http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad/2006/01/school_trip_to_.htmlSchool trip to nowhere
Posted by Richard Engel, NBC News Correspondent (07:22 am ET, 01/ 5/06)
It was a scene this morning that would have warmed the cockles of an Iraqi Norman Rockwell.
About 100 Iraqi children, schoolgirls – average age about 10 years old – on a school "field trip."
They were dressed in their finest dresses and sweaters and had brought food from home (many ate stewed lamb and rice sprinkled with raisons and toasted almonds) for a picnic. There was great excitement and games.
...
It almost looked normal, until you looked further.
It was a class trip to nowhere.
The teachers couldn’t find anywhere safe enough to take the girls so they organized a class trip inside the school. They ate the picnic in the school courtyard.
Violence, tension, mortar attacks, and bombings have all been on the rise over the past few days, so the teachers held a make-believe outing.
The girls seemed to like it, but it occurred to me that it is just one more small part of the make-believe childhood so many here are having.
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