THE ELEVENTH HOUR

So here I am in the eleventh hour of the last day here in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.

I don't know what to feel.

I am so excited to see my friends, my family, and my loved ones (you know who you are). But I am already sad that I must say goodbye to my PLC family, my new friends, and the greatest place I have ever been.

Don't get me wrong, Iraq isn't easy on the eyes. Its dusty, dirty, grimy, brown, beige, tan, and dusty. What makes it great is the people. I am going to miss the genuine, kind hearted nature of the Kurdish people. As great as America is, we are pretty bad at being hospitable, kind, or generous, in comparison to Kurdistan.

I make more friends on a daily basis (accidentally) just by randomly talking to strangers in tea shops and stores than I ever would in America (even if I was actually trying.

This has been the most enlightening 10 weeks of my life. UGH... I am so exhausted I do not even know what to say. Time to sleep. See you American's soon!

ONE WEEK LEFT?

Oh my goodness, I have only one week left. I can absolutely not believe that this internship is almost over. This has been the most incredible 10 weeks of my life. I have learned a great deal about myself and my future through this journey, and I have learned even more about a culture and a people that is truly incredible. Its been a while since I wrote so I am going to briefly mention a couple of really awesome things

Last monday the whole PLC team went on an exciting picnic to Amhed Awa, a waterfall that runs through the mountains of Kurdistan. We drove around an hour and a half outside of Sulyamaniyah to the river where we enjoyed a delicious lunch. After eating myself and 6 of our group hired a driver to drive us a couple of miles up the river. By up the river I really mean around extremely windy roads on the edge of precipices for 30 minutes. We careened around corners and between parked bulldozers and into what we joked was probably Pakistan. The dangerous ride was well worth it. We hiked up a trail adjacent to the rushing river littered with tiny shops selling touristy trinkets and ridiculous looking hats. It was absolutely beautiful, green trees, clear water, and cool air (finally). We spent about a 20 minutes walking up to the base of the falls and another 40 talking with arab tourists and scrambling up slimy wet rocks to try and feel the spray of the waterfall. This may just be the visual highlight of the trip! We hiked back to the picnic site instead of taking the high and dangerous road. This was a hot and long trek but worthwhile and beautiful as I got to see  simple stone homes built into the side of the hills and cliffs. Overall, it was an extraordinary day.

I have been learning Kurdish for the past month from my friend and pizza shop owner Meran. He is generous with his time and has been giving me lessons most nights of the week. I know the alphabet and can sound out words on signs and elsewhere around town. It is such a beautiful and exciting language. The completely different alphabet has its challenges but is incredible and interesting. Reading from right to left is becoming more habitual and I have even read signs on buildings in kurdish before I even see the english name. I am currently working on a logo for the klash maker that Preemptive Love Coalition has been partnering with, Kaka Aram. He is a master at making the traditional shoes, which take upwards of 40 hours per pair, by hand. I have already purchased a couple of pairs to support his business and bring some Kurdish culture back with me to America. You can order them through PLC's sub company www.buyshoessavelives.com

Kaka Aram's new logo. The kurdish reads the same as the english, Awesar (his hometown).

I am finding myself ready to come home and finish school, but I am excited to possibly return next year and I am eager to continue my work with PLC upon my return to the states!

I really suck at this whole updating thing

Hey everyone.

For the record, I am still alive, and while it seems that I have dropped off the face of the earth, I am in fact sitting in an internet capable hotel lobby in the eastern hemisphere of this planet.

A couple weeks ago my mother left me a worried message explaining that there was a bombing in Iraq and that she was concerned I had not called her since it had happened. She was right to worry... not because I was in any danger, but because I indeed am her son and she my mother, and thus it is her right. But just in case you were worried about me too, let me explain to you how in danger I was. I did not even hear about the bombing until my mom's message, and I have yet to hear about it since. This either means that Yellow Journalism is still alive and well in America and blew (no pun intended) the news out of proportion, or that Iraqi news doesn't travel all that well. I have a feeling that it is a combination of both.

I am so sorry for not updating you, my friends and supporters in quite a while! Truth be told, I hate writing about myself, and this trip isn't exciting enough for me to feel like writing daily posts. Now don't get me wrong, I love being here, and my experience has been incredible thus far, but I am not off exploring the hidden caves in the border mountains or running around town searching for hole-in-the-wall shops and trinkets. This is not a vacation. It is a 10 week intensive job, and it comes with a lot of responsibility. Aside from daily chores ranging from cooking for 10 people to cleaning the living room, the interns are working 9 to 5 5 days a week. For me this usually turns into 6 days a week as I am constantly designing for PLC.

At this point I have more than settled into the routine and it feels like I am an not just an intern but a part of the PLC family. With only 3 weeks left, I am already realizing how much I am going to miss being here!

P.S. My camera is broken, but I am going to try and get some photos up soon!

IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE WE LAST TALKED

So. My bad for falling off the proverbial wagon. It has been ten days since I updated you on the ridiculousness that is Iraq. Short Post.

