Can remodeling a church bring peoples' lives back?

               Iraqi Christians are celebrating the re-opening ceremony for Lady of Salvation Church. It has been two years since the church had been attacked by extreme Islamic group. Today, the church is remodeled and reopened to the public. But, where are those families and people who were there in that Sunday evening mass? Can remodeling a church bring them back?

              Yes, the church looks wonderful from inside and outside. But, what about the bloodshed was there everywhere? They had been killed with cold blood. Families and two priests will never be back again. Remodeling the church will not bring them back again. Are we trying to remove what had happened there? Are we trying to erase the tragedy there? Blood had been spilled in the church. Walls had been marked with holes from shooting guns. Floors had been swimming with blood. Windows had been broken and damaged. The altar of the church had been profaned. Can remodeling the church bring the peoples’ lives back?

              It is a tragedy in the history of Iraqi Christians. Nothing has changed in the “New Iraq”. Many of Iraqi Christians are leaving Iraq since 2003 seeking for peace and security for them. We are the new immigrants, here, outside our homeland. I miss my homeland and our house. Can you imagine being away from your land and house? Can you? 

Click on the link below to see the re-opening ceremony for Lady of Salvation Church.

http://www.ankawa.com/forum/index.php/topic,630563.msg5858973.html#msg5858973

The Influence of the English language

             It has been a long time since my last post-from last November-I have been taking some English classes this summer and I did well. But still I need to improve my English skills. The English language is very wide and sometimes it has no rules just practice. It is very important to speak and to write English language in a professional way. The English language is the only way to communicate with people who speak English. It is an international language. The English language is the number one language around the globe. If you speak and write English well, then you don’t have to worry to translate your thoughts and ideas and deliver them in a correct way to people.

           Any language is a powerful tool.  The English language has an influence in U.S. itself between American people, not just among immigrants or other foreigners. It describes your personality as a professional person; people consider you and take you seriously. Otherwise, people will say “Oh, he/she doesn't speak English well,” because he/she is immigrant and they look at you as a stupid person. In fact, you are not stupid at all, but the whole issue is you can’t speak English well. You can’t deliver your opinion or thoughts. You can’t communicate with others. You can’t take a job. You can’t pursue your dreams. You can’t study in their schools and colleges. You can’t go forward. You can’t achieve what you want.  From my experience here, for more than year and a half, when I spoke English with other people, sometimes I stopped a little bit to think about a word I want to say, or a thought I want to bring up. Another time, I try to write an email to apply for some jobs. I try my best to edit the email and re-write it several times to put it in a professional form. I will not deny that I struggled many times. I reached a point that almost I couldn’t do it anymore. But I kept trying many times. I have to say it has not been easy for me, but nothing comes easy in our life. If you don’t speak English very well you can’t communicate with people, or go outside taking the bus, shopping and buying food. Definitely, you are a prisoner in your house. You can’t do the simple basic stuff in life. It is always useful to have great skills in another language in general and especially in English.

            I wish I had learned and spoken English earlier in my life. I wish that our educational system were better in my country, Iraq. I had studied English from school, but that was an old-fashioned way. The new generation needs a better way to learn English. Not just as a book we need to read and finish it by the end of the studying year, but learn new words as much as we can. Instead of talking Arabic with the teacher in the English class, we should practice and communicate with the teacher in the English language. We need libraries, both locals libraries and Schools libraries. We need new structure in our teaching system. We need more than one English book in our studying year. As Iraqis we weren’t raised to have books, different kinds of books and especially English books in our hands. We are so disconnected from our world. This heavy heritage has reflected in a bad way in my life. Everything, here in the United State of America is about reading and studying, every little thing. Is it my fault I have been born and raised in Iraq? Is it my fault that I didn’t have enough English books to read? Should I blame my country? Or should I blame my past life?

              

             At the end of the day, I think, I should put more effort to read and to write English. It is never too late. I will not give up trying my best to speak and to write in a professional way. I accept this challenge with English language. I have another course to take this winter. It will be difficult. Please, wish me a good luck. I will keep you up-dated with my news.

Note: My blog website changes to http://easternliberty.blogspot.com/

The Hope Never Die...

Hello my folks... It's great to write to you again after a long absence, I have been busy in this life & now I'm trying to find a job! Finding a job here is like finding the heaven, sometimes I lose the hope other times I keep looking for jobs & wondering is it because I'm Iraqi? Or is it the same case to anyone else who is not Iraqi live in U.S?


I'm not focusing only about my career as an engineer but I'm looking for other small jobs like admin assistance office, well as Iraqi person I feel not very proud to look for a small jobs like that but sometimes we need to swallow our pride, Yes I know it is hard; hard for me to think about it but small steps can lead to big one in life specially when someone like me trying to figure it out here far away from my country, trying to involve the society & American community, being in touch with people & bring some little money to help us as a new couple & I really hate sitting at home doing nothing, I try to keep myself busy sometimes reading & sometimes doing some craft stuff or cooking because I don't want my brain dies.

There is some hope & light every where in this world.

