This summer I visited Iraq for the first time after six years of being away from my home country. I was really excited to see all my family again.
I moved to Austin, Texas in 2010 after my father was helped by The New York Times to move our family to the United States. My father worked as a translator for The Times. The newspaper wanted to protect our family because it’s not always safe for translators. I started school in the United States in the fifth grade at Walnut Creek, where I began learning English. I had not been able to return to Baghdad, where my family lives until this summer.
While I was visiting in Baghdad, my family in Iraq was really worried about us because we have the American citizenship certificate, and the people over there might think that we have a lot money, and could kidnap us.
In the airplane I was the only one in my family who was really scared, we were 11 hours in the plane. I could not sleep. My heart beat really fast and I was praying the whole time.
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I knew Iraq was not going to be how it used to be because of all the attacks, everything had changed. The roads are all covered in craters left behind by the bombings, and it’s always crowded. The police officers and the military are filling the streets, trying to protect the people.
— Raidy Zanjeel
I was a little surprised when we arrived, because I felt like I went to a whole different world — not the same Iraq that once I used to live in. We didn’t go to certain places because of the sunni and shia thing that is still happening over there. Two bombings happened while I was over there.
It was extremely hot over there. Electricity is unreliable all over Iraq. The government gives the power one hour a day so people have to buy generators to provide more power for the rest of the day to power their refrigerators to save food. Electricity is also used to power fans to help with the high temperatures, which was about 122 degree fahrenheit. It was so hot my little brother’s nose started bleeding because of the heat.
I knew Iraq was not going to be how it used to be because of all the attacks, everything had changed. The roads are all covered in craters left behind by the bombings, and it’s always crowded. The police officers and the military are filling the streets, trying to protect the people.
All the stores are next to each other and stay open until midnight. To get a taxi, you must stand on the side of the road and wave your arm. There are long lines at the few gas stations that are open there.
I also visited a historic place called Baghdadi Museum, which portrays how life used to be in the past. My mom always used to tell me about how they lived, but I couldn’t imagine life back then because I never saw how they lived until I saw the museum and figured out what my mom used to tell me.
What I experienced in Iraq, is that life over there is really hard. People are having a hard time working and living. Nothing over there is healthy and the hospitals are not clean enough to get people the right medicine. When my brother got sick we couldn’t get him any medicine because we were scared that they would give us the wrong medicine and something would happen to my brother.
I learned that Iraq is wrecked and I feel so sad about that, seeing my country that way. It hurts a lot. I hope that one day my family in Iraq would have a chance and be able to come to United States and live close to us safely.
