MIA
04 May 2012 1 Comment
I have felt ‘missing in action’ lately. Especially here. I have a few posts that I wrote and just never published, just couldn’t finish them. It has been a really tough few months, personally and as an ex-pat community here in our city. I myself have been feeling lower than I can remember feeling in a long time. It has made even the simplest things so difficult.
Last weekend we were so blessed to be invited to a retreat for women that a local international group put on. They brought in speakers from the States and we got out of town and had a weekend of rest and no responsibilities. The second night, it was like the woman who spoke was talking straight to me. Only afterward, processing what she had said with some others, I realized I was not alone. She talked about our lives like a cup that can be full, giving us grace and love to share with others, or empty, sending us into a spiral of poor decisions, negative reactions and finally depression. She talked about the symptoms that come out of an emptying cup and how futile it is to try and fix these symptoms without realizing the fear that lies underneath them.
I realized I have been running on empty for a long time. Every now and then my cup is filled with a few drops, but they always run out so quickly. I am asking God now to fill me back up to the top. It is a bigger request than I realized. I have all but forgotten how to sit with God and still haven’t found a good place to meet with him here.
Please pray with me through this. I know God will fight for me, even here. But I do hope it will happen soon =) I promise I will post some stories soon. I have a few up my sleeve. Warm weather is here and people are coming out again. Just wait 
Street Parade
23 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
March 21st is the Kurdish New Year – Newroz (pronounced now-rose)
Our city celebrates first with giant street parade. This is not the Thanksgiving Macy’s Day Parade though… no floats or giant gorillas. It is every single person in the city with their hair done and their high heels on walking up and down Main Street. The crowd is the parade.
I have never seen so many people in one place. It was SO crowded. We went down pretty far, and thought we would go a little further to our favorite cafe and have a cappuccino, but once we got to the the center of it all, we literally could not get through the crowd. We had to give up then and go back.
This is what everyone in the city does the first day of Newroz, the second day everyone wakes up ridiculously early and goes to the mountains for a picnic. It takes hours to get out and hours to get back because of the traffic and if you get out too late you will not be able to find a plot of land to lie down your blanket. It is a whole day event, with no bathroom breaks.
In America there are shared holiday traditions, every mall is crowded on Christmas Eve… every store is sold out of turkeys the day before Thanksgiving… every bar is full on St. Patricks Day… but I have never experienced anything like this where a whole community does the EXACT same thing to celebrate. Maybe it is because I never experienced high school football night in small town Texas, or corn shucking day in Iowa (that’s a joke, I really don’t know anything about the midwest). But it is fun to be a part of a community where no one has to ask what your holiday plans are because they are doing the same thing!
Liqaa Needs a Valentine!
09 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
This is the month of LOVE and we are sharing it in Najaf at Remedy Mission IX.
Matt is down with the doctors this time, so I am all alone… but I have been putting my time to good use, raising money for one little girl getting surgery on Valentines Day.
Check out my cooking blog and see the party we created for her.
Or, visit my fundraising page to give to her surgery. You could create your own page for her too!
Happy Valentines Day!
Dance Party: Kurdistan
08 Jan 2012 2 Comments
New Years Eve, Matt and I braved the cold and the rain to go out and see what people do in Suli to celebrate the New Year. Here is what we saw:
If You Give a Kid a Cookie
03 Jan 2012 2 Comments
You might remember a previous post I wrote about baking cookies with my neighbors. Well, that was where it began.
It reminds me of that book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie because our relationship just keeps growing and growing.
If you give a (Kurdish) kid a cookie, she will want you to show her how you made them. When you are finished she will see all the dishes in the sink, she will wash them and probably end up cleaning the floors of the kitchen as well. She will keep mopping into the hall where she will notice the clean laundry in a pile. She will fold the laundry except for your cute new sweater, which she will try on. Seeing how good she looks in it, she will want to go home and show her family, she will bring you along. Once inside their home, you will surely be offered tea and cake. Seeing you have never had Kurdish cake, they can’t let you go until they have shown you how to make it…
Ok, so it didn’t all happen exactly like that, but almost! Now she comes over almost every day for help with her English homework and to help me with whatever I am working on (she is a great sous chef and actually likes to do the dishes!)
They invited us to a birthday party a few days ago. I got to help make the cake and then later we ate it all, and the custard and the torte… and this was all AFTER another party we had been to (many Kurds don’t keep track of when their kids are born so Jan 1 ends up being a popular birthday) Here is a pic of me with Bukan and her grandma.
Anthony Bourdain in Kurdistan
14 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Kurdistan, Travel Tags: Anthony Bourdain, Kurdistan, No Reservations
We met an American yesterday who was traveling through Kurdistan because of what he had seen on Anthony Bourdain’s show “No Reservations”. We went straight to YouTube to see for ourselves and though Bourdain never made it to the city where we live, we enjoyed seeing and hearing more about the people we live among. I thought it would be interesting for anyone wondering more about where we live. So here are the links if you want to watch for yourselves.
The first 10 minutes shows their training to prepare to go to a ‘war zone’ but keep watching to see how different they found Kurdistan.
