It’s a tale of two cities

By OMAR FEKEIKI

WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — A few weeks ago, when I arrived on Capitol Hill to cover a rally in support of D.C. voting rights, I thought about the differences between this event and the protests that I’ve covered in Iraq. The contrast was striking.

Here, protesters gathered on the street and carried signs to explain their frustration. They smiled at passers-by. They welcomed me and were eager to listen to my questions and to answer them. After the rally, protesters went into the Dirksen Senate Office Building to advocate their cause to selected senators.

In Iraq, many protesters carried AK-47s and pistols. They scowled and shouted at reporters’ questions. And they were never allowed to enter any governmental buildings — for good reason.

I spent much of my Washington Post internship in Washington this summer comparing the work I did here with the work I did for The Post in Iraq from April 2003 to July 2006. I am the same person, but here I am a different reporter.

A few days ago I was working on a story about a Muslim neighborhood watch. I thought the story would not be perfect unless I joined the group in a night patrol, to get a hint of the danger they endure. I sat in the back seat of a police car with two members of the group. Up front was a third member, sitting with a police officer who zipped the car through the quiet streets. This patrol was armed with one pistol and one baton.

Flak jacket

When I was embedded with the U.S. Marines in Fallujah in November 2004 to cover a military operation, I had to wear a flak jacket and a helmet before I was allowed into one of the several armored Humvees going into the battle zone. When we drove in Fallujah, we had to keep our heads down so the insurgents would not notice that the vehicles carried many people. A vehicle with lots of occupants is a tempting target.

On patrol the other night, I never thought there was any danger. There might have been, but I did not feel it.

It has been rewarding to be able to ride the bus, the Metro and cabs to do my reporting. I have walked out of buildings after finishing my interviews and wandered around just to see whether I could stumble upon an idea for my next story. I could never do that in Iraq. There, I had to sneak furtively out of buildings and hurry to the car, where a driver was waiting for me. Then we’d make a fast zigzag through the Jersey barriers that enclose all government buildings in Iraq and rocket back to the office. We had to make sure no one was following us.

Before I came to Washington, I was worried that I wouldn’t fit in here as a journalist. But a Post correspondent whom I worked with in Baghdad and who is now one of my best friends e-mailed me recently to say, “You just hit the ground running and never looked back, like you’d been doing it for years. Maybe because you have.”

X Fekeiki, an intern for The Washington Post, is a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley.