Birthday
in Baghdad: "What a day to be thirteen"
By Ramzi Kysia, Iraq Peace
Team
BAGHDAD-- Amal Shamuri is
the fifth child in a family of eight, living in a small apartment off
Baghdad's Karrada shopping district. Irrepressible and precocious, Amal
joked last January that she wouldn't mind a war if George Bush would
only bomb her school.
Today was a different story.
Today, Amal celebrated her thirteenth birthday on the fourth day of
American air strikes on Baghdad with plumes of black smoke surrounding
the city and darkening the sky, reportedly from oil set afire by Iraqi
forces defending the capitol.
Her family and friends gathered
with members of the Iraq Peace Team in a small garden near the Tigris
river to mark the occasion. They blew balloons and soap bubbles, strung
party streamers, played tag, and ate barbequed chicken, potato salad,
deviled eggs, and chocolate cake. True to form, the kids ate the cake
first, before serving the rest of the meal to the adults present.
Cruise missiles exploding
to the south and east occasionally interrupted the party, one powerful
enough to rattle tableware and partygoers alike. The explosions only
temporarily silenced the festivities; but with moments the garden once
again erupted to squeals of laughter and boisterous childhood games,
played beneath rising plumes of air-borne debris and smoke in the distance.
"Life is more powerful
than death," said Shane Claiborne, age 27, from Philadelphia. "How
can George Bush bomb these kids?," he asked.
Lisa Ndejuru, age 32, from
Montreal, quietly remarked, "What a day to be thirteen."
Amal's mother, Kareema, sat
silently to one side, watching her kids play. Her husband died in a
car accident eight years ago, leaving her to raise eight children by
herself. To her credit, none of them beg in the streets, and all save
the oldest remain in school. Amal herself dreams of becoming a lawyer
one day.
When asked what she wanted
for her birthday, Amal - whose name means "hope" in Arabic
- smiled and simply replied, "All I want is peace."
23 March 2003