neurotic Iraqi wife

Its over. Today was the last day, I aint sure if Im glad or sad???? Im glad that I dont have to stand for another 8 hours no more, Im glad that I wont see those few ignorant people that infuriated me, but Im sad. Im sad cuz I had an amazing experience. I am sad that I wont see all the wonderful people I have met from all over the world. Im sad there's no more husky voice. Im sad that the leg muscles I have aquired from standing on those killer heels are gonna disappear into thin air in a couple of more days. I actually kinda like my legs now, I used to always hate the shape, but with those muscles, mama mia, they look like Anna Kornikova's. Darn.....lol

Yesterday and today, there werent many ignorance surrounding me, infact, I met some great people, people who really are interested in helping Iraq in anyway possible. But let me first tell you about a funny thing that happened yesterday.

After 6 hours of standing, I couldnt take it anymore, so I grabbed a chair, and sat down for a couple of minutes. My lenses tend to go all blurry around that time. As I sat down, my eyes was attracted by something on the table, I looked closely, and OMG, it was a pack of cigarrettes, and not any cigarettes, THEY ARE MIAMI cigarettes!!!!!!!!!!OMG, Miami cig from IRAQ. I have read about that brand on one of the Iraqi internet sites, where they supply you with weekly prices of cigarettes and what made me laugh at one time, was when I saw the brand names that were sold in Iraq, and Miami was one of them. So there it was right infront of me, a pack of MIAMI from Iraq. I grabbed the pack with a speed of lightening, and placed it in my bag, making sure no one saw me. I swear I have never taken anything that aint mine before but this one was an exception, this one is from my beloved Iraq. I said to myself, if whoever owns this pack comes for it, I will give them 2 packs of my marlboro. I always get 2 with me, incase I ran out of ciggies.

A few minutes later, guess who showed up????The Iraqi man (a member of the delegation) who blamed us for leaving Iraq and for not suffering. Ummm yup I stole his cigarettes,lol. He came to the table immediately and said"where are my cigarettes???They were here???who took them???" I said to myself shit, now what am I gonna do???. So, I grabbed my bag and told him"Im the one who took them, but can I have them and I will trade with you 2 packs of my Marlboro,please I want those Miami cig". He looked at me confused, and asked why do you want those???(Now ofcourse he had grabbed the 2 packs I handed him in no time) I said cuz they are Iraqi, they smell of Iraq. He was stunned, and I think he realised how wrong he was to accuse me not caring about my country. He said"Well these aint Iraqi but they do come from Iraq, and since you love Iraq so much, why dont you come with us?we are going back in the next few days, come with us and you can stay with me and my family" I smiled and said thanx for the offer, I would love to, but my HUBBY is in Iraq now, and I might go back with him when I see him next month. The man had to go, but I ended up a happy bunny, with my Miami ciagrettes from IRAQ, Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay.....

We have decided to place some plants next to our stall to give it abit more of a lively nature. So we got 2 huge plants and placed it at either side of the stall. And we also got this humangous basket filled with dates. Dates is like an Iraqi traditional fruit since we have plenty of Palm trees in Iraq, and we are known to have the best dates among all the countries of the world. Now the exhibition does not provide trash cans for the stalls, and we didnt bring one either, nor did we bring ashtrays. So where did people throw their cigarette butts and the date pibs?????Surprise Surprise where else but in our plant pots, GRRRRRRRRRR. So I would end up taking a tissue and picked each and every butt and pib, God.......I ended up with soiled nails, eeewwwww, time for a real clean up.....

