Graduation!!

Some of my students from ESL! 

From L to R: Lauren and myself, Medya, Dalya, Vian, Ahmad, Bryar, and Shawnm

Ahmad with Dalya's son Tolas. 

They're both wearing Juli Kurdi which are traditional Kurdish clothes for men.  

Lauren, Zeba and me. 

Zeba normally has a huge smile and a very expressive face. But getting her to smile even this much for a picture was tricky because many people here don't really smile in photos. 

Ahmad, Shawnm and Medya!

Vian and myself.

We talk about Grey's Anatomy together. 

Lauren, Elise, Sarah and I.

Elise and Sarah are longer term volunteers at the Life Center where we teach. And they're awesome.

Grand Ole Flag

This is the flag of Kurdistan. Just thought you would like to know.

This is Mohammad Star. It was in his village, which is nestled in the mountains of Kurdistan, where that Kurdish flag waves. Mohammad is holding on of the 14 chickens he raised from scratch. (And from scratch I mean 13 of them are from eggs.) I don't know any other 10 year olds who have the maturity to raise another living thing. He had successful heart surgery last November and is fully recovered. Hallelujah.

Secret Santa in June

        For Lydia's birthday last week she wanted to have a secret santa-esque scramble throughout the bazaar. Nine of us pulled names and set off in pairs to find a gift under 2,000 dinar or about $2 for our partner. I drew Josh/Joseph/Joey and Lauren (my walking partner for the afternoon) drew Esther. Now, Esther is currently mastering Kurdish so getting her gift was easy. Once a English/Kurdish dictionary was purchased we were off to figure out what to get for Josh. After a long search I ended up getting him an neon green phone cover. All of our phones are identical so this gift was not as lame as it sounds. When we all met back up it was time to exchange treasures. 

Lydia got me a necklace with some bling.

      At first glance, this is just an awesome necklace in the shape of Kurdistan. But then when you realize that on the necklace is the Iraqi flag instead of the flag of Kurdistan you realize that this necklace is implying that Kurdistan should become a part of Iraq and not be independent like it desires so strongly to be. Upon learning this all involved feel terrible for buying and owning the necklace. All the atrocities that have happen in Kurdistan were because Saddam's Iraq wouldn't let the Kurds be their own people or have their own nation. So the symbolism behind this necklace is incredibly insulting. The only reason we even found out was because I pulled it out to show Kurdish guy he reacted very strangely and Lauren noted the flag difference. Thank goodness we noticed at all.
       Nevertheless!!! The afternoon was a success!!! Everyone went home with gifts and smiles which was the main goal the whole time. All for the love of Lydia.

Life in Iraq: Careers

This post was written by my lovely roommate Lauren. 

You can find the rest of her blog here.

 photo by: Lydia Bullock

Life in Iraq: Careers
I've been sitting in on Preston and Claire's English class on Monday and Wednesday evenings, just to listen to English-speaking Kurds talk about life. It's an advanced class; everyone can converse in English quite well. (Every once in a while they'll ramble on in Kurdish, and the three of us Americans look at each other awkwardly.)

Every class has a new discussion topic. Yesterday we talked about professions and education.

I know we talk in America about being underpaid and under-appreciated as workers, but I don't think we know what we're talking about. In America we have minimum wage and unions and employee evaluations. Before we apply for jobs, we read job descriptions.

Those things are non-existent in Iraq. Some of them are starting to show up - like job descriptions and evaluations - but are for the most part obsolete.

One woman in Claire and Preston's class, Media, is a high school science teacher. She hates her job, but unlike so many of us in the States, she really can't quit her job. Not because of money, but because she's limited to certain jobs. She has to fill out paperwork before she can switch professions.

Media has to teach from a 20-year-old textbook and cannot stray from it without getting in trouble. She can't punish her students for cheating or acting up without getting in trouble herself.

All the men and women in the Life Center's class are professionals. The students are geologists and government workers and interior designers and techies. They are just like the geologists and government workers and interior designers and techies in the States. They're college educated. They talk to each other with respect. They dress similarly to us.

I'm afraid that we equate rough working conditions, like in Iraq, to lazy or uneducated people.

The problem isn't the people; the problem's with the system.As Westerners we tend to make assumptions without understanding the problem. I don't think I totally understand the problem, but I know women like Media and men like Aso and Bryar are hard workers and can't get promoted because the system doesn't allow for it.

Another woman told a story about her aunt who's an ear-nose-throat doctor. This aunt won awards for her work in overseas in countries like Switzerland, but she won't come back to Kurdistan to practice because she's under-appreciated.

Maybe America really is the land of opportunity.

