Two Birthdays in Baghdad Finding the Heart of Iraq

Anna Prouse, an Italian journalist, emergency medical responder, and born adventurer, arrived in Baghdad in June, 2003, just before her 33rd birthday, to work as a nurse at the Italian Red Cross Field Hospital. Fourteen months and another birthday later, she returned to Italy having seen an Iraq not reflected in the mainstream media. Violence and death were an ever-present worry: bullets, bombs, and rockets killed several of her friends. But what she writes about is the extraordinary human story of the Iraqi people, struggling with shortages and danger, but clinging to their brand-new aspirations for the future. Later in her stay, she worked in public affairs for the Coalition Provisional Authority, from which vantage point she portrays the foreign community inside The Green Zone as truly dedicated to the task of rebuilding a devastated country.