HW 34: Tea Time and Gold

After reading Riverbend's blog from October 9 through October 29 in "Baghdad Burning", I learned a lot about Iraqi's custom of having evening tea and the role of gold in family savings. Having evening tea in an Iraq family is an important everyday occurrence that brings the family together to sit at the table and discuss their day. People also drink tea with their breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Unlike in the US and other parts of the country, when your mother asks you how school and hanging out with your friends was, Iraqi's tend to have a bit different of a conversation over tea. Whether they have a busy schedule or not, Iraqi families sip tea as they speak of the most recent happenings of the war, including abductions, hijackings, and Riverbend's most recent tea conversation of the Turkish Troops. The tea that they drink, which comes in numerous types, is not the typical tea, with teacups and teabags, drank by thousands around the world. "If you serve "teabag tea" to an Iraqi, you risk scorn and disdain- a teabag is an insult to tea connoisseurs". (Riverbend 108) The process of making tea for an Iraqi is a pretty simple three-stage process. Riverbend stated that out of the numerous types of tea available, the best come from Ceylon. The tea is served in "istakans", which are small glasses made of thin glass and resemble the number 8. The tea is perfected to look clear and strong, coming out to appear as a reddish-brown color. Once the tea is made, the family can now sit and speak of the current events. On the way home with her family, Riverbend spotted an armored car with a large beige-green tank and they suddenly feared they'd soon be going through a checkpoint on the streets or in their house. Riverbend's aunt was carrying all of her gold jewelry. The role of gold in an Iraqi family is very important and a large part of their culture and has increased in the role of family savings since 1990 when the Iraqi Dinar was constantly changing. "Iraqi people don't own gold because they are either spectacularly wealthy, or they have recently been on a looting spree". (Riverbend 100) Iraqi's began to take out money from the bank and convert their money to gold through jewelry, because gold will always hold the same value. Iraqi women call gold "zeeneh ou 7*azeeneh (khazeeneh)" which is translated to "ornaments and savings". Gold is both worn and kept away, and when a family is struggling with money, gold is often sold between people. When an Iraqi couple is married, gold is given to each other, and children are also commonly given gold as a gift. Riverbend's family feared being searched for the sake that they would take their gold because the troops argued that people like "that" (an Iraqi) could not own such a valuable object. Although, for many and most Iraqi's gold is an important role in family savings and is very important to them.