HW 34: Iraq's family Values

As I was reading Riverbend’s “Baghdad Burning”, October 9th through 29th, I came across of the tea tradition in Iraq. The tea is served to the entire family at once while sitting in the living room together. The making of the tea is something different though, who the tea is served to and the serving time is not. Tea is served in many ways depending on the family but there is a basic 3-step process that tea is made. The water is boiled then tealeaves are added and then finally it is all put in to a different kettle and heated until the leaves rise to the surface of the kettle and allowed to settle again (Riverbend 108-109). Tea is never served by a tea bag. Which I thought it was very interesting because a lot of the people I know, including myself, use tea bags. But in fact, in Iraq, it is considered an insult to Iraqi’s due to their expertise of tea and the way it is served. The drinking of tea together is their family’s way to have conversation and enjoy each other’s company. In my house when I was little we did that when we sat down for dinner. The conversations they have range from the current political situation of Iraq to what each of their days consisted of, they do this but free will and often look forward to their evening tea as a family. Then when Riverbend went on to say “Unlike the typical family conversation around the world ‘How was your day dear?’ doesn’t get at typical answer in Iraq.”(Riverbend 109), I thought was very interesting because that is a typical in the US.