Personal Narrative: My First Day In Iraq

Words: 1228
Pages: 5
Open Document
I rose that morning with a sore back, beneath me was a thin cushion in the center of the living room as if I was on display. My cousins paraded around me as I made sure I was not the last one up. Everyone who had slept on the roof had awakened with the sun but for those who did not enjoy the open air and soaring bugs slept downstairs. I was seven and could not bear to witness another day in the sandy heat. The amber cob walls did its best trying to keep its settlers cool in the 100-degree torrid heat. It was my third day in Iraq, the power had gone out as it did every few hours. It felt like there was not a drop of electricity running through the wires. My cousin, Zainab, took me to the chickens and coached me into snatching their eggs. The chickens resided with the cows by the edge of the house, they didn’t have names, one was all black and the other was white with orange spots. They stood tall like bulls ready to attack which frightened the children. Zainab stood in her ruby traditional dress barely touching the floor delivering me directions. “Just take the egg and run”, she yelped standing by the exit.
I dug into the chicken coop, beginning to scatter the hay as if I was on a hunt for gold, I …show more content…
I woke that morning to everyone gone dealing their daily burdens. I approached the long faucet in the back of the house preparing my face for the burst of cold water, but nothing was happening. I hovered over the parched drain thinking it just needed time, however the sun was pounding too hard on my braided scalp. I raced to the kitchen sink nearly stepping on a chicken that had wondered into the house and dealt with the same outcomes. This was something I never thought would happen, but the people were accustomed to it. The outage lasted three days, but felt eternal. I spent those days watching drained women lug pots of water they had just fished from the river over their heads. For the rest of our trip I was so grateful to just have cloudy salt
Show More

Related Documents: Personal Narrative: My First Day In Iraq

Review of the Roman Empire Essay

HIST 3460 Blogs and Oral Histories, the best way to re-live the past Book and narratives such as Baghdad burning and Footsteps in Gaza are a great way to enjoy a piece of history in a form that is a little different and more personal than your average text book readings. These books, specifically Baghdad Burning, give the reader a rare insight into the daily lives of the people in affected areas such as Iraq, as well as show a side of the war, and a flip side perspective, of the people in and…

Words 2128 - Pages 9

Essay about Written Confessions

theory writing is portrayed as a mode of expression or creativity; as a way to guide others or maybe even oneself; although in reality when linked to a grade writing is nothing one imagines. My first true writing piece as a child was a valentine’s letter to my parents. I feel this may have been the very first time I as a writer had to express myself through paper. Granted it wasn’t a very difficult assignment but I struggled to find the right words to express myself. “How does one take an entire childhood…

Words 1000 - Pages 4

Comparing D-Day Speech And Richard Nixon's Resignation

The presidents of the past have made many important speeches that show a shift in the era. Two such speeches are Dwight Eisenhower’s D-Day speech and Richard Nixon’s Resignation. Eisenhower's D-Day speech was made June 6th, 1944. This was addressed to all the allied troops as they prepared to invade France. Eisenhower hoped that this would encourage the Allied soldiers taking part in the invasion. This message reminded every man that “the eyes of the world are upon you” and that their opponents…

Words 904 - Pages 4

Grade 9 Literature Terms Essay

When two words have sound in common but do not rhyme exactly. Occur at the ends of lines. flung the shutter, when with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately Raven of saintly days of yore. Henry uses an allusion to the wise men from the cast called “The Magi” who presented the infant jesus with the first christmas gift. Seeing the snowman standing all alone In dusk and cold is more than he can bear. The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepare A night of gashing and enormous moan…

Words 4227 - Pages 17

American Fascism Is on the Rise Essay example

before student tracking in the public schools had been formalized, an informal tracking system was nevertheless in place: the university track, the craft track, the poultry worker track, and the prison track. I was somewhere between the last two. Both my parents were working in a defense contractor factory, and I was left adrift in the factory-worker 'burbs to be trained by television and alcohol. Raised on a curriculum of McCarthyism, I did the most logical thing I could think of to avoid both the…

Words 6123 - Pages 25

canadian curriculum and cultural hegemony Essay

Abstract My experience of curriculum is deeply embedded within a history of an/other place told by voices that were both displaced and refused. Part of my research agenda for this paper, which is intertwined with my life history, seeks to make sense of the question: What effects does marginalization have on a society's ability to resist cultural appropriation? To first consider the above research question from my own perspective, I draw on my cultural and family stories of being Kurdish people under…

Words 3574 - Pages 15

Virtue and Compassion Essay

will be more likely to feel compassion. There are also differences in the degree of an individual’s feelings of compassion, and that many people and cultures view compassion as a basic human value. If I see someone in pain or someone struggling, my first instinct is to help, to listen, to be there for them. I will be there if someone needs help, if someone needs an ear, if someone just needs another friendly person who can provide a simple thing: to acknowledge that they are here, and that their…

Words 2239 - Pages 9

Essay on What is Art?

question some may ask is what is Art? There’s No true answer to what art is, it’s more of an opinion and is different in everyone’s perspective. Art is a way of skill, anything that comes through somebody’s mind. Art makes this world what it is to this day, and because of it the world also thinks much differently. It’s not just a way to communicate, although it’s that too. Art helps the mind with imagination and creativity. There are elements that go into art like different types of lines, shapes, forms…

Words 1440 - Pages 6

Department of English Spring 2014 Course Descriptions Essays

and film. We will investigate how attitudes toward war have evolved throughout American history: our timeline begins with the Civil War—the traumatic event that birthed the modern American state—and ends with the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. In particular, we will attend to the ethics of representation, asking who is assigned the roles of hero, villain, and victim in the works we study, and why the writers and film directors have made the choices they do. The arguments made by these…

Words 9501 - Pages 39

A Summary of Important American Historical Facts Essay

from Mexico and invaded their territory, how the soldiers forced the Indians to work and grow food for them, and how the missionaries worked to convert them to Catholicism, yet they practiced a mixed form combining their religion and still do to this day. It talked about the Americans pushing them to abandon their “beastly and uncivilized” beliefs in favor of American culture and how Hopi fought in WWII and weren’t allowed to vote when they got back. The Other – Micmac Chief’s Observations of the…

Words 2625 - Pages 11