Personal Narrative: My Journey To Iraq

When I visited Iraq, I saw families who lived in tents in the scorching hot desert. The intense poverty was nothing like I had seen in person before. Most Americans can only imagine what a country such as Iraq, which is plagued with corruption and war, is like. When I visited Iraq, the country exposed me to the horrors it possesses. I experienced a country that was struggling from past corrupt dictators and a military invasion. This experience helped me realize what horrors go on that the average American doesn’t see, and it redefined my understanding on poverty. The reason for this trip was a religious ceremony called the Ashura. Muslims make this pilgrimage to a religious shrine in a city called Karbala. As a tradition, people travel to the shrine by foot from the city of Bagdad, which is seventy miles away. On this brutal three day walking journey, I saw some things that most would never see in the state of Louisiana, which is one of the poorest states in America. In Louisiana, the poorest …show more content…
When I returned from Iraq, I placed in my room a donation box in which I drop spare change for a special organization in the Middle East that supports orphans. I now participate in community service such as the Thanksgiving drive at my school and the reconstruction of houses destroyed in Katrina. This experience had a huge effect on me because I have now seen an extreme side of humanity that most people only hear about, and it made me feel depressed that people have to live in such conditions because of corruption, dictatorship, and war. This trip has encouraged me to raise awareness of corruption by demonstrating against it with people from my mosque. We marched in front of the Riverwalk with signs and pictures that exposed the horrors of dictatorship in the Middle East. Such actions have led me to think about social justice and activism. Moving on in my life I will continue to apply these lessons to make the world a better