Things I may have neglected to mention:

1.The house flooded and ruined a bunch of the interns stuff... and now the carpets smell bad.

2. sickness and the slumps.

3. I'm gonna be a cross cultural designer!


So yeah, the house flooded. Here in Iraq water comes from the govt at certain times on certain days, and if you don't turn on your pump then the tanks on your roof don't get filled, and you can potentially run out. Yeah, well, we didn't have that problem. We got water, and it was pumping up on the roof until it overflowed. This in and of itself usually isnt an issue because there is a drain on the ground floor where the overflow is diverted. But the neighbor, who claimed that the smell of the open drain was too much to bear, climbed into the back porch and closed off the drain. Thus, when the tank overflowed, it overflowed into the house, the guys room and the rest of the first floor.

Damage:
Ryan's laptop, camera, cell phone and Ipod destroyed.

Adam's laptop

My cameras. both my old point and shoot from high school and my
brand-new-not-but-a-month-old Nikon DSLR. bummer

And those dang carpets....


Then I got sick last week.. Just some minor stomach stuff, but it put me out of work for a couple days. This is also when the slumps kicked in and I got burned out... Bleh. Luckily Im back in the groove and ready to kick butt!

So, the interns favorite pizza place, Pizza Pezan is owned by our english speaking friend Miran. He and I were chatting the other day about him opening a second location. I mentioned that he should get a logo made to help with recognition.
Anyways... He wants me to design it for him! So that along with my own personal logo and website are my pet projects for the coming weeks!

And since writing this (an hour ago) I met with Miran, and it is ON. also, I will apparently be meeting his rich friends who need logos too (tomorrow). WOO!

So the reason for no pictures is that I havent had a camera, but I will try to get some photos up in the next couple days :) In the mean time here are some potential new logos for me! Im sure Eric will have opinions... and maybe devin too, if he even reads this blog.

MY BIZARRE LIFE: PART DUEX

When I said "PART TWO: IRAQ tomorrow!" I clearly forgot an extra tomorrow, because it is now 2 days later. Oops. Crazy crazy things have happened since then, but I will make that stuff a separate post as I want to complete My Bizarre Life. The content between the ****'s is the end of the last post, but will help with context and continuity.

IRAQ

****

Now why the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks am I here in Iraq. This one is a lot shorter ( I hope), but also pretty ridiculous. It all started back in High School.

My first service trip was to Costa Rica, the summer of my sophomore year of HS. I went to work at La Montaña Christian Camps ( think Hume Lake or Forest Home in CR) as a helper/counselor/whatever. It was incredible, enlightening, and gave me a passion for serving God that could only be slaked by another trip.

The following summer I traveled to the Dominican Republic with my youth group to help build a schoolhouse for Haitian refugees seeking asylum. This was my first service trip where hands on building was the main form of ministry and love spreading, and it was a very different experience. It was eye-opening towards the pain of those in need and those who are broken by poverty. 

The summer after senior year I traveled to Turkey to work with a church in Antalya. 

I fell in love... with the country, and the food, and the culture (not a woman). I spent my time building relationships with the locals. This was a very different type of service trip, and while it seemed more like a vacation, the fruits of relational labors grew much more on this trip than they had on the previous two. I came back to America, and was itching to leave, itching to get back to Turkey or at least that part of the world.

Fast forward 2 years. I am home from college for winter break, and like 2 days before I leave for school I decide to join my friend Lauren (it might actually be your fault that I am here in Iraq) in this thing called Mandate (feeding the homeless of Santa Barbara), put on by Valley Christian Fellowship. Its being led by this guy Cody Fisher, who I had met randomly a few years before a bible study right before he left for Iraq. So I vaguely remember that he went somewhere kinda crazy and we start talking. We end up talking the whole night about GD and this organization he co-founded called Preemptive Love Coalition that provides life saving heart surgeries for kids in Iraq. He tells me about their summer internship program, 10 weeks in Iraq. My heart nearly skipped a beat. 

****

The middle east? No way. So cool. So I keep asking questions and I find out that the internship is open to anyone who is passionate and has something to offer. Meaning that I could do design for them if that is what I felt I had to offer. I knew almost immediately that I was going to go. 

Now just to give you a little reference. I am the kind of person that can commit to something like this right off the bat. Once I am in something I am in something for the long haul. At the same time, my being committed doesn't mean that it necessarily works out for me right away. I told my mom about the whole Iraq thing, and said something like "Hey, this sounds neat, maybe this a possibility for me for summer." But really what I was feeling in my heart was "Heck-freaking-yes. I am going to go to Iraq, I am going to serve God, and I am going to do what God has given me, design." My mom reluctantly said, "Ok, maybe?" But really what she was saying (conjecture) is, "Heck-freaking-no. You are not going to Iraq. You are a sophomore in college. And you are going to die."

I heeded this not, and began pursuing the internship until I totally missed the deadline to apply. Typical. Remember when I said being committed doesn't always work out right away? Yeah... that happened. This was the ultimate blessing in disguise. It was God saying to me, "Wait...calm yourself. If you want to be invested in this organization, then you are going to be invested. But you are going to be prepared and empowered in Me. Your desire will be granted, but it is going to take some work."

