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Transcript: Life was good after the invasion,
it was good up to the first couple months then it started
getting worse because of the kidnapping.
The kidnapping is one thing of many that was happening
and is happening right now, it's just horrible. People
are just getting killed, kidnapped.
The so-called insurgents are doing all that, I don't
know where they are coming from, but they are just ripping
people off, taking their money. They might just bring
the person back to their family safe or they might kill
them and still get the money
Everyday life-- it keeps getting worse every day--bombs,
bullets, check points. American army and Iraqi army
coming into houses trying to search for arms and stuff
like that. It's just crazy
Coming to the United States
When I first applied for the program, I always wanted
to go out somewhere and start learning and see what
the world is like and stuff like that. It's total different
than what Iraq was because there was no real education
there, it was just so inclusive.
The culture is really different. I've been staying
with my host family that I'm staying with right now
and they've really helped me adjust to all that. It
was and is a little hard for me to adjust to the culture.
I guess step by step I'll get closer to that.
I've seen a lot of people that are against the war,
it's not like all the American people are pro-war. There
is a lot of anti-war people and a lot of people who
think for themselves and know what's going on
I had students or people come up to me and ask me how
I felt about the war and what's my perspective. I did
a project for my government class in high school about
my experience in the war. It was really good for me
and for the students.
I haven't decided what major I want to pursue in college.
I'm thinking maybe dentistry or pharmacy, maybe computer
software science.
Getting asylum
It's a great opportunity to stay here and not having to
go back there. A lot of "Omar"s are getting
killed so we had a lot of articles about that. We basically
proved the case, the Sunni--Shiite conflict that is going
on, it's not getting any better.
I'm kind of on the safe side right now but there is
still suffering going on there. I talk to my parents
every day and they say it's not getting any better.
My dad works at a lab, he's a pathologist. He was threatened
by militias to get out of his old lab. I don't know
why they threatened him, but he can't go there anymore
My brother stopped going to school for a while because
the school was threatened and a lot of students didn't
go there for a while. Now this year they are just starting
over.
The refugee crisis
We've met a lot of Iraqis that live in Cleveland. It's
a small community. There's some new families that are
getting asylum that are coming from Syria and Jordan because
of the humanitarian disaster that is going on.
There are a lot, a lot of people that want to get out.
A lot of people that are going to Syria and Jordan.
When they run out of money they can't go anywhere. A
lot of the families are coming back to Iraq.
It's either just humiliation living out and not being
able to make ends meet or, just having to go back. It's
either death or humiliation. There's just a lot of people
that would want to get out, I guess, but it's just too
many people.
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