Thursday, June 7, 2007

Haleeeb Motaam..

A friend of mine has stomach Ulcer.. Doctor told her that milk is good for her, she is to drink as much milk as she can . In order to be able to consume the big quantity of milk required to heal her poor stomach (my friend is very Aqla and very much listens to what the doctor has to say ), in order to do that she was inventing new tastes of milk , she adds all sorts of fruit to it, orange, grape fruit, bananas, pineapple, etc..
Up till now, I can never drink flavored milk, ok maybe once or twice with strawberry flavor , but never with orange or banana flavor, etc.. never ever.. I hate even the color of the flavored milk.. let alone the fact that I hate milk as it is growing up forced to drink at least one glass of milk per day in order to stay in good health..
This brings back an old but vivid memory of my school days..My primary school which I gave a quick description of in one post..
At some time back in Iraq, healthy nutrition in schools came of big interest, I don’t quite recall why.. so they started to serve flavored milk to pupils .
Each one of us pupils was to have a Very large bottle of milk, it came in 2 flavors, banana and orange.. I remember Fawzeyya, the cleaning lady (el- Farrasha ) or the (Butterfly) as 3eeraqi Medic once humouredly called her, would sit cross legged in front of the big black boxes of the milk bottles (I still remember them), and starts opening the bottles one by one for us – pupils, as we come out of the classrooms to the school yard, running and shouting, (Forsa) time ..
I used to take one, force myself to take a few gulps of the colored milk (now when I think about it I don’t know why did I ever do that.. were we watched or what? Cant remember) and then walk slowly and cautiously towards one of the many Dinghas and leave the almost - full bottle behind it discreetly.. then come back walking so relieved .. pretending to have finished the whole bottle.. and my stomach felt sick ..
God, I hate even the memory of that milk ..
How strange that even such simple and perhaps insignificant incidents would still be so bright in our minds after all these years..i even remember the exact shade of orange milk , with its artificial orange smell..
The milk too took me back to my old school , I can clearly picture the yard, el –Saha and the pupils with their grey uniforms , the Dinghas and the pale grey walls (why were they painted grey anyway??) ..i remember the teachers (they were all women, no men) , set Amal, set Zeinab, set Nasima, set Mithal, set Moneeba, set Hanaa.. they all were such kind ladies..
We were so carefree, we had our problems of course (they seemed so big at the time no matter how silly they were),, but they were ordinary children problems, like any at our age..
I so much miss those days, maybe wish to go back in time and just be a tiny little girl in (el –Awwal – Baa), who has the big dilemma of having to drink her milk at school, but will never b able to drink colored milk, neither orange, nor yellow..

7 comments:

Little Penguin said...

I was in 'al awwal, shu3ba thaltha'.. makes it sound like a security department doesn't it?..

we were never given doses of milk.. I wouldn't have had them anyways.. I have sooo much to say about my school days.. but nope.. I'm gonna write them as a whole post sometime soon..

why did you hate flavoured milk anyways? so you dont drink Yazoo?.. strange.. very strange..

3eeraqimedic said...

Oh no Yasmin!
We soooo disagree here!
I remember the 7aleeb alban bottles, and used to love the banana flavour!
It was very progressive thinking actually to make sure all children whatever their background had milk at school.
Did you have meals at school? I think we did for the first year or so and they were horrid! I used to hide bits of food under the plate, under the table in my pocket!!!!
Thanks once more for the memories, you really need to be careful we don't nick any of your ideas I see a really special book about Iraq in the making.

A&Eiraqi said...

Dear Yasmin
What a nice thing
In fact, I agree with you, I don't hate milk but, I don't drink it, maybe because I'm too lazy to do so.
I remember when my mother got concerned about our health as someone said something somewhere and she got convinced(Laghwa), so she started forcing us to drink milk everyday, we used to run away from it.

Flavoured or not, it doesn't matter.
They say milk in the U.K is quite good, I'm not intrested at all.

Thanks for the nice subject
Regards

Yasmin (Blanche) said...

dear little Penguin,
sorry i was late in reply..
dont know why u find it strange that i dislike flavored milk..
i hope u have some nice memories to tell too..
regards..

Yasmin (Blanche) said...

hello 3eeraqi Medic,
sorry for my delay ..
v strange.. my sister too used to like the banana flavored milk..
im glad u still remeber the Alban milk bottle..
we never had any meals no.. but starnge again my sister used to do the same thing, hide bits of food under the plate, behind the Qoori, etc..
thank u for yr kind words, im glad u enjoyed this trip back in time..
regards..
PS: i re-read yr comment, and starngely, as my sister was reading my posts she suggested having them all in a book one day.. Do u happen to know my sister??!!..

Yasmin (Blanche) said...

a&eiraqi,
apologies for my delay..
so glad u like the post..
so i suppose its ok not to like milk.. im glad there s someone else who shares the same taste..
thanks for yr nice comment..
reagrds..

Lexi Matsui said...

Hello,
I'm a reporter with the Online NewsHour, www.pbs.org/newshour, and I'm working on a story about Iraqi bloggers. I've spoken with quite a few people, and I would love to get your perspective. If you have any time at all to chat in the next few days either on the phone or via e-mail, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!
Alexis
amm2188@columbia.edu