The sights and sounds of the city

I am currently sitting on the balcony area outside my apartment. Each of the apartments has a common walkway where we have lined up chairs and cots for sitting. Living on the second floor up and above the concrete t-walls means that I can see out a bit into our area. In between the trailers, concrete bunkers, and t-walls rise huge beautiful palm trees. Some of the trees are date palms, and if you are lucky you can find a fresh date that the birds have neglected to find first.


From the balcony I can hear all the normal city sounds- bus engines, car horns, construction workers clanking their tools. Police sirens can be heard along with men shouting in the distance. Iraqis carry on conversations on the sidewalk. The occasional bird chirp breaks up the monotony of the city chorus. If you close your eyes and just listen, you could be in any city in the US- Chicago, New York, Dallas. Then you add in the sound of gunfire, weapons detonation in the distance, and realize that the men are shouting in Arabic- and you are brought back to the fact that this is truly Baghdad.

There is a certain beauty to this city, especially in the architecture. The stonework of the buildings is breathtaking. Marble and granite are everywhere- walls, floors, even inlaid into sidewalks in intricate patterns. Saddam spared no expense in the building of his area.