And work I did. Over the course of the next year, I continued my design education, honing my skills while working multiple design jobs and holding design positions in my fraternity and other groups on campus. I often tried things I wasn't even sure I was capable of in order to better learn about myself. All of this work was great preparation for Iraq, but was only covering the earthly side of my life.

December of last year I read through "Mere Christianity" and it revolutionized my mind. It altered my perceptions of faith, and rocked me to the core of my relationship with Jesus. I was convicted and challenged and returned for Interterm desiring to get on track with God, making him "numero uno" instead of "numero who knows". He heard my desire and got me plugged into an awesome men's group called Revive ( I love you guys so much), which has strengthened my faith and relationship 10-fold. 

I made some critical changes to my life, and soon after found my self showered with ridiculous blessings. One of which was my acceptance to the PLC internship in Iraq. Another other is a combination of monetary and prayer support as I fundraised for the trip and tried to complete my Junior Show. Thanks to the people like you, I am living the dream that I had over a year ago!

So.... here I am, in Iraq, because I serendipitously met Cody a few years back. Here I am, a graphic designer, because I thought Christian t-shirts were the coolest thing since whatever was cooler than sliced bread. If either one of these things were not true about me. I would not be here, I would not be at Chapman. I wouldn't have met some of my best friends for life, I wouldn't be the Son of God that I am. All of this is just crazy to me. I am reminded more everyday about why I am here, why I am me. I am who I am, and I am doing what I am doing because the great I AM (God) has known every silly passion and thought I have ever had, and has worked them for my good.

Gosh I hope this post makes sense. 

MY BIZARRE LIFE

Hey all! So this post has less to do with what I have done the past few days (work, eat, sleep, work, eat, proctor english exams, sleep, work, eat, blogging now, soon sleep), and more to do with the ridiculous realizations about where I am in life and how I got here. Be forewarned, there is absolutely no guarantee that any of this will interest you, as I am writing this to help myself process as well.

WHERE I AM

I am currently in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan, Iraq working for the Preemptive Love Coalition as a graphic design intern. I am working on branding, layout, web, advertisement, posters, shirt designs and more. More importantly, I am serving God and the people of Iraq in the process. These are my two passions in life.



HOW DID I GET HERE:

PART ONE: DESIGN

Oh goodness. Its hard to say what in my life specifically contributed to the decisions I have made and the directions that I have gone in other than God ( and my mom knowing what was what and raising me right). I first got interested in design at this music festival called Spirit West Coast. Its a giant Christian band fest that I went to summer of my junior year in HS I believe. Other than music it feature huge quantities of vendors (selling band merchandise) and Christian clothing companies. That to me was the coolest thing ever. I feel like I must have been living under a rock at the time, I cannot believe that was the first time I had seen a Christian clothing company. So that set the cogs turning, and by the time I had gotten to senior I was deciding between pursuing architecture, or graphic design.

I chose design.

Backing up a bit. I had not taken a single art class in high school, and while I loved to draw and had my mother's innate artistic ability, I had no formal training. Furthermore I had never even touched Photoshop, or Illustrator, let alone InDesign.

Anyways, I decided, based off of the fact that I liked t-shirts, that I would pursue an education so that I could fulfill my (very) new life goal to have my own Christian clothing company. Was I insane? Maybe...probably...most definitely...looking back, this seems like the worst idea ever. They say you don't develop the capacity to understand long term consequences until age 18 or 19. Pretty sure they were right.

This poor decision could only be topped off by my desire to go to a small liberal arts private school in Orange County. One that would cost about $200,000 for my degree. Chapman University. I am just making bad choices like nobody's business.

Lucky for me God had orchestrated it all. I went to visit Chapman, and met the head of the Art Department, Eric Chimenti, who happened to also be a graphic design professor and a Christian (Mom was stoked). I was pretty much certain this was where I was supposed to go by this point... and it was.

Flash forward 3 years. Professor Chimenti is a huge part of my life. He is my teacher, my academic advisor, my mentor and bible study leader, he is family. I can never thank him or God enough for whatever grace he had accepting me into the program. I have been so blessed through the silly, uneducated choices I made. Maybe, they weren't silly. Maybe it was a revelation or something...it is so far back I can't even remember. What I do know is that the catalyst of a few Christian clothing companies has brought me to a place in my life that I cannot even imagine. I am attending one of the best schools for design in the nation and I am excelling in design, thanks to the tutelage of the great faculty. I have met some of my best friends in the world (Devin James Valdivia, Megan, Cameron, Jake and so many more), I have an incredible Christian support system, and an amazing fraternal brotherhood ( Hoorah, Phi Tau). I honestly cannot fathom what has come out of that crazy decision. I have been blessed, undeservingly no doubt.


I know you are all already tired of reading this post in my obnoxious voice, so I will break this post into two. ( This is more of a selfish decision than anything else, I am exhausted).
Anywho... Stay tuned. I will post

PART TWO: IRAQ tomorrow!

