Riverbend, the intelligent and articulate author of Baghdad Burning, has, since the beginning of the war, provided a first-person account of the Iraqi experience. If you yearn, as I do, for news of this brave woman, you will be excited to know that she has a new post.
She is safe in Syria where she is learning to, "walk properly again- with head lifted, not constantly looking behind." She writes that:
By the time we had reentered the Syrian border and were headed back to the cab ready to take us into Kameshli, I had resigned myself to the fact that we were refugees. I read about refugees on the Internet daily... in the newspapers... hear about them on TV. I hear about the estimated 1.5 million plus Iraqi refugees in Syria and shake my head, never really considering myself or my family as one of them. After all, refugees are people who sleep in tents and have no potable water or plumbing, right? Refugees carry their belongings in bags instead of suitcases and they don’t have cell phones or Internet access, right? Grasping my passport in my hand like my life depended on it, with two extra months in Syria stamped inside, it hit me how wrong I was. We were all refugees. I was suddenly a number. No matter how wealthy or educated or comfortable, a refugee is a refugee. A refugee is someone who isn’t really welcome in any country- including their own... especially their own.....I cried that night because for the first time in a long time, so far away from home, I felt the unity that had been stolen from us in 2003.
All things considered, I believe that she sounds better, more peaceful, than she has in a long time.
If you have never read this blog, I strongly recommend it. If Riverbend is your old friend, I know that you will join me in morning her losses and celebrating her safety.