"Maps of War," Maps of Home

From ElectronicIraq.net:

I have a friend, an Iraqi, who was a civil engineer in Baghdad until work dried up in 1992. He worked as a driver through more than a decade until, in 2005, he left Iraq to brush up on his field in a graduate program. Shortly after his arrival in the US, I brought a map of Baghdad with me to meet him at a coffee shop. I wanted him to help me clear up what seemed to be some inaccuracies in the map.

I laid the map out and his eyes sort of glazed over. He looked at the map as if he had never seen a map of Baghdad before.

He hadn't.

Read the rest here.

[Thanks to Michelle for the link!]