A DAY IN PRISON

The last couple of days have been pretty great!

On Thursday after work, the interns Cody and Michelle and I went to see X-Men: First Class

I have got to say, it was quite enjoyable, and is ranked at best superhero movie since Dark Knight (though it still doesn't hold a candle to it). Friday was a day to ourselves. I spent the morning reading and studying Hebrews, and the afternoon at Matt Willingham's discussing the resurrection and watching Arrested Development.

Today, Saturday, all of us interns went to the Amna Suraka, which is translated to Red Security. It is the prison where Saddam Hussein held and killed thousands of Kurds. It was overtaken by Kurds in 1991 and remains in the same condition as it was when it was captured with tanks left broken and buildings riddled with bullet holes and destruction

shattered mirror memorial

 The first room we walk into is this 80 ft long hallway decorated with shards of mirror set into mortar. It was beautiful. The ceiling was covered in strands of tiny little lights that reflected infinitely in the mirrors. Aesthetically it was incredible, symbolically it was powerful. Each of the 182,000 shards of mirror represented a kurd killed, and each of the 5000 lights represent a village destroyed in that last campaign against Kurds.

We then jumped around on derelict tanks and artillery. It is a lot of fun, climbing up on a tank and sitting atop the barrel of an iron monster. They are gigantic, and hot. I burned my hands a couple of times on the metal just sitting there baking in the sun. But later tonight it hit me like a superheated shell. I was sitting on an iron monster. A piece of machinery used to kill countless people. Used to spread terror and pain. And the only joy that comes is knowing that it can never be used for that again. Knowing that it is broken, and that is won't ever be fixed.

me in a tank....

Next we walked down into the basement of one of the cell blocks. It was once a room where men were tortured and women were raped. It had been filled with red lights and photographic prints of the atrocities committed by Hussein. Very similar to the concentration camps, there were piles of bodies horribly disfigured and abused. Children dead. It was sobering, and haunting. In the next building we saw the remnants of what once were prison cells. Now all that remains are bullet holes, fire damage and prisoners' carvings on the walls. War is glorified and desensitized by film and video games greatly. This was a great opportunity to see this. People argue that it doesn't. But it definitely does. It took me 5 hours from leaving the Amna Suraka to realize that. The entire time I was there I was enamoured with bullet holes and the aesthetic nature of the buildings after everything that had happened there.

A photo of bodies being dumped on the road, featured in the basement of Amna Suraka

Prisoners cell in Red Security Prison

Afterwards we left Amna Suraka we walked a few blocks to a grocery store/restuarant/coffee shop where we had lunch. Cody and Ryan and I discussed possible large scale awareness projects (one of my goals for this trip). We keep coming back to something that shows that Kurd, Arab, rich or Poor, are the same, and suffering in the same way.

We then took a walk into Parki Azadi which means Freedom Park. It was originally the grounds where Saddam would hold public executions, but after the Kurds took over, they built a park celebrating life and freedom over it! Such a testament to the progress that can be made! The park was beautiful and very expansive. It featured a monument listing the names of the individuals executed there, a large pond and tons and tons of grass and trees. The interns sat and hung out in the shade (greatly welcomed in the heat), and we all agreed that it didn't even feel like we were in Iraq. I guess the creators of the Parki Azadi achieved their goal.

The memorial to executed kurds in Parki Azadi

Today was overwhelming. When I left the prison, at first I saw no hope, only death and pain. But now looking at where we are years after Saddam's fall and almost 5 years after the inception of PLC, I see so much hope, so much love. The vision of PLC is to wage peace and mend communities at odds. This can happen, and is already beginning to happen. There is a future for this nation. There is a future for this planet. It begins rooted in Love, and grows into Peace. I am so blessed and excited to be a part of this movement of restoration.  

INSERT CREATIVE HEADLINE HERE

Hey all! So it is wednesday evening here in Suley and I just finished work for the day. I am ex(tra)hausted. Here is a recap this week so far (as quickly as possible).

Monday

I spent the majority of Monday working on tshirt designs at the office. So far they have been pretty fun and overall have been received quite well by my supervisors Jeremy and Cody. I had a deadline to have 3-4 shirt designs done on Monday afternoon for a meeting. I ended up having 5 done (for the most part) of which 2 were chosen as solid directions for an American audience, and 1 was chosen for the Kurdish audience. We discussed possible changes and direction for the selected designs.

