Saturday, May 06, 2006

Sleeping in The Rain

5-5-2006 Thursday

Summer has begun in Baghdad, and all the troubles began with it! Yesterday was one of those bad days for me, everything was bad especially the weather. At 2 P.M. we were waiting for the neighborhood's generator to be on like everyday on this time. But a few minutes after switching it on, it suddenly got off. Everyone in our streets went out asking what had happened, and they all started to swear and insult the man who is responsible for switching it on and off!! The weather was hot, sandy and humid yet we all were having our after-lunch hot and dark tea.

At afternoon dad decided to go check for the generator and ask the man incharge whether he was going to turn it on at night or not. We had to do some preparations in case there would be no electricity at night. And the news came: gasoline had fallen on the engine while it was on and burned the generator!!!!

Hot weather, sandstorm, humidity, lots of bugs in the air with only four hours aday of electricity and no water! How cool and comfortable is it to sleep in such conditions! Well, it didn't end this way. At night my family decided that we should sleep on the roof. We were thinking of the flying gunshots at night but we had no other choice. At 12:30 my parents, my sister and i went up to the roof and settled ourselves to sleep. The weather was still very humid and there were some clouds in the sky.. and some lightening.

I took my new laptop with me up to the roof in order to try the wireless connection. After less than five minutes it rained heavily on us!! We all started to run and laugh trying to get our stuff inside the house. The gasoline was already finished in the small house's generator, so we had to convince ourselves to sleep in the living room with no fan, no airconditioner and no nothing. Well, i've spent countless nights like this, so it doesn't seem that bad to me. the rain kept falling so heavily for some time, and then a sandstorm started right afte the rain. I don't know how can there be rain and sandstorm in one place at the same time! But it's been this way since spring statred, and for the first time it's still raining here in May! Everything has changed in this country, even the weather. Sandstorms in spring, and rains in summer. Won't there be any snow??!! I watched Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, but i couldn't finish it cuz the batteries charge was over. I finished it this afternoon.

I woke up this morning feeling that as if i had fallen from a very high building. All my bones are aching, even my nose's bones!!

Two months are left for me here, and i sure don't want to spend it this way. I want to sleep in my room during this final time, but it seems that i have to abandon it as i do every summer!

I hate it this way. When is it going to end!!


..............................................................................................

From the Roof of an Iraqi House!
6-5-2006 Friday night

This is the first post I write from the roof of my house. It's unusual to do such thing, but i decided that everything can be possible in iraq! There is a wireless LAN in the laptop but i'm not getting any signal. So now i'm just typing this and listening to the sounds around me and some songs for Abdul Haleem Hafith.

This is our second night without electricity. The national electricity comes for one hour every six or eight hours, and we ran out of gasoline now, so we decided to go up on the roof and sleep there. The weather tonight is better than last night. The sky is clear and i can see the stars. There is a slight gentle wind that brings all the smells of the burning gasoline from the generators around the neighborhood. There are some fierce bombings in a near by region. It's probably in Adhamiya, but i'm not sure of this of course. I can only hear the explosions and gunshots.

I've been trying to get online fot the past couple of days but all my efforts went in vain! There is something crazy happenes to the internet server everytime i try to get online. I'm started to get to my wits' end.

..................................

i woke up before 8 o'clock in the morning. Bugs were eating me all night long, and now flies are everyehere. The bombings continued till the morning.

Sleepy Morbido!

17 comments:

David said...

I am also baffled as to how it can rain and then sandstorm right after!

I saw Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire a few weeks ago (I usually wait to see new movies until they are out on DVD). It was pretty good. I especially liked the cute French girl! :) What was up with Harry though? A really pretty girl wants him to take her to the dance and he treats her quite badly during their date! Bad Bad Harry Potter!

The weather in Indiana has been quite mild and Spring-like for the past several weeks. Last year we didn't have Spring. As I recall, we went straight from the cold of winter into the heat of summer! Just wait until you come here Morbido and meet all the spoiled Americans who have never lived without airconditioning in the summer! ;)

Morbid Smile said...

So it seems that the weather is getting crazy all around the world this year!! Last night was very windy with some thunders, and there is still sand in the air here. But this is just the begining in Iraq! Summer is a real hell here!!!! But I have to say that I feel I'm kinda lucky for I won't have to spend all summer time in Iraq this year. I'll be gone before it's too hot ;)

How much time does it take for new movies to come out on DVD? The one I have is a cinema version and the sound quality wasn't that good. I, too, felt that there was something wrong going on with Harry in this movie. I liked the French girl too, David :) But there was no big fight with Voldemort this time! We have to wait and see what will happen in the next movie.

And... dhytoc :|

attawie said...

stop the Harry Potter talk, let me see it first.

Morbid Smile said...

Haven't you seen it yet, Attawie??!! Do you want me to send you the DVD? ;) .. Well it's Shabnem's, so I have to ask her first!!