You Are A Lucky Duck

From IC

Full Circle

Photo by Lydia Bullock

Today I went to Dr. Aso's office at a children's hospital. This man was there to get an echocardiogram for his son who has transposition of the great vessels. Dr. Aso had already done a surgery providing a temporary fix for young Abdul. But while we were in his office he suggested to the father to visit PLC to get his son out of country surgery. Later when we returned to the office Lydia showed us these fantastic images of the father and son who had just come in the office! Hopefully Abdul will get to be a part of Remedy Mission this August and it will quite literally save his life.

Hey! Are you happy?

Some people have very difficult lives.
Some people fight for change that might never come.
Some people have the ability to enact change but choose laziness.
Some people are movers and shakers and doers.
All people have the opportunity to be happy.

The Danger of a Single Story

Do you have a single story of Iraq? Don't let it hold you back.

Awareness Vs. Education

      This is one of the more well known photos from the Halabja genocide. Looking at it should make your heart hurt. Sadly, this photo is tame compared to so many others. Especially compared to other genocides where machetes and other brute force was used.

      Halabja is appalling and terrible. I mean, during the attack the city was bombed first so the windows would break therefore making it easily to kill more people when they dropped the chemical gasses. It's one level of horrible just to think about senseless mass destruction but another to realize the planning and high intention to kill people as thoroughly as possible.

     But that said, so many genocides have happened and continue to happen all the time. The United States and much of the world did not even recognize what happened in this small town in northern Iraq.
5,000+ dead within hours
11,000+ severely injured
Is that not worth recognizing? My high school had less than 5,000 students but if Westwood was decimated I'm going to wager it would get some international attention. So what else is happening in our world that we're unaware of?

        Yesterday in the office we talked about the difference between awareness and education. Awareness isn't very thorough. It's a surface knowledge of something. Education is more inclusive, requiring effort and intention.  It could be argued that awareness (of an issue so serious as genocide) without the intention of education is apathy and affirmation of the act. When the international community didn't respond to the Halabja attacks it was like they were saying it was allowable. If it wasn't allowable, something would have been said.

What I'm trying to say in all of this is educate yourself. It's not enough to be aware something bad is happening. Often times it is more appealing to stay ignorant than be immersed in information that emanates hated. But do it anyway. Empower the victims by learning about them, caring for them and not accidentally approving of their situation by your chosen apathy. I need to work on this just as much as the next person so please don't think I'm over here on a high horse.

Start to educate yourself...
http://www.genocideintervention.net/
http://genocide.change.org/

I'm legal in Iraq, illegal in Iran.

       I now have my official Iraq visa! After going to the proper offices two days in a row and the process ending with them taking my blood, I am allowed to be here for 2 months. Yes!
      Sophie and I went with Awara for the blood drawing and completely freaked ourselves out. Something about tourniquets makes me uncomfortable though.

     More importantly, I visited Halabja (about 2 hours away) today. On March 16, 1988, which was towards the end of the Iraq-Iran war, Saddam Hussein and his forces attacked the village of Halabja. At 4pm planes started flying overhead and started at 5 hour decimation of the area. So let's make this clear, Saddam Hussein is bombing his own country.
    " Survivors said the gas at first scented with the smell of sweet apples; they said people died in a number of ways, suggesting a combination of toxic chemicals (some of the victims "just dropped dead" while others "died of laughing"; while still others took a few minutes to die, first "burning and blistering" or coughing up green vomit)^. It is believed that Iraqi forces used multiple chemical agents during the attack, including mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX; some sources have also pointed to the blood agenthydrogen cyanide (most of the wounded taken to hospitals in the Iranian capital Tehran were suffering from mustard gas exposure)." At this point in time the United States was a fan of Saddam and sold him some of these chemicals knowing full well what they were going to be used for.
       Today we just visited a memorial museum and because of the ridiculous heat we postponed visiting the gravesite until later in the summer. At the museum there was a photograph of bodies piled up in a pick up truck. As the truck drove off bodies fell on to the street because it was too full. There were 25 people in that truck bed and it turned out 3 of those people were still alive. One of the men who was still alive had been passed out in the back of that truck for 3 days.
      He was one of the people showing us around the museum today. How do you show the awe and respect you feel to someone who has been through so much?

     After the museum we headed in a different direction towards a waterfall/picnic destination.

(Esther, Shoham, Me and Lauren at our picnic spot)

       We drove up into the mountains for our lovely afternoon picnic. With all the streams running to and fro some of the area reminded me on Schlitterbahn. It wasn't long before Esther and I had the theme song stuck in our heads. After a playing around in the water a bit and eating a delicious lunch we started the trek further up the mountain to the waterfall. Recently some American tourists went hiking around the waterfall, wandered in Iran and got themselves arrested. Because of this we got to have a cop escort us on our hike. 

(This is Micah shooting our cop in the face with his water gun.)

Also on our hike we were able to see Iran given that it was only around 3km up an over a mountain. But don't worry, we had no intentions of trying to climb over it.

So this blog post is taking forever to sort out and put together so for now it's going to end. Xua Hafiz!