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DEL.ICIO.USBreaking bread
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Louie Favorite
Lunch earlier today in a village near Tal Afar included chicken with couscous (foreground) and chicken with rice. The bowls contain a tomato-potato soup that doubles as a dipping sauce.
Ayn ash Shababit, Iraq - The feast was laid out on plastic tables. Chicken and rice, couscous, potatoes in tomato broth, chunks of onion and flatbread.
The soldiers of Company H, 121st Infantry (ABN)(LRS) look forward to these Iraqi meals whenever they visit this village, about 15 miles from Forward Operating Base Sykes.
The food served in the Sykes chow hall is good but variety is the spice of life.
In Iraq, as is the custom in most Eastern cultures, visitors cannot leave without sips of chai and a full stomach. It’s considered rude to refuse.
The Georgia soldiers oblige. Not that anyone would want to refuse meals here. In the past, the villagers have slaughtered a lamb for the feast.
The Georgia men are covered in the large, round pieces of flatbread. A debate erupts on which nation has the best bread.
We eat with some of the village leaders. They are all men. The village sheik was noticeably absent — he was attending his brother’s funeral.
I am the only woman at the table, the only woman seen in public. This is a conservative Shiite village and not a single woman was out of her house. I wonder who prepared the tasty meal.
It’s a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky. There’s a view of the Sinjar Mountains as the backdrop. A few bottles of red wine and for a moment, it could have been Tuscany — except the gunfire at the checkpoint down the road.
Comments
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By MOT
March 10, 2007 1:26 PM | Link to this
I would love to hear more stories like this. And I too wonder who made the tasty meal, and yet could not be present.
By catlady
March 10, 2007 2:24 PM | Link to this
Maybe those village leaders made it! I am guessing everyone had to serve themselves. Who will clean up?
I appreciate folks being good to our soldiers.