Original_Jeff said...

Morbido,
We have hot and humid weather here as well--but never hot, humid, and *sandy*.
I see the weather forecast for Baghdad is for 100 F (38 C) today and tomorrow. That is really hot without air conditioning.

I think it is unfair that Baghdad is getting half as many hours of electricity as the outlying provinces.

David said...

Well, here in the U.S., I think it takes about nine months from the theatrical release of a movie until it is available for rent or purchase on DVD.

Hurry up and see the movie Attawie, I want to talk more about Harry! ;)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Morbido,

I'm glad to finally hear from you! I really hope that things get better soon. But every time I turn on the news it just seems worse.

Trying your laptop on the roof was very resourceful, btw.

Have you found out where in the States you will be going to?

Take care.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Melantrys,

After all that waiting for a new episode of "Lost", I ended up.....falling....ASLEEP!

So I missed the section between where Anna Lucia is about to shoot Henry and where Michael shoots Anna Lucia and Libby.

Heeeelp! What happened in between? Last I saw, Micheal was just waking up! Where did he get the gun?

Lynnette In Minnesota said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Double post, that's never happened before.

Sorry about that.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Melantrys,

Ohhh, I'm sorrrrrry! I thought you had seen it already. Now I spoiled it! Well, one consolation is, I don't know if anyone really died or not.

Yes, you're right, I could have deleted it. I jump between Haloscan comments sections(which doesn't let you delete, that I know of)and Blogger, and at times forget where I'm at. :) A seemingly common state of affairs with me. :)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Anybody who knows Arabic,

Can you translate this for me? It might be rude, so my apologies in advance if it is.

lynette,
الدولة ستلاحق المفسدين‏,‏ أيا كانت مواقعهم أو وظائفهم‏,‏ دون تفرقة بين كبير أو صغير‏,‏ حيث لا تحيز عند المحاسبة‏,‏ ولا أحد فوق القانون‏,‏ مشيرا إلي تأكيدات الرئيس حسني مبارك في كل أحاديثه إلي عدم التستر علي أي فساد أو انحراف‏,‏ والضرب بيد من حديد علي كل من يتسبب في إحداث الفساد بأجهزة الدولة‏,‏ أو أنظمتها‏,‏ أو العاملين بها‏,‏ أو غش المتعاملين معها‏,‏ أو التربح غير الشرعي‏,‏ أو أي صورة من صور الفساد‏

CharlesWT said...

Well, according to Google Translate...

"State hunt corrupters, whatever their positions or jobs, without distinction between large or small, where no bias in accounting, No one is above the law, pointing to assurances by President Hosni Mubarak in all his statements to conceal the lack of any corruption or perversion. beatings with an iron hand on each of the cause of corruption devices State, or regulations, or employees, fraud or clientele, profiteering or illegal, or any form of corruption"

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

CharlesWT,

Thanks for the Google Translate link. That may come in handy in the future.

It sounds like this guy is just copying and pasting miscellaneous stuff to screw with the discussions.

Original_Jeff said...

Morbido,
You might want to spread the word to people your age:

"The U.S. Embassy has extended the deadline for application for the annual competition for the prestigious Fulbright Scholarships for Iraqi graduate students. The application deadline for the 2007-08 academic year is June 30, 2006."


http://iraq.usembassy.gov/iraq/20060508_fulbright.html

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Yeah, real life translation is best. Someone did that for me in that comments section and it match's real close.

But given that I had posted an excerpt from Muqtada al-Sadr's Newsweek interview, this guy was way off topic. Egypt wasn't even on the radar. He was just trying to be nasty because I don't know Arabic. *shrug*

Sounds like Morbido isn't the only one having difficulty logging on. Zeyad is too.

Morbid Smile said...

Hellooo! Can anyone see me in the middle of the sand here... and.. the rain???!

The weather: The same.
Situation: Got worse! Adhamiya is in a crisis now! Pray for us.
Morbido: Waiting for the university placement's news! SOON.


Jeff, 38C without air conditioning is so fine in Baghdad! Wait till it's over 50 in August, and still without air conditioning!! It's gonna be melting. I was just checking the Fulbright's news last night when I found that the deadline wad extended. That's very good as more students will be able to apply. I have some friends who are applying this year and the extended deadline will make it easier for them.

Lynnette, sorry I'm late about the translation thing! Tell me if you still want it so I'd send it to you. I knew about the Google translation section from the book Derailed! lol. I tried it once; it gives a close meaning to the original text but it's not really professional. It can be helpful though.

So, what's about LOST?? They don't play it here, so I only get to hear about it! :(

Obviously, everyone in Baghdad is having difficulty logging on. The electricity is one hour ON and nine hours OFF!!! We need to race the time during this one hour to do everything! And the generators are not working that much either. I forgot the existence of the IM's cuz I can never log in, and Attawie was upset at me cuz of this!