When we got home we had delicious enchiladas and salads for dinner, which was followed by home group. Our talk at home group was centered around giving to the poor. We discussed when we should give, what we should give, how we should give, and why we should give. It was a lengthy discussion and I won't bore you with too many details but I will give you the conclusions i have come too (pending revelatory revision)

As believers we are called to always give to the needy, but I think that there are times when I feel called to give in one way versus another. I have been so greatly blessed by gifts from others, and from God (the giver of all things), that I should never not give something. Sometimes I feel called to give monetary, or to give time, or love, or prayer. And I was convicted of this through our talk. I am going focus on giving something to those in need... whether its 250 dinar, or 2.5 minutes of prayer.
Another thing that I need to work on is giving for the right reasons. As a human, I am inclined to be selfish, and I have the amazing ability as a member of this flawed species to turn a selfless act into a selfish act. Sometimes I give to appease guilt, sometimes I give to look generous, sometimes I give for no other reason that because everyone else is giving. What I need to be is Christ centered, not self centered. I need to focus my attention on serving the mangod that came down from heaven and let us (man) brutally murder him so that we could be washed clean for that act, and every other act of sin ever. Giving because of my own guilt, or desire to look kind, or be one of the giving gang, is so far below giving because the love of my life proclaimed that I must love all as he loves all, and give to all as he gives to all. This is the ultimate task. It doesn't matter what I give (unless its destructive, that's bad), as long as I am giving it because of my love for Jesus and my desire to obey his commands. Sorry if that got a little preachy, it just amazes me how a simple hour long talk can convict me of the truth and help me to course correct.

On a funnier note, I fell asleep during prayer. Yup. Snoring and all. Right in the middle of home group prayer. Thank goodness I am forgiven.

Tuesday

Lots and lots of design... ridiculous amounts of design.
Then dinner, arrested development till 9
and 5 more hours of design.

Wednesday

Needless to say, I am exhausted. But, overall today was great. Spent the day working on a postcard handout for PLC to put in with their orders for shirts and other things. WIN. I also discussed with Cody and Jeremy some slight revisions to the PLC branding, and I am now going to working on further streamlining and developing logos, iconography and branding guidelines for Preemptive Love! I am super excited about this, as branding and PLC are two things I am very passionate about! After work I stayed late in the office (where I am now), to write this blog and catch up on work!

Now for dindin!!

PHINALLY PHOTOS

Officer Mahmood and Me 

Klash!!!

The Bazaar!

FIRST WEEK RECAP

I am so sorry for everyone waiting on info (even if it is just a few of you)! This week has been incredibly crazy (awesome). My last post covered Monday, but I want to give you a brief highlight of my week!

Tuesday

Tuesday was our first real workday in the office! We got in at 9 and broke into our teams for the internship. Ted, Ben and I are in Cody Fisher's team (design, and multimedia)I started some tshirt designs (my first major project), which I will be posting as soon as I am allowed to either on the PLC fb page, or on this blog! It was awesome to finally be working with this organization, and tuesday began to chisel into stone what I am going to do while I am here. For now it is looking like tshirts, posters, etc. (both of which I love making). 

For lunch everyone in the office went to a falafel place up the street! It was extremely tasty and I even ate the tomatoes ( I made a promise to myself that I would eat things I normally wouldn't eat, so I don't look more white than necessary, and so that I can have a deeper cultural experience). We then went back to the office where we concluded our 9-5 work day. Here in Kurdistan, all the men are out of the house from 9-5 and even if work lets out early, they will hang out in tea shops and socialize with friends.

That evening, we went to the Willmingham's (Matt and Cayla's) for dinner and a movie. We had delicious chili and cornbread, followed by snickerdoodles and a white chocolate mint cake provided by DJ a Christian Ex Pat that lives in Suley and works at the LifeCenter (still need to learn exactly what they do, but its something awesome). We then watched Megamind. By we, I actually mean everyone else, because I layed down to watch the movie and passed out instantly (apparently I even snored.  The rest of the evening was spent working on more designs and being frustrated with jankey internet!

Wednesday

Back in the office by 9, we had our group stand-up meetings (which curiously enough have taken place while sitting down), where each person on the team says what they are working on and what their goals are for the day. 

Lunch time was spent on the first floor of the office building in FoodLand ( yes, its actually called FoodLand) where Liz, Adam, Ben, Ryan, Ted, and I ate what sounds like Shwarma, but is definitely not spelled that way. It consisted of Donër (shaved meat that roasts on a spit all day) tomatoes, onions and hummus in a long roll. It was decent overall, but pricey for its lack of being awesome (By pricey I mean like 3 dollars). 

After work we headed back to home and were interviewed by Ted for a short video about the interns reactions to Iraq! I daresay I performed horribly, and probably look rather silly in it (all for a good cause right?). 

We ate pizza for dinner, made by the master chef (not chief) Ryan. It was delicious. This feast was followed by some more design work. For me, I tend to bring work home with me. I might not be super inspired at the office, but something will hit me in the evening, and I will find myself working on that instead of say, blogging (it is all starting to make sense now isn't it?).

Thursday

Instead of talking about work today, I am going to jump right into lunch. 

We at lunch at a pizza shop run by an english speaking kurd that Matt is friends with (Matt spends many of his afternoons there meeting kurds and learning the language, or so he sas. I have a hunch it has a lot more to do with the pizza, Coke, and ice cream). My pizza had chicken, corn, peppers, mushrooms, and other things on it (I hate mushrooms, well I did till I ate my first one like 3 weeks ago) It is really quite good!  