It is nice & great being here; peaceful area in a world but I had a job in Iraq I was busy to a point, it is funny that I have so much time now & ask myself "what should I do to keep myself busy?"

When you are busy you try to find a free time for yourself but when you have lots of time you search for something to keep yourself busy, huh!
Or I'm a rush person who wants things be done as soon as possible, I don't know really...

I walk every day, I go to some coffee shop have a hot coffee specially these chilly days here, stopping by library reading some books, doing some shopping, but I didn't make friends till now, I guess this is the hard part here, everyone has his own life & it keeps him busy, well this is what I think.

Oh by the way, I celebrated Halloween; it was really fun with all kids at doors ringing the door's bell every 10 minutes asking "Trick or Treat?" & we gave them candies which kids liked them so much, It is good to know about other people's culture & traditions, from my point of view it make you think wider than what you were & think "outside the box"!

Few weeks & we will celebrate the "Thanksgiving" & it is big in U.S. wish you all happy holydays & GOD bless you all....

Muslim women flout French ban of veil after court fined two women

“When a woman wants to maintain her freedom, she must be bold,” Drider told The Associated Press in an interview.


http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/09/22/168202.html

Check out this link & tell me what do you think?

What Does We Want As Women?

On sunny lovely day, we had decided to eat outside the house, enjoying the weather, so we had gone to a beautiful big park, lots of green area, just like a rug under our feet, the smell amazing, the sun light reflected on the grass, given it a wonderful picture, when you have this composition you never feel bored, it is nature!

But, that wasn't all about, the park has a Soccer field, Tennis field, Bicycle’s race area, kids play yard, Basketball, Garden area that you can plant in, Dogs area so they can hang out with their people besides some food places like “take away” & bathrooms. While we had arrived there, we had noticed there was a soccer game, as Iraqi person I always like soccer, so we had decided to be close to soccer field & enjoy watching the game & the food together, as soon as looking to the players I had realized there were women with men playing together! Yes, playing together, as I know there is only a men team, or only women team, But seeing both women & men, that's really new for me to watch.

The point of this, even in the sports, just like soccer, it is equal, women & men as a team playing together, wearing short shorts with sport shoes; hitting the ball, that's what we need equality, & by the way those women were moms, Yes, & they brought their kids & babies to the field no wonder, it is like a family time & why not, let the people enjoy their life, can a women in middle east play soccer with men as one team like this in public parks?

What should we do? What we want as women? Being housewives, sitting at home, doing the daily housework nothing else or involve in the society, being active, play a roll in some part of the life, being a leader & Yes, why not?
Why we let the negative power controlling us? Why we let those ignoring people taking our life away, our moments, our abilities, our creativity.

Being a follower or being a leader?
Being equal or being second place?
They can’t control you, they can’t control me, we can’t control them, but we can control our lives by ourselves, planning & deciding what we want to be.

I think the first question that every woman should ask herself first, what I want to do in my life?

A New Chapter...

Hello People...

I have been away from posting for a while, getting busy with my new life, I got married to a wonderful man, after a hard path & lots of obstacles from small to big ones, it wasn't easy to reach this point, it took lots of effort from both of us, starting from visa issue, travelling, starting a new life here in U.S. & we already knew it would not be easy but we didn't think it would be as difficult as it was, there were times we were frustrated & wanted to give up, but our love is powerful and finally we made it!

What I've observed from living here is that the west life is completely different from our life in Iraq, there are some common things of course like family, reputation but it is not that as important like in our culture. Life here is filled with alot of details & sometimes I stand & think about myself feeling stupid, but it is not my fault that I came from Iraq were the electricity still comes and goes (which mean lots of hours in the dark) and everything is debit/credit card where Iraq is all cash; there are lots of machines, often you deal more with them than with people, renting movies, buying stuff from the grocery store, getting books at the library-all of this can be done by machine. Don't get me wrong folks I'm not complaining about technology here, I'm just comparing, a person who has lived a basic life in Iraq, I am amazed at the details here, even with the washing machine, everything has lots of details, even when we walk down the street we should take the right side of the road, its lots of information and I must admit I struggled here in the beginning with the language & with this amount of details and even the laws, if you break them you pay a fine or go to jail, but the cities for the most part are safe, where I live is very safe, I could walk the street at night by myself at night and be perfectly safe-I'd like to see any woman do that in Iraq! Everything has a value here, they appreciate everything, there's a quality of life here that we don't know in Iraq and it makes you realize the difference between existing and living.

Sunny day in Iraq

 went to a movie theater for the first time in my life, Yes, it was a first time, I have never been in a movie theater before, and it was very cool. For the first time I have a library card, I went to a public library here, where are our libraries in Iraq? There was an okay library in my college in Iraq, but I didn't notice a good public library I visited one a long time ago to look for a book, it was very neglected, smelled bad, the building was old, dust all over the books & everywhere, no one really cared.


While I'm here now, feeling very safe, & when I walk, feeling very happy, Yes, I keep my eyes open, but I know there is nothing to worry about, my worries have changed now, I've began a new chapter in my life, with my husband, and I am looking forward to our family and continuing my career where a woman can achieve as well as a man.