Holidays – a Time to Learn
07 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Kurdistan Tags: Holiday, Iraq, Kurdistan
This morning we woke up to a desperate pounding on our door. We knew it was a holiday, but we had gone to sleep expecting it to be like the last… completely uneventful. And it would have been had it not been for the sweet grandma who lives across the street.
When I finally got to the door she had gone already, but she must have seen me out on the porch because a few minutes later the pounding began again. Thinking it was one of the kids, I snapped the curtain open with a look of frustration. I hope she didn’t see it, because she looked like the holiday angel. She was dressed in her best clothes and standing there with a tray full of food. They had been up since 4am preparing the holiday feast and she had brought over two servings for us so we wouldn’t miss out.
After we ate, it was still early and having been woken up so suddenly, we were still tired. We decided it wouldn’t kill the holiday if we went back to bed. Just as I was dozing off, the pounding began again. I made it to the door in time, “why are you sleeping?” she said “it’s the holiday!”
The next event had begun. All the men of the neighborhood were collecting in the street to go around the street, knock on doors, wish happy holiday and collect candy. We would have completely missed it if she hadn’t come knocking on our door. We didn’t get any pictures of this but Matt did make some new friends and come back with pockets full of candy.
We have found that no matter how many questions we ask or as much as we try to prepare for these things, we can never really predict what our involvement in the traditions of the day will be. Last holiday, I cleaned the house and got the bowl of candy ready, and we waited all day. This time, we would have slept right through all the action if it hadn’t been for our sweet old neighbor, it is nice to be cared about.
Here’s a picture I took of me and Shoocree Han a while ago. She has always been so sweet to us.
Water in the Streets
23 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Kurdistan Tags: Iraq, Kurdistan, neighborhood, water
Matt has started shooting and editing short videos to show off some of the little things in life that we might miss otherwise. He will be posting them on his vimeo site but since I star in the most recent one, I thought I would post it here also. Enjoy!
Jezhntan Piroz bet!
01 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Kurdistan Tags: Holiday, Iraq, Kurdistan
Ramadan is over. It was a long, hot month. S0 long that we found ourselves a few times stopping and realizing ‘wow, they are still doing this!’
After a month of prayer and fasting, it is time to feast. Today began the three day holiday that will be filled with food, family and friends and something like trick-or-treating for grown ups. I have my bowl of candy ready.
This was our first time to experience Ramadan and it was eye opening. It was interesting to see how this holy month affected each person in the city. The people of this city cover the spectrum, from those who treasure the month as a time to abstain from food and seek God and draw near to him, to those who fast but only under social pressure and continue to let you know how miserable it is making them, to those who don’t even try, going on with life as it if it were any other month. Our staff photographer did an amazing project during this month and interviewed different people around the city, to see her photos and stories click here.
Another aspect of Ramadan that we witnessed was generosity. During this holy month, gifts count as double for the giver. We were brought more treats and food from our neighbors during this month than all the rest of our time here. And in the bazaar, shop owners were much quicker to give me the lower price or throw an extra bill into my change.
Now we celebrate the Jezhn, soon after we will be celebrating the end of summer. People will be coming out of their houses again. Days will not be so long and lifeless. There will be visiting again. Fall will be wonderful.
Oops, I just converted to Islam
23 Jul 2011 4 Comments
in Kurdistan Tags: Iraq, Islam, Kurdistan, religions
For a while now, we have been telling a good friend and neighbor that we really want to meet his family. Well two days ago I had my chance, and now I’m afraid to go back.
It was his mother who invited me in. From the gate she seemed like every other old kurdish woman, streams of blessings followed by wet kisses. But once inside her home, I discovered her passionately religious side. Before sitting me down for tea she took me around and showed me various photos of family and Muslim leaders. “Allah illaha, Allah illaha” she said over and over again waving one finger in the air for extra emphasis.
I tried to follow her words and a few times asked her to slow down but they flowed out of her mouth like a well rehearsed monologue. Something about Jesus, something about Muhammad… “allah, allah, allah.” Finally her speech slowed and she repeated one phrase three times before I understood she wanted me to say the words. I did, not knowing what else to do and certainly not understanding the arabic I was trying to pronounce. After going back and forth a few times I realized I had said “the prayer.” In her eyes, I am now Muslim and if nothing else she believes see me again in paradise.
It was a whirlwind conversion. She brought me a colorful string of prayer beads and told me what to say for each one. When I asked her what it meant, she told me to ask her son and quickly went on. She showed me how to cover my head and how to bend and pray. She gave me my own muslim leader card to put up on my wall and finally she brought out an english copy of the koran and told me I could get one for myself in the bazaar.
I was, needless to say, a little overwhelmed. I sat there for a bit while she was still fluttering around between prayers, not really knowing what to do next. She wasn’t slowing down and conversation seemed impossible, so I excused myself and with many thanks and kind words, took up the little goodie bag she had made me and left.
I now understand a little bit more how “lost” people feel when confronted with religion. If you have ever had Jesus forced at you this way, I’m sorry. We want to be understood yet we don’t seek understanding. Go out, ask questions, LISTEN, and maybe make a new friend along the way.
And I am going to keep learning Kurdish so this doesn’t happen again, and so I can go back and have a real conversation with my neighbor.