Lunch is all I remember from Thursday. Oh wait. We went back to the pizza place that night for coke and ice cream. Addicted.

Friday

In Iraq, Friday is the beginning of the week, but feels more like the end of ours. 

Friday is the equivalent of the Sunday. Everything is closed in the morning, until after the afternoon prayers. So I spent most of friday morning reading the word and working on designs. Then we went back to the Bazaar. YES PLEASE.

The guy interns and Matt got on a bus and rode to the bazaar. We went to a juice stand straightaway and I had a carrot juice (bombdelish). We took some pics with a traffic cop and the juice maker who are both our friends now! Then Ted, Adam, Ben, and I walked all over the bazaar and into the underground maze of shops! So crazy... there are butcher shops with the organs of animals just hanging in the doorway. Yum/yuck. Then we went to the juice shop again and i had a kiwi juice, and orange juice, and a carrot juice. Everything is made fresh on the spot! We then met up with Matt again, and he took us to his favorite dvd shop. I bought the Mission Impossible trilogy for under 2 bucks, good condition too. Then we saw the Klash (traditional shoes made by hand) shop for PLC and went to a dairy shop where the owner gave us goat cheese to try, and gave us Tahin Halva, a sesame sugar treat with the consistency of cotton candy. It is honestly one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten.

Saturday

Saturday was spent lounging for the greater portion of the day. That won't be happening any other Saturday, as from here on out we have to go explore and meet friends on Saturdays ( you won't here me complaining). For lunch we ate at FROOT'S a american style smoothie and salad restaurant in the nearby mall. Delicious, expensive, and indigestible. That's 3 wins!

I spent a great portion of the day reading through Hebrews (incredible book). Its so  interesting reading a book directly written to Jews, and seeing how chock full of the old testament it is in its arguments and needs for Christ, while books written to a more Gentile audience appeals to a very different part of the heart. I owe this interest to Eric Chimenti (how is that for a shoutout?), who God has use to slowly kindle a fiery desire to know the word in my heart.

Jeremy Courtney, and our intern leaders Alex, and Lydia returned from Nasiriyah, in the south of Iraq where they were taking part in a remedy mission! It was great to finally meet them!! 

We went to the Sulaymaniyah International Church for fellowship and met some believers that live in the area. The sermon was on Matthew 5:13, and the saltiness of being a believer. Quite interesting, although at times a bit difficult to understand (dang language barriers!!).

After church, the interns walked with Cody to Nali, a coffeeshop down the block. I drank a mocaccino and had an awesome discussion with Cody about design, and my aspirations for the future both with PLC and in general. 

When we got back, the interns finished off the night by watching a few episodes of Arrested Development!

Sunday

Sunday, is like America's Monday!  Work resumed as usual at 9 am, and after the standup meeting, Ted, Ben, and I left the office with Awara Hassan Mama to get our Kurdish visas. Awara is a Kurdish Muslim who works with PLC, and he deserves an entire post just about him, but a few sentences will have to suffice for now! He is the son of one of the most wealthy men in the country, and has access to almost anything he could want, but instead of living extravagantly, he lives modestly on the money he makes from working for PLC. He is extremely generous and uses his fathers name and influence to help with the good work Preemptive Love is doing. For instance, he took us to the Kurdistan Department of Residence and made what would have been a 6 hour to 2 day process happen in under 2. He puts all of the interns in his fathers name, effectively making us sons and daughters of Hassan Mama. This puts us under his protection, but it also means that everything we do reflects back on Awara and his family. 

After we got our visas we walked back to the office and continued working till lunch. Then Awara and all of the interns except for Ryan and Alex went to lunch at Sara again (my first or second post talks about it).

After work we went back home to take an intern photo (to come). 

It then began to rain. Yes...rain (as in water droplets falling from clouds in the sky). 

There was some ridiculous lightning and thunder where the sound came with the flash. We made our way to the life center where DJ works for an American Idol viewing party. We enjoyed home-cooked american and mexican food and played scrabble and watched the show while power was on with Ex Pats from the Church and the surrounding area. It ended early due to power outages, but was overall a good time!

Back at home, I continued to design, and we finished off the evening watching Arrested Development.

Wheew... I think we are all caught up! I will be hopefully creating a flickr account so i can post ALL my photos for you to see! Hope this post was not too excruciating!

DAY 1

This post will recount my first day living in the Courtney's house in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan. Right off the bat, I would like to adress the lack of photos so far. This is because I have not taken any, not because I do not want to, but because it is a very sensitive thing in Kurdistan... and the power just went out.... now its back. Anyways. PLC asked us not to take camera's out on the first day to the bazaar, so that we could get a lay of the land without drawing extra attention to ourselves. In the past, interns' cameras have been taken away from them by police because they took pictures of certain buildings or of uniformed individuals. For this reason PLC wanted to make sure we knew what not to photograph so that we can be conscious of our actions. In this culture ramifications for mistakes can be great. Honor is incredibly important, and if I do something foolish I can bring shame on Preemptive Love. That being said, we have been given the ok to take cameras with us as long as we are smart about it and we don't photograph police without asking them, we don't photograph women or families without asking, and we never ever photograph government buildings, as it is a security risk.

