OSAM ALTAEE

My first adventure

I'm the oldest boy in a family of 8 members; I have 3 sisters and 2 brothers. I was lucky that not only was I my parent’s oldest son, but also the oldest grandchild. I was ‘ favored’ and special and that gave me advantages none of other grandsons had. I spent most of my childhood in my mothers fathers house; they loved me very much because I was their first grandson.

My father worked for the railways, and was a station manager. We have long railway lines in Iraq and there is roughly one station every 30-40 KM. Therefore my father changed the station where he worked every 1-2 years, that meant we needed to move to another house at another railway station. This changing of the house, neighbours and friends effected me deeply, it became very painful to keep losing my friends and the places that I got used to. Then after awhile I got used to it, and I didn’t get involved in deep relationships with people anymore. That caused me to be lonely boy, I started to enjoy reading a lot when I was 7 years old and loved playing chess. This became my way of living, to escape from my loneliness I read stories about other places and magic and history. As lonely little boy living in a small village without any real close friends I escaped in to the countryside, to open spaces to explore new places in the area where I was living. Places like the desert, marshes and hills, and found peace looking at nature. This led me to have adventures here is the first one…

I was 5 years old, living with my family in small village in the south of Iraq. My father was working as a station manager for the railways. It was my first year at school, and as there was no school in our village I needed to go to the next village where there was a primary school. Every day I had to go by train in the morning with the other boys and we come back by another train in the afternoon (there wasn't any other transportation) it was fantastic trip, it was marvelous traveling for nearly 30 KM in an old train working with steam.

I still remember those days, I remember the voice of the train, and it was beautiful. I remember myself sitting in the last carriage of the train looking to the land moving backwards underneath the train, looking for the black line of the railway that stayed behind. As I watched the land move past me I wondered what will come next, a flower, stone, or even an animal. Everything passed me by and was left behind One thing was sure that everything will pass away far behind me, with only the black line of the railway that we are on staying on behind. Its like the line of life, what is passed remains there forever and can never be changed. Life just passes by us and we just wonder about what will come next, and looking out on our life we watch what is passing us by.

That was thoughts of a 5year boy who needed to go every day to his school by an old train working on steam in the desert.

Then one day something happened, the other train which was supposed to bring us back home was broken, and the boys couldn’t get home to their families. They were told that they must stay with the good and very friendly villagers where the school was, because there just wasn't any way to get back to their homes! I had a shock, how could I sleep in a strange house, not with my family or my relatives! Never had this happened before, and how come I was going to lose my wonderful trip back home. It was too hard for me, I couldn’t think of staying. So I decided to get home by walking on the railway line, I remember I had another boy with me who agreed to accompany me on that trip so that’s what we did, we set out and walked all the way home.

Honestly it was very dangerous to walk in the desert in those days. There were very dangerous wild animals like tigers and wolves and I felt very proud about myself for doing it. I would still be ready to do it again if the time went back 35 years!

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