‘this is not happening!’
‘this is not happening!’
I kept whispering as we were all put into the RV… A neighboring family joined us… It was so hard to move about inside… It was so tight, my dad kept shouting at us not to bother grandmother and our injured brother.
As the wheels of the RV rolled out oh so slowly of of the driveway, I was standing at the back sitting partially on the small sink… In the small back window I glanced at our house wondering if we would ever be back home again… Then beyond my control my voice kept whispering, ‘this is not happening!’
I wished all the noise in the car would stop, I wished my grandmother stop shouting and protesting, I wish my siblings stop fidgeting and arguing about who sits where… I wished my brother wasn’t hurt, so we could have more room to sit, I wished we didn’t allow more people into our RV, I wished I had room to sit my bottom down… I wished my dad would stop yelling at us..
Most of all I wished my dad would just stop the car and take us home, I wished the army would miraculously stop in their tracks and declare peace.
I felt my body shiver as my eyes wide open, I gasped the moment the RV turned into the main street, there were literally thousands upon thousands of cars and people flooding through the streets all heading in two direction… Out of the city, heading east towards Iran borders or north to Turkey borders.
I was not the only one gasping, everyone in the car did too, my mom begun to sob out loud, the rest of us begun to cry out loud, some of us cursing and saying very bad word about Saddam Hussein and his regime…
Thousands of people men, women, children walking or being carried by parents all around us, young and old, some were so old they are carried by stretchers… Wounded people with bandaged heads and arms or chest or on crutches all walking… At all times it looked like cars were on the streets but you could not see the road… You could not see the ground for km after km… It was covered with people!
Waves upon waves of people surrounding our RV as my dad very slowly drove through the streets… The road that led into the first highway out of the city of Sulimanyah used to take us 10minutes…on that faithful night it took us about 4-5 hours… As the night came over us, the people kept walking non stop…
If I can forget all what I been through during that ordeal, the one thing I can never forget is the first cry of mother searching for her child who got lost in the crowd, then another mother started shouting her child’s name, then a father yelling his son’s name,….. The voices of parents and sibling crying and calling out the names of missing child(ren), sounds that pierced my heart in ways I can never forget…
The shouting kept on and on, with people knocking on our RV doors and windows begging us to allow them in or take their children inside…
I remember a man begging to climb over top of our car to get a view of the crowed in hopes to see his missing child… My dad wouldn’t allow him because the traffic was moving and he was didn’t want to be left behind nor he wanted anyone on the roof in case they fall and hurt of if they break the roof it would be disastrous…
The crying of people searching in the dark for the babes was excruciating and painful… I eventually fell asleep with my ears tightly covered by my hands.
I slept in the space under the dashboard of the passenger seat with my knees to my chin. I was 19 years old.
I kept whispering as we were all put into the RV… A neighboring family joined us… It was so hard to move about inside… It was so tight, my dad kept shouting at us not to bother grandmother and our injured brother.
As the wheels of the RV rolled out oh so slowly of of the driveway, I was standing at the back sitting partially on the small sink… In the small back window I glanced at our house wondering if we would ever be back home again… Then beyond my control my voice kept whispering, ‘this is not happening!’
I wished all the noise in the car would stop, I wished my grandmother stop shouting and protesting, I wish my siblings stop fidgeting and arguing about who sits where… I wished my brother wasn’t hurt, so we could have more room to sit, I wished we didn’t allow more people into our RV, I wished I had room to sit my bottom down… I wished my dad would stop yelling at us..
Most of all I wished my dad would just stop the car and take us home, I wished the army would miraculously stop in their tracks and declare peace.
I felt my body shiver as my eyes wide open, I gasped the moment the RV turned into the main street, there were literally thousands upon thousands of cars and people flooding through the streets all heading in two direction… Out of the city, heading east towards Iran borders or north to Turkey borders.
I was not the only one gasping, everyone in the car did too, my mom begun to sob out loud, the rest of us begun to cry out loud, some of us cursing and saying very bad word about Saddam Hussein and his regime…
Thousands of people men, women, children walking or being carried by parents all around us, young and old, some were so old they are carried by stretchers… Wounded people with bandaged heads and arms or chest or on crutches all walking… At all times it looked like cars were on the streets but you could not see the road… You could not see the ground for km after km… It was covered with people!
Waves upon waves of people surrounding our RV as my dad very slowly drove through the streets… The road that led into the first highway out of the city of Sulimanyah used to take us 10minutes…on that faithful night it took us about 4-5 hours… As the night came over us, the people kept walking non stop…
If I can forget all what I been through during that ordeal, the one thing I can never forget is the first cry of mother searching for her child who got lost in the crowd, then another mother started shouting her child’s name, then a father yelling his son’s name,….. The voices of parents and sibling crying and calling out the names of missing child(ren), sounds that pierced my heart in ways I can never forget…
The shouting kept on and on, with people knocking on our RV doors and windows begging us to allow them in or take their children inside…
I remember a man begging to climb over top of our car to get a view of the crowed in hopes to see his missing child… My dad wouldn’t allow him because the traffic was moving and he was didn’t want to be left behind nor he wanted anyone on the roof in case they fall and hurt of if they break the roof it would be disastrous…
The crying of people searching in the dark for the babes was excruciating and painful… I eventually fell asleep with my ears tightly covered by my hands.
I slept in the space under the dashboard of the passenger seat with my knees to my chin. I was 19 years old.
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