb [It turned out to be a mortar (قذيفة)] in the school's garden. Only then did I have an idea about what was going on. I hurried outside, but it was too late, the driver had left... and the school had been bombed.
(Well, maybe I'm exaggerating, a small part only was bombed, or as we later knew, targeted with a [mortar]. )

I took a peek into the teachers' room, the most damaged room, the windows were broken and the curtains had fallen down. The [mortar] had fallen in the backyard, near the teachers' room, caused the windows to break in the near classes, and as we heard, two girls were [superficially] injured.

I went upstairs to my class then, where I met my two friends. S was crying, she gets scared easily and she was in the school when the explosion happened.. I and my friend calmed her down and convinced her to go down when we got orders from the headmistress and the INGs -who were by now filling the school- to go to the other building*.

In our way to the other building , I found HNK and Sunshine, my friend found her little sister and we all went there together. The headmistress ordered us to get into classes there, but we all became tired of her orders, and started calling the parents from the illegally-brought-into-school mobiles. Dad was home preparing to go to his uncle's burial when we called, and he hurried to us as soon as he heard the news from HNK who just couldn't stand not crying in the phone.

Few minutes later, dad was inside the school, some girls used his mobile to call their parents, and then we (I, HNK and Sunshine) left home.

For about two weeks now, a secondary school for Islamic studies for girls had moved to our school. They had moved to our old school this year, and when it flooded, they became refugees at our new school. So, two schools are studying in one now, plus another one for boys at noon. And yet, we were targeted [(The headmistress told mom today that they were targetting the police who were close to the school at that time, but that's not for sure)]!!

The [explosiong]itself didn't scare me, especially that I wasn't there when it happened. It's the fact that we were targeted that makes me wonder. A girls magnet school, and another for Islamic studies, what the hell do they think they're doing? And who are "they"?

PS: It isn't quite clear if it was a bomb, a missile or something else. But the most trusted sources say it was a [mortar].
PPS: This post was updated on the 12th of March.

*Our school has two buildings, one for intermediate school and one for preparatory school.

Technorati Tags:
family death, mosul, explosion, school, missile

Bloggers on the same subject:
HNK: Two days in hell.
Mama: We lost our family senior, but that wasn't all.
Sunshine: Live or merely live.
Sanyora: What was going on?
The grandson.

Anyone else?