Ok now to the serious stuff. Isnt there a saying that goes like"Birds of a feather flock together"???Well this is exactly what happened. Every Iraqi who read in the exhibition's brochures the name of our organisation, came by and talked to us. I guess its very natural for expats to look for their fellow expats and get to know them. A young man passed by, and he introduced himself, started telling me about his father's business then all of a sudden he said" My father was kidnapped a week ago" My first reaction and the first words that came from my BIGO MOUTHO was "OH SHIT". Then I tried to correct myself but went on and said"Oh shit, how, and is he ok???" The young man said "we collected the money and he was released yesterday in Basra". OMG. I never met someone that had a direct relationship with a hostage, except for my cousin, who had her cousin kidnapped a few months back. But this one was weird, its this guys father. I was really taken aback. I said to him, thank god he is safe now, I hope he wasnt hurt, but did you find out who the kidnappers were??? The guy said, no he wasnt hurt, thank God but the kidnappers were from the marshes. OMG the marsh people are kidnapping???what for???but then I realised that ofcourse its all to do with money. So that was a first for me, but the guy seemed relieved and didnt look stressed out at all for his father is safe and free.

Then I met another Iraqi. He is an engineer who is new to this country and didnt really know anyone here. He had left his family in Canada and is trying to get his wife to join him here. He started talking about how much he misses Iraq and he was giving me accounts of his university memories back in his good old days. I noticed that as he was talking his eyes became watery, I felt really sad, and didnt know what to do. So I grabbed one of our brochures and pretended not to notice. He took his glasses off and wiped his tears. His words broke my heart and his tears saddened me and made me yet again, swear at the bastard Saddam who forced us to live far from our country in foreign lands, where we will always be treated as strangers. Even this damn war could have been avoided if the assole left our country alone and went to some far away place....But no, he was too bloody arrogant and a selfish bastard. He didnt care one bit about his people, he only cared about himself and his status as the damn president of my country..... Speaking of which, I got a Jordanian man, who when I asked him if he would like to become a member in our organisation, he smiled and said, no I dont think so, cuz we are with the old regime. This time, I stopped myself from being rude, since honestly speaking there was no energy left in me to argue with him, its suffice to say that the only words that came from my mouth were" the regime and its leader that you are talking about has ended in history's trash can" He was so adamant and said with a voice filled with assurance"No they are still there and they will come back", Oh well some people never change......

Then I got this other guy who came by, asked me about how the organisation can help him, so unintentionally I said"We can help you in all kinds of ways". He said"Oh great then can you start by giving me a date" I wasnt actually looking at him, since I was busy collecting the papers I was about to give him, but the minute I heard the word date I froze, I thought to myself shit, now how am I gonna answer this idiot???But as I looked up I saw him wink at me and in his hands was a date, the fruit,lol. What a tease..... Then 2 American men stopped by, and as we were talking, one of them said that there are 600 brands of dates, I smiled teasingly and said oh really???Can you name them for me????hehe, his colleague turned to him and said Im outta this I aint gonna help you, you have yet again put yourself in a difficult situation. The next day the 2 men came to me and handed me a magazine that surely has the 600 names of dates,lol. Americans never give up do they??? I still havent read it, but I sure will tomorrow.......

Well that was it, the end of a great experience, I hope that the organisation pleased many people and I hope that we will get as many responses as the number of people that visited our stall. I think next time, we will be better organised, and we will be ready for tricky questions and tricky situations, not that I need to learn how to reply since I know my tongue is always there ready to shoot,lol.

As for HUBBY, well, he keeps asking me if I have met cute guys???I mean yeah some of them were real cute, but in every conversation I made sure to inform them that Im married and that HUBBY is in Iraq right now..... How can I look at other men, when the only man I see through my eyes is HUBBY and the only man engraved in my heart and soul is MY HUBBY......

Its over now, so Am I GLAD or am I SAD?????


PS: Im really sorry for not responding to comments lately, but I thank each and everyone of you, some comments really made me laugh, and others gave me so much encouragement.......And I also thank everyone who reads my blog and doesnt comment, for I do the same at times. I hope that you are enjoying it and that Im being as helpful as I can to tell you about my culture, my country, my life and most important of all the love that I have for my one and only HUBBY.....