The Waiting Place...

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Election Day in Gayara: Meran's Perspective

Since i read the story by Nirgaz it expired me to write my story during the election day in Q-West,Iraq. we had the same kind of the day it was cold but not rainy. i went THT office to talk to someone about all these Iraqi to vote for thier country that work for us fanilly we had a word late in the after noon about 7:00 that all iraqi's that work with qualition forces could vote in side the FOB(base) they brought the plactice boxes and paper i came and see the area that they put was not a good place because it was the internet cafe and there was a lot of soldiers were there on internet i told them i think it will be better if we go to the next room and do it becuase it is empty and it has trowers so it represent everyone is free and the democracy is taking place no matter how much the poll is big or small, to give it to who ever want without some one looking over his head.

the election went very well praise to allah everyone got to vote and they were very happy and they were thanking American for that effert.

there is no comment on my side exept an exellent job

i did got to vote for my country (kurdistan)

Meran Abdullah Email Homepage 01.31.05 - 2:22 pm #

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The poem below was written by a human rights activist that befriended Meran in the Turkish refugee camps. It is all true, based on recollections and memories shared with her by Meran. It was published in a book called "Kurdistan Times," a bi-annual publication of the Kurdish Human Rights Watch, Copyright 1997...

MY HOME IN KURDISTAN
By Margareta Hanson

My home, so
my father told me
was in a valley
in the mountains,
with a river
clear and cold,
its water running
from the snowfields.

In the garden
fruit trees grew.
We had cucumbers,
grapes and melons.
In the barn
there were, of course,
cows and sheep and
my father's horse.

In our home,
heated by
the baking oven
were handmade carpets
of all colors.
It was my home
until 1980 when
I was two years old.
Then came Saddam's soldiers.
Iraqi troops
bulldozed our house
and the barn,
destroyed the garden
and drove us out
from our valley
in the mountains.

Hunted, homeless,
frightened,
we had to flee.
My father's horse
carrying some
blankets, pots and pans
and my older brother
carrying me.

For years we walked
at night
lighted by the stars.
We were hungry,
cold and ill,
sleeping in a tent
as from place
to place we went.

Like that
we lived
until 1988
when I was
ten years old.
Then planes flew by
and chemical bombs
exploded in the sky.

I had run, was
hiding in the mountains.
When I returned I found
that my mother,
my father, and my brother
were laying dead.
Peshmergas helped me
bury them, and then I fled.

Four years went by.
I stayed with
thousands of other Kurds
in a Turkish camp.
We lived in tents.
For heat the sun,
for light at night
the shining stars.

Now I am in another world
of neon lights and cars.
Here in the United States
I go to school and work at night.
I call myself a man and say
"Forgotten is the pain,
I am on my way."

But when I sleep
I am a child at home
in the valley
in the mountains
with the river
cold and clear,
it's water running
from the snowfields.

In the garden
fruit trees grow.
We have cucmbers,
grapes and melons.
In the barn
there are, of course,
cows and sheep
and my father's horse.

In my dream
I clearly see them,
my father, my mother
and my older brother,
in our home
in the valley
in the mountains
in my country, Kurdistan.

I am asking you, my friend,
is there a Kurdistan,
a land that is mine,
that will welcome me?
Is there a land
of peace and democracy
where all people are free
and living in harmony?

Where hate and murder
does not exist
and every man and
woman is a friend?
If so, Kurdistan, I am
your long-lost son
who wants to go home
and never leave again!