A beautiful Soul

Iraq. ‘Eye’ will never forget when I strolled your soil and forgot what buildings looked like. I did not know that for you, buildings and homes would be collapsed piles of abandoned sand. While I was with you I forgot what it looks like to drive on miles and miles with out sight of society. But that is what ‘I will never forget’. For eyes blur with time.

And so I drove miles onward and entered the most beautiful city. A city where everyone who left those collapsed homes now found a new home. It felt like a movie, everything was perfect in that moment I laid eyes on the domes, glazed at the smiles on the faces of poorest of the poor. Their smiles were so wide. So wide that it took my attention away from their bear feet, the torn up clothes, the ribs so prevalent through the holes on the cloths. ‘Do they even qualify as clothes’ is what I what I ponder about some nights after I have change mine three times that day. Following this thought comes a day I will surely never forget.

A few days into my trip I wanted to capture some photos of this city I could only hope to go back to. I was walking through an ally consisting of small shops condensed into a market the size of a walk in closet. I saw four men gathering outside at the corner of a shop. They sat around a pan filled with ‘nan’ and some sort of sweet thick powder. They thoroughly filled the nan with the powder. I took a step closer to snap a photo to add to my collection. They looked up at me from the ground they were so comfortably seated on and smiled. Those beautiful wide smiles were once again taking my attention away from the poverty they were lavishing themselves in. And the most beautiful act proceeded. A man among the four reached out to me with the meal he had prepared, and with his toothless smile he eagerly offered me his food.

This is what humanity is. A beautiful soul I interacted with, with no words. A day that I will never forget.