I spoke with Thuraya Saraf yesterday. She's visiting one of her daughters in Los Angeles. She and her husband live in Baghdad. Their house is on the Tigris river in the northern part of the city, near one of Saddam's former palaces and the big houses of some of his administration. The windows of their home were blown out during the U.S. attack in April. They weren't there at the time. They were staying with her husband's sister in a safer part of the city. She spoke with her husband, Nu'man, last week on the phone. (At the time she was still in Falls Church, Virginia at her sister Neeran's, where I first met her--see entry about Falls Church.) Her husband owns a sock factory in Baghdad. Nu'man told Thuraya he drove to the southern part of the city recently, even though it was very dangerous, to buy glass panes and aluminum to repair the windows in their house. She said he took a bunch of young boys, "like body-guards, but they were not body-guards -- I don't know who they were," for protection. She said her husband, like many Iraqis, is very upset about the lack of security and the inconsistent electricity. "It is very hot there, right now," Thuraya said. "This is Baghdad during the summer. People go crazy." Then she added, "But we are happy Saddam is gone. Anything is better than Saddam."
Brandon and I leave in three days.