Khalid was not satisfied. He really wanted to help me get the footage I needed. Feeling he’d be safer because he was Iraqi, he hurriedly asked me for my camera and then darted out of the vehicle, trying to keep up with the vice president.

A few minutes later, the driver of the vehicle put it in gear and started to pull out. Ed and I were a little bit concerned, because Khalid hadn’t come back yet. We tried his cell phone, but there was no reception in the area. We tried to ask the driver, but since Khalid was our interpreter, we didn’t get very far. We had no idea where we were going, never mind whether Khalid was going to be able to find us.

Eventually, the car pulled over at a hotel on the far side of town, where we were told we would have to wait for the vice presidential entourage to return. Eventually Vice President Mahdi appeared to arrive at the hotel. But still no Khalid. Our concern deepened.

Then, all of a sudden, the door of our vehicle swung open, and a sweaty, breathless Khalid fell in. He was practically crying with relief. But before we could even ask him a question, he extended his arm, and in his hand was my camera. He handed it to me and said, “I think I got it.”

If you watch the Arbaeen video report, some of the most important shots -­ the ones among the chanting Shiiites in front of the Imam Hussein Mosque - were filmed by Khalid. He had tried to follow the vice president, but was quickly swept into the raucous crowd and could not keep up. But despite being lost, fearful, and a Sunni in a crowd of hard-core Shiites, he had held up the camera, and gotten the shots we needed.

A frequent sentiment among commenters was:
"I wish upon wishes that we could read more stories about Iraqi people and families like Khalid every day. We in the US know and hear almost nothing about the real Iraqis."
"We hear number totals every day but these are people with families just like us, with kids just like us,dreams just like us."
"Thank you for writing about ordinary Iraqis. We hear so little about them, as if they don’t count."

This Q & A with reporters gives some flavor of what life is like for Iraqis now, but it would be nice to have more actual reporting. And here Khalid makes another appearance:

Khalid, one of our Iraqi staffers recently introduced me to his energetic teenage sister who told me that she now wears a hijab, or head scarf, not because of her faith but because it makes her feel safer when she is out on the street - if her brother ever actually let her go out.

Khalid also told me that he begs their mother not to go to the market she prefers to shop at because it is too far into a tough neighborhood. She pretends to agree and then says she going to visit neighbors only to return home with bags full of her favorite groceries from the forbidden store.