IRAQ: A brief glimpse of a normal life

By Saif Hameed in Baghdad

I stepped out of the airplane and headed to claim my suitcase after my two-week vacation in Turkey, when the bureau manager called me: "Did you hear?  A car bomb went off at the airport lot. The driver who was waiting for you had to go. You should find your way out back to the bureau."

I ended the call and said to myself, "I'm definitely home!"   

As I found out later, it was only mortars. In fact, by Baghdad standards, it wasn't that big of a deal. Mortars killed and wounded a few people, but it was like being bitten by reality: Everything is still not OK.

During my vacation in Turkey, I had quickly adapted to the mellow and comfortable lifestyle in Istanbul. I forgot my life back home.

I wasn't looking to visit historic sites or go to the touristy spice market. Istanbul, at first, didn't feel that much different from home. I still could hear the call for prayers in Arabic, the cuisine was very similar and I could catch some Arabic words in the Turkish spoken around me.

All I wanted to do there was relax and eat out. I spent most of my time eating Chinese, Thai, or McDonald's and Burger King simply because we don't have such restaurants in Iraq. Sometimes, I enjoyed being lazy, watching the fountain near the Hagia Sophia, pictured above.

I took my freedom for granted during those two weeks -- going out whenever and wherever I wanted. I was actually struck by the scene of hundreds of tourists walking the streets.

Back home, if you dress a certain way you might be considered a collaborator with the Americans! And here those foreigners were walking peacefully without being disturbed by crazy fanatics lurking in the shadows.

"Why can't we have something like this?" I said to myself. "Is it really hard to have everything normal? It's just people walking around, having electricity 24/7? Why can almost all the countries in the world have it and not mine?"

Since returning home to the bureau, I've felt like a prisoner. Instead of feeling fresh and relaxed after a vacation, like I have in the past, I told one of my friends, "Turkey has ruined my life."

I didn't want to let this place get the best of me. I decided to go out regularly ... and started to wonder, what could I do to shake that feeling of imprisonment?

Visiting the only park in Baghdad requires going through a checkpoint -- a time-consuming process that would take all the pleasure away. There are a few restaurants, but most of them are empty. And there is virtually no nightlife after 7.

Nevertheless, I decided to take a walk every afternoon. I walked almost every day for 30 or 40 minutes. Then last week, I heard this huge blast. I found out that it was a car bomb, very close to the deli which is my daily destination.

Since then I haven't been for a walk again.

--Saif Hameed in Baghdad

Photo by Saif Hameed