School Daze

A week into the transition into self-rule, many residents here had mixed emotions. After the town council concluded its first appearance, t...

A week into the transition into self-rule, many

residents here had mixed emotions. After the town council concluded its first appearance, two local men remained on the steps, talking about their hopes and fears.

8216;8216;Iraq is free at this moment8230;that is the dream,8217;8217; said Azmi Mahmoud, a veterinarian who now gets occasional work as an interpreter for the British military. 8216;8216;The big problem is, we need a good government.8217;8217;

Having heard from the men 8212; only men appeared when the Americans summoned the locals 8212; several US officials sought the opinions of Umm Qasr8217;s women. What was their top priority?

Get our kids from underfoot, came the response.

The Americans deployed the US Army Corps of Engineers, which quickly razed a relatively vacant lot and built a soccer field. Next came the schools. Even though only a few weeks remain in the school year, Umm Qasr8217;s mothers wanted the classrooms reopened. At the That al-Sawawy school for girls, US Navy Seabees bustled through classrooms patching fallen plaster and painting the doors bright yellow.

They banged nails into a building that had suffered from years of deterioration. The town council put out the word that administrators at other schools should return to their jobs and teachers to their classrooms. Around 120 teachers were expected this weekend. Children were already showing up with backpacks. The shift to a new government could mean more than fresh paint. Bushra, the headmistress, holds textbooks that bear Saddam8217;s photograph and, no matter what the topic, include Baathist ideology. But even as she hopes for a better future, Bushra has experienced the difficulties of change.

In private, several councilmen have accused her of being loyal to the Baathists. Bushra acknowledges that she once belonged to the party, but says she was forced to do so in order to work as a teacher. 8216;8216;You cannot be appointed as a teacher unless you are a member,8217;8217; she said. 8216;8216;I was in the middle. I was doing my job.8217;8217; 8216;8216;I8217;m afraid of the situation,8217;8217; Bushra, 37, continued.

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She refused, for example, to give her last name, saying she was fearful Baathists holdouts might seek revenge. 8216;8216;Who is the friend? Who is the enemy? 8216;8216;For 35 years we were raised to consider Americans as the enemy. I hope you are a friend.8217;8217;