Today, Friday the 30 of December 2011 was one harder days in my life. With the end of the farewell party of NPR's, our partner in the building, McClatchy's bureau presence in Iraq officially ended after almost nine years since the US invasion in 2003. Our smiles, jokes and laughs hided our pains and sorrow for the breaking down of McClatchy family in Iraq.

    Today witnessed the end of years of hard work which was the only kind of work we learned to do in McClatchy because we were always looking for the truth to give it to our readers. I don't know how to describe my feelings and I have to admit this is the most difficult blog I ever wrote. During the period I worked with McClatchy, I used to spend time with my colleagues more than I do with my family and even in my days off, I used to keep in touch with them. We faced dangers together, We shared happiness and sadness, pains and joy.While life was so difficult in 2005, 2006 and 2007 because of the sectarian violence, we refused to be part of the fight and insisted to be only Iraqis regardless any other names.  One of the most difficult things to talk about is the people whom I worked with. I can't forget my Iraqi brothers and sisters who supported me during my first days and our American colleagues whom I wish to meat again.Nancy Yousif, the first bureau chief I worked with and her big support and help when wrote my first story about the houses swapping during the sectarian violence in 2005 and 2006, Buck my great teacher who taught me how to tell political stories by writing about daily life issues, Leila Fadil, our former bureau chief and my daily discussions with her, Hannah Allam, my dear sister who is always close to help and so many other reporters whom I need long time to talk about all the great things they did.

At the end of my very short blog, I want to thank all McClatchy reporters who helped us in telling the story of life in the new Iraq.