DAY 1

So... everyone in the house woke up by 7:15 and the guys who have the downstairs bathroom took turns taking showers. By 8:30 we were all in the living room updating Facebook and checking emails. At 8:45 the six interns piled into Jessica Courtney's car and drove to the PLC office, which is only a few blocks away! The office is extremely conveniently located. Every person directly involved with PLC lives within walking distance of the office (such a God thing). We had buns from the Turkish bakery below the office for breakfast, and were given our task for the morning: Go to the bazaar and buy a SIM card for each of our cell phones, buy passport photos for our Iraqi visas, drink a fruit smoothie, meet some Kurds in the process, and meet up at the Sara Restaurant across town for lunch.

We split into two groups (I was in a group with Ben and Ted), and we began our adventure. First thing we had to do was flag down a taxi, and using the limited Kurdish on our PLC reference cards ask the driver to take us to the bazaar. We found a driver. At first we thought the taxi driver understood us, but as we traveled further and further into the city, and as he spoke more and more rapidly in a language we were deaf to, we began to feel uneasy and little worried. But, we were just being white. He did in fact know where the bazaar was, and took us there promptly. Once on the main street my senses were assaulted. The street was lined with shops selling fruit, meat, jewelry, cellphones, clothing, shoes, photos, and so much more. We walked up the street looking for a place to exchange our money into Dinar. We finally found one about a quarter mile up the bazaar, and exchanged 100 dollars which equals roughly 119 Hezar (119,000 Dinar). Our next goal was to locate AsiaCell SIM cards. We found a shop back down the road and the man, whose name we later learned was Basquiat (thats phonetic, and definitely not how his name is really spelled) asked us for our passports and pointed to our photos. It seemed as if we were supposed to give him passport photos of us before we could purchase the SIM card. We departed and walked to a nearby photo shop where we got passport photos taken. The owner of the shop was very helpful and even spoke some english. He took us into the back room where he had a camera set up for just this kind of thing. He snapped a photo of each of us and we awaited patiently as he printed out 5 each for us. We paid and walked back down to the SIM card shop, where we learned that we needed not only passport photos but a photocopy of our passports. We said "Basha" (its good) and returned to the photo shop to inquire about photocopies. The man there was incredibly kind, not only did he make copies for us, but he gave them to us because we were his friends! In Kurdistan it take about 4 minutes to make a friend. Awesome. We went back to the cellphone shop, and finally were able to secure SIM cards. He took our passport copies and our fingerprints and filled out an AsiaCell form with our info. I assume this is the equivalent of a Verizon contract. We had about an hour to kill, so we found a juice bar and ordered a refreshing smoothie. I had strawberry. It was delicious. Then we walked back up and down the bazaar before hailing a taxi and making our way to the restaurant.

Upon getting in the taxi, I noticed photos on the dashboard, and so, using my Kurdish dictionary, I attempted to strike up a conversation. He was extremely nice! He helped the three of us in the car hone the few words of Kurdish we knew and we asked about his photos. He told us a little about his family and was very open to sharing. He dropped us off, and refused payment for our ride despite our insistance, telling us that we were friends! Friendship here is awesome. I hope to meet Zana, the taxi driver again so I can pay him double for my next ride, because he is my friend.

Lunch at Sara was ridiculously good! We were served Naan (flatbread) rice, beans, stewed eggplant and vegetables, savory cooked apricots, chicken kabob, and beef kabob. It was incredibly delicious, incredibly filling, and incredibly cheap. In total it was about 4 to 5 Hazar for this meal per person, which equals roughly $3.50-$4.50. SO FREAKING GOOD.

Anyways, the rest of the afternoon comprised of additional orientation, sharing of goals, and information about PLC and Iraq. At 5:30 we ate dinner (taco salad), at the Courtney's which I will now be calling home. Then the ladies went to a Kurdish wedding, while the guys talked, and prayed. Overall it was an excellent day, and was more than eye opening! Day 2 to come soon, but for now, time to read and seek!

THE TRAVEL DAYS

Gosh I am so blessed! Its been 3 long days since I embarked on my "Desert Adventure" and already I will not have enough space on the internet to fully share everything that has happened. So lets break it down concisely, because as much as you might care about me, no one wants to read a 20 page blog post. I mean, I usually quit about 1 page into a 3 page on cracked.com article (usually they are hilarious), and lets be honest, blogs are... well, blogs.

TRAVEL TO ISTANBUL

Everything went really well at LAX despite being unable to check in until 4:30 a.m. Security was a breeze and checkin went smoothly (I think it helped that TSA was a little groggy). Although I was told by one TSA agent that I better be getting paid a lot to go to Iraq, and was laughed at when I explained it was volunteer. I find it incredibly interesting that for me, God will bring people into my travel days early on who become a sort of constant. For instance, I stood in line with a couple guys who worked for USDA. Not only where they on the same flight as me to Chicago, but they were in the same row as me. Anyways, I was sandwiched between the window and a burly man on the first flight, which was great, because he blocked all the light and I passed out immediately, awaking for the final descent.

