DECEMBER 2009

looking BACK
Khalid Bahoura:
Chicken tales
BY JOSEPH GASSO
“
To this day we have not told
a single soul,” said a now-retired
Khalid Bahoura as he
reminisced upon his days as a teacher in
the village of Mosul.
Khalid, 55 and a resident of Sterling
Heights, always knew he wanted
to be a teacher, a profession that was
regarded highly in the northern villages
of Iraq. It meant tremendous
respect and frequent dinner invitations
from residents of the
villages to express their respect.
As another long day
was completed, Khalid and
his colleagues made their
way out of the school building
only to be stopped by a
well-respected family insisting
they join them for dinner.
As young male teachers
whose highest cooking
skill was heating soup, they
knew they were in no position to
decline. Dinner was a marvelous arrangement
of some of the finest Iraqi
dishes topped with freshly brewed tea
and pastries for desert. By the end of
the night the men could not decide
whether their stomachs ached from
overconsumption of food or from
laughing over jokes with their dinner
hosts. Nonetheless, it was a good
night and an encore was surely in
store.
The rest of the week was work
filled and by the time the weekend
arrived Khalid wished nothing more
than to rest. His bed was made and
the white sheets looked softer than
ever but as he was making his way
into his bed, the phone rang. On
the other line was the family he and
his colleagues had dinner with a few
days earlier — who in typical Chaldean
fashion were calling to invite
themselves over for dinner and social
interaction.
Khalid could not be disrespectful
and therefore complied, then immediately
called his colleagues for emergency
assistance. An entire family
was visiting his home the next day
but they were unaware of his poor
cooking skills and lack of food in his
house.
Khalid’s colleagues soon arrived
Khalid Bahoura
with cooking materials but each meal
they attempted to make was worse
than the previous one. Not knowing
what to do, the men sat in silence
and defeat when suddenly Khalid
came up with an idea. His neighbors
raised chickens in their backyard, so
what better solution than to steal
a chicken and feed it to the guests?
Khalid’s colleagues praised him for
his quick thinking and a plan was in
play. The men would wait
until midnight when the
neighbors slept, quickly
steal a chicken and cook it
for the dinner guests.
Midnight arrived and
the men surrounded their
target, the chicken coop.
Khalid slowly opened the
coop door, trying not to
wake the chickens, and
quickly grabbed the first
one in sight. Chaos erupted
as the other chickens awoke and
began to cluck and scramble around
the coop. The men ran as fast as they
could back to Khalid’s house. Inside
the house the cooking progress began
and Khalid fell soundly asleep soon
after.
The dinner guests arrived on time
the next day and were very impressed
with the chicken dinner. A big smile
graced Khalid’s face. The night was
coming to a close and again Khalid
was ready to enter his bed but was
interrupted by some sort of yelling
outside. He peered out his window
and to his dismay saw his neighbors
guarding the chicken coop and viciously
screaming at what seemed
like the entire neighborhood. A
physical fight erupted and Khalid
quickly rushed to calm his neighbors
down. His neighbors were outraged
because their most valued chicken
was nowhere to be found and all the
surrounding neighbors were being
accused of stealing it.
A wave of guilt passed Khalid as
he watched the entire neighborhood
fight over the chicken he had stolen
but if he confessed his cover would
be blown. In the end, Khalid kept
the secret to himself but he hopes his
former neighbors will read this story
and be able to laugh about it.
Come and experience a great dental visit. Valerie Hailo, a Chaldean and
Arabic speaking dental assistant, will make your child’s visit fun and positive.
DECEMBER 2009 CHALDEAN NEWS 25
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