HW 42

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&b=play&id=8538&cast=51218&autoplay=true

# 45

HW 37 response to Baghdad Burning

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=8538&cast=51117&castPage=&autoplay=true

My first podcast- HW 36

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&b=play&id=8538&cast=49979&autoplay=true

HW 34 Respond to Riverbend

Although tea is very common in many of Americans life’s today, it is much more common in an Iraqi’s life. Americans mostly drink tea with their breakfast or to try and heal a sick throat. Whereas an Iraqi has tea with breakfast, lunch, and dinner (Riverbend, 100). Also tea is made completely different, in Iraq there is no such things as tea bags and they find them as a disgrace. They use tea leaves along with boiled water. But like Americans they discuss their day and what is going on the world over a glass of tea. The palm trees, besides being lovely, are highly useful to Iraqi’s (Riverbend pg. 103). To many families they see their palm trees as part of their families and when they die or troops cut them down it is tragic. Families use their trees to produce fruits and mostly every part of the tree can but sold for some amount of money. For example, the ponds and leaves are dried up and used to make furniture or other supplies, the date pits are used to feed the animals or to make beads ( Riverbend pg.104). So as you can see the Iraqi’s cherish their tea and palm trees in different ways than Americans do.

HW 35 Letter to your blog Readers

Over the 13 weeks of class I have learned many things from maintaining my blog and completing all the homework assignments. For example, I learned how to become a better writer and how to respond and reflect on certain readings. It also allowed me to see how the internet could be used for people all over the world to see peoples responds to all different types of work. After people read my blog I hope they are able to learn how I feel about the respond that I give and why that I may feel that way. Once this class is over I believe that I will still blog just not as often. I also believe that I will blog on a things that may affect my everyday life and that I have interests in such as sports or different articles. Also I think that everyone at one point in there live should blog. It not only allows someone to see your opinion but it also teaches you a lot not only about what’s going on in the United States but also the surrounding countries.

HW 33 Respond to a Podcast

“Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families” 10/15/07
http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/10/15/iraqi-teens-work-to-help-their-families
The general topic that this pod cast is about is children that are working at young ages to try and help support themselves and their families. There are three different kids in this pod cast , two of them work with their fathers and cousins and the other one goes to college and was born with a birth defect. Mustafa Malek Fathullah Ali he is fourteen years old and is in sixth grade. He works with is father in carpentry making tables and bedrooms. But he now works at his uncles’ house because of the dangers there are with traveling. The scenery in the background does not look very good to be living in. To me it looks like they are in their backyards, which has a cement walk as a fence and there is no grass its all just dirt. A viewer may learn the terrible conditions that not only these children have to live in but also their families and how unsafe they really are. Although I have not seen many videos on Iraq, this one looks similar to the few that I have seen. What I find most memorable about this pod cast is the child who is suffering because he was born with a birth defect which was caused by the war. The child had not done anything and does not deserve to have to suffer the rest of his life in pain.

HW 32 Responding to Riverbend

After reading from September 19 to October 5, 2003 in “Baghdad Burning” I found shopping for school supplies quite interesting. Riverbend talks about how shopping for school supplies at a young is a one of the many highlights of going to school. But this year her cousins two kids can’t go along with their parents to pick out their own supplies because of the dangers the war has brought. It is not even safe to bring children out on the streets because you never know if someone will try and abduct them or they may even be shot at. Because of this, Riverbend her cousin his husband and E had to go pick out the supplies while the children stayed home with Riverbends mother and father. When they had returned home from shopping the ten year old had loved the Barbie notebooks that Riverbend had picked out for but the seven year old was not a big fan of Winnie the pooh and had claimed she had out grown it. Also school had started late because of the war and so the children were happy to finally be able to get out of the house and see all of their friends. Usually each year children wake up early and walk themselves to school but because of the danger children must be escorted by several adults along with the school. The parents had meetings about how they would guard the school so that they knew the children and teachers would be safe. They also had a meeting about who was going to bring what because the school was in such need of supplies. For example, each week a new kid had to bring in two new pieces of chalk so the teachers would have something to write with on the chalk board.