Welcome back neighbor

This post was written yesterday, but I couldn't publish it due to some Blogger problems..

Last Monday, at noon, we saw a strykers parking infront of our house, then we saw the soldiers rushing to the left of our house.. This was so strange. We didn't know where they were running to, we assumed that they went to the a company next to our house, but my cousin called from the company at once telling us that the Americans entered our neighbor's house (Which was my grandparents', few years ago). Mom started calling our neighbor (whose husband was in Baghdad) to see what's going on, or whether she needs us to come, our neighbor didn't pick up. We used to hear everything in my neighbor's house, we even had a door between the two houses but we built a wall there after my grandparents died. But, the house was strangely quiet. We started doubting that the soldiers went into her house at all. In a short time, all the neighbors stood at their doors, waiting for our neighbor to do something, or at least the soldiers, our neighbor's brother came and entered the house, that was when we heard some soldier yelling, and then we saw him coming out.. They were long 15 minutes, then we stared seeing the soldiers in our neighbor's garden. There were many of them.. The wall between our house and our neighbor's is low, we can see everything in their garden if we tried enough. A soldier was standing behind the wall just staring miserably at us (This was the most time I could put on a soldier's shoe, it was small enough for me.. He was a young boy, in a country he doesn't know, with no one who loves him, he wanted to go home A LOT, but he somehow couldn't.. I felt as if he wanted to trade places with me) our neighbor and her brother were talking to the soldiers and the translator was translating. In few minutes, the soldiers ran out of the house to their strykers and left.

Our neighbor and her brother disappeared in the house, mom and my neighbor went there on foot, I, HNK and our other neighbor walked there too.. As we got there, our neighbor was crying, I only heard her saying that "the soldiers are coming back on Wednesday to get him, it's his fault, he has a good heart and therefore gets in such troubles", I didn't get it and didn't feel it was appropriate to ask at that time.. We came home after calming her down, she didn't calm down but her mom came to stay with her.. Mom told us about the story at home.

The soldiers came and searched the house, they told her that they found weapons in her husband's warehouse, but he's left the warehouse for about a month, he couldn't pay the rent and so he left it. They came to arrest him, but since he's in Baghdad, they couldn't. They told her that they'll come back and take him on Wednesday, at 2AM.. He hasn't given her a phone number to call, and she had no idea when he'll be back.
Of course, we were so worried for her, sad as well, she has 3 children, the oldest is 6 years old. On Thursday, he called her and she told him that he should come. On Wednesday, he came to Mosul.

He came by taxi, and brought a friend who had good English with him. As soon as he arrived in Mosul, he went to the airport and surrendered to the soldiers with his friend, they told him that they didn't have his name anywhere in their lists and had no idea who came to arrest him. He insisted that they investigate more about it, they did and eventually gave him a card to show to the soldiers if they came to arrest him again. A woman who was at the reception gave him a phone number to give to the soldiers if they arrested him.

At about 5PM, I was studying upstairs in my room when I heard mom talking outside (from behind the wall) to our neighor, I knew something happened so I rushed downstairs to hear the news.. HNK told me that the Americans released our neighbor. Dad and other neighbors welcomed him at the door, the women started to do their famous thing (I have no idea what you call it. The women do it when there's a celebration usually, a wedding or something like this. It sounds like what the Indian Americans shout in their celebrations-- Kul-l-l-l-l-l-ish).. My heart started beating (As usual :)) and we all felt so happy for them. Nevertheless, we all expected the soldiers to come at night to take him, but they DIDN'T. He said they treated him very well at the airport :)
They came to his shop today, and sat quietly near him to ask some questions.. And then left.

We woke up in the morning to find out that my brother-in-law who started his journey to Baghdad at 1PM yesterday has not arrived yet to Baghdad.. We got worried again, and started thinking of what might happen. I went to school to tell my friend about my neighbor's news and my brother-in-law's news. Then proceeded to study, we had a math exam..We first had a Biology test, in which our loving teacher decided to make us a quiz (To raise our grades, she said), she did the opposite. I had all those thoughts and fear for my brother-in-law, and 5 minutes only to answer the really hard questions. I didn't do well, I did very bad in fact, but I didn't really care. Then we got the news that our math teacher decided to cancel the test (That was actually better, I wouldn't have done well without concentrating).. At the break, I sent mom an SMS to ask her about my brother-in-law and to tell her that we're still alive (There was a loud explosion), few moments after that, I got an SMS from her telling me that my brother-in-law (There really should be a shorter word for this) arrived at the hospital in Baghdad (He works and sleeps in the hospital, so he wasn't injured or something). He had to spend the night at Balad (80 km from Baghdad) since the car he took to Baghdad broke near Balad.

I came home at 1:15, hoping for no more HOT news.. Let me be bored. No more excitement please.

On Thursday as usual, I get stuck infront of the TV, as if I've never watched it before.. On Friday, I study a little then get stuck in front of the TV again.. On Saturday, mom will wake me up to study, I start studying and never finish before the family decides to go on a visit before the curfew starts. This happens every week, I get yelled at for my laziness every week. I'll try to finish my homework tomorrow! And try to read some extra Chemistry too..

You know about my attempt to speed-up (I keep discovering more words for this) and skip the 6th grade.. Well, my hopes have been shattering away lately. Our new Arabic teacher seems much worse than the one before, too young, with so many mistakes, and very limited knowledge. And my first mark in Arabic (The very first one, 86) made it impossible to get an average more than 95.. Nevertheless, I talked to uncle about it (Since I still have the opportunity to take a final exam which will be counted by itself and cancel the others) and decided to pray and ask God for guidance. I prayed the prayer I was supposed to pray, I asked God to make me do whatever is better for me. I didn't have any dreams that guided me to what I was supposed to do, not even a strong feeling (I'm supposed to keep trying till I get something.. I'll try to do it again today). But today, I was searching for signs. I think the way I did in Biology was a good sign from God (Do you want to take it easy and cancel the speeding-up? Or do you still want to speed-up and worry for every single mistake you're going to make from now till next year?), guess what I think I'll choose? I hate hesitation. I'll be giving up in PUBLIC.

"Real chance is the chance you take, not the one you merely imagine possible." Here's a quote for you. Who said it? I'll write a post about him next time Inshallah.