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Baghdad, Free Iraq Amidst all the terrible news coming from Baghdad from reporters that for the most part live behind huge concrete fences, travel in Flak Jackets and spend very little time with the `regular people` it is good to get some perspective on how things really are in Iraq. It is a cool, fall morning and I am looking out from the third floor balcony of the home where I am staying with family in Baghdad. It is still early so it is quiet. The sound of the birds, the rumbling of the trucks passing by on the nearby highway and the bright sun seem to all come together to testify to the peace that has settled over Baghdad. Sure there are the bombings, gunfire and more but people in Iraq have lived with it for over 35 years. It is all relative - Sadaam is gone and hope is back! A Donkey cart passes by with two boys going from area to area collecting cans. The middle aged man who runs the tiny tea shop across the street from our place shows up and begins to open his shop. People begin to come to the small garbage dump with their bags of garbage. A mother. Two small children struggling with the small plastic bags of garbage. A little girl. A rooster crows from one of the neighbors roofs. The lady across the street begins to put away the beds on the flat roof from family that slept on the roof in a long middle eastern tradition. She folds up the blankets, the sheets, the beds and the day begins. Everywhere on the roofs are the ubiquitous satellite antennas completely banned during Sadaams time when they brought a jail sentence - now you have to look hard for a house that doesn't have one! How things have changed in just a few months. Just in the next block the early morning sun begins to hit the walls of the freshly painted kindergarten! Covered with cartoon characters and bright yellow, green and red it stands ready to welcome the children of the new Iraq. Little by little as I watch children begin to appear walking to school. All are wearing nicely pressed blue and white uniforms. Some walk. Others stand on the corner in front of our place waiting for buses or cars to take them to school. Local people take turns taking the children to school in one of their cars and these cars come by every couple of minutes as the children go to school. The sounds of morning increase as the tiny general store to the left of us opens. The shopkeeper begins to lift up the shutter of his store and already the mothers and their daughters are lined up to get bread and eggs from him for breakfast for their families. Everywhere now little groups of people are huddled together talking -talking freely for the first time in 35 years about anything they wish - the news of the day, criticism of how things are going - anything - Iraq is now free. In contrast to so many countries in the area gone is the awful sound of the blaring loudspeakers from the Mosques that wake everybody up in the middle of the night with their so called `Call to prayer` a call that nobody ever answers as the mosques are nearly always empty. The morning is now in full swing! The `hustle` is back in Baghdad! Groups of men -two, three, five to a group walk together across the small plaza in front of our place off to work. The children crisscross back and forth going to school, happily chattering together. The mothers and the smaller children are seemingly everywhere as they take out the garbage, buy things at the small shops and huddle in small groups talking about he latest gossip. Baghdad is just fine, thank you! The noisy speakers are gone, the kids are finally able to study something other than Sadaam in school and even the birds seem to sing freely. I was here before the war during the time of Sadaam when the pervasive fear and sheer terror was what used to greet every morning. The pictures of Sadaam everywhere - it seemed in your sleep even are gone! The normal, average sounds of a typical morning you could duplicate anywhere in the world. God has chosen to shine his face of favor on Baghdad and on Iraq. I think He has a sense of humor because just now as look down from my perch I seem to see His sweet smile and a chuckle as He says `See everything is just fine in Baghdad.` and what do I see? A bright red, white and blue shirt with the the words `Tommy Hilfiger` emblazoned across! If Tommy and God and satellite antennas are back in Baghdad then things are just fine . `Stop worrying about us` the scene below me seems to say! As an Assyrian and a Christian the original people of this land who have been here since Biblical times I can sigh a sigh of relief. Rev. Ken Joseph Jr, an Assyrian directs Assyrianchristians.com and is completing the book `I Was Wrong about his experiences in Iraq. _______________________________________________________________________ Click HERE to return to the edited story Click HERE to create a banner that links to this story! Your e-mail address will be kept private!
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