Sattar takes us to visit Karima and her six children. They are just settling down to sleep in the room they all share. Outside Karima's home, we join neighbors who gesture at what seems like fairly distant fireworks. The children are more interested in hugging us good-bye than in the beginning of tonight's bombardment. Anxious to let Sattar return to his family, we hurry off to finish checking in at the Al Fanar hotel, a few blocks away.
Explosions continue, but the hotel workers seem nonplussed.
Rooms are assigned, passport numbers entered, the usual routine. One of our team members, Anne Montgomery, was in the Al Rashid hotel during four days of bombardment during the Gulf War. She lived through some of the worst bomb attacks on Sarajevo in the summer of 1993. So it helps to attempt preserving some sense of routine, all the while trying not to crack. Anne had remained at the Al Fanar when the rest of us went to check on Karima's family.