The trip to Frankfurt was about 8 hours but overall was enjoyable. I met up with one Liz Jones, and Ben Chasnov (two PLC interns with me!) in the aeroplane. I watched this movie (not a film) called The Green Hornet featuring Seth Rogen as a millionaire's misguided son. It was only enjoyable because I was on an 8 hour flight, but watching Rogen not play an overweight bum was kinda bizarre. I then napped for the next 6 hours.

Upon arrival in Frankfurt at like 5 a.m. the three of us went through security. Much to our surprise it was relaxing and not at all a pain in the butt like the American security checks. We waited around in one of the terminals and chatted a little bit to break the Ice ( most of that credit goes to Liz, who makes a game out of learning things about people, so that one day when asked she can creepily reveal things that even we forgot. Needless to say, she is awesome.) I found out that Ben is a Graphic Design major at Cedarville in Ohio, which is really awesome as it will be great to collaborate on the work here. This will definitely increase the sphere of influence that design can have for PLC this summer. We also met up with Adam Brandt, who is a comm major at Cedarville before boarding for Istanbul

The Frankfurt to Istanbul leg was only a couple hours, but that didn't stop me from sleeping 2 more. This was by far the most awkward portion of the trip. While asleep, my ears refused to acclimate to the change in pressure, and thus I dreamed I was going deaf and then blacking out on the airplane. I was trying to speak as the blackness seeped in and was asking for help, when I felt someone shaking me out of unconsciousness. Then I woke up and found a flight attendant and this random girl next to me laughing and trying to wake me up so I could put up my tray table for landing. If I was on twitter (which I might do to promote PLC, sorry Devin) the appropriate post would be #fail.

Once in Istabul, Turkey (favorite country ever), the four of us waited at Gloria Jean's Coffee for the arrival of Ryan Rosenberry from Solvang, CA, and Ted Harrison from Oklahoma who studies at Baylor. This wait ended up being like 3 hours, and was followed by another hour long wait to get our ride to the Hotel Kafkas in Istanbul. When we finally got on the road, we were met with ridiculous Turkish traffic (something I had not missed) and spent 2 hours on what should have been a 20 minute drive to our hotel.
We arrived, checked in and then left for dinner and exploration. It was almost 7 so the Haggia Sophia had already closed, but we got to check out the sights before eating dinner at a restaurant I had remembered from 2008. We went back to the hotel after some meandering and updated facebook before crashing hard.

Travel to Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan, Iraq

We awoke at 5:15 to leave for the Attaturk airport as we had to checkin at least 2 hours early for our flight to Istanbul. We found our checkin area with AtlasJet despite not understanding everything, got Starbucks for the last time in what will be weeks, and chatted and got to know each other better as we waited for our flight.

The flight to Erbil was awesome, just under 3 hours, it was relaxing and overall had the best food and service yet. A man on the plane spotted my Kurdish Sorani dictionary, and told me that he was an oncologist from Sulaymaniyah, and was excited that I was learning his language. We landed just after 1pm on Sunday in the Erbil International Airport, and immediately perceptions became misconceptions and the expected was shattered revealing the unexpected.

Security was friendly and not scary, customs was looser than America and we were not accosted or treated poorly by anybody. We took a bus from the terminal to a parking lot about a mile away, and met up with Cody Fisher (co-founder of PLC) and Awara who is his right hand man and is the regional development director for PLC in Sulaymaniyah. We then crammed the 6 of us plus cody into the car in order to go find a taxi at a reasonable price. The taxi drivers at the airport are "headhunters" and will charge 4 times as much money as usual just because they can. We flagged down a taxi while driving... which was awesome, and set out on the three hour drive to where we would be staying.

The drive was beautiful, slightly ridiculous, and green. Yes. Green. Green as in grassy and gorgeous.
windy roads, mountains, and even some rivers. Yes. Rivers. Like water flowing downhill. I was blown away. That was last thing I was expecting from Iraq. We got to Jeremy and Jessica Courtney's (co-founders of PLC) house, and settled in for dinner and relaxation. The house is 3 stories and will be the home for 12 people this summer including 8 interns! More to come on Sulaymaniyah and life in Iraq. But this post is already long so it will have to wait!  

reLAXing... finally

So the last week has been pretty much non stop. By non stop, I mean literally one thing after the next. In fact, it was so packed full of not so fun things to do that I didn't even start packing till 6 pm (Thursday).

But alas, after a night of stress, terror, and machines not doing their one simple task (printers not printing boarding passes, copiers not copying passports) here I am, in LAX, and its 2:30am. Admittedly, it's probably a bad time to write my inaugural blog post as I just posted this to my Facebook "Got to the airport wayyyyy early. like 4 hours early, just to avoid bin laden or his ghost if he is indeed dead) making it difficult for me in customs. Turns out tickeing and check in doesnt open till 4:30am which so I have to wait to check my bad and go through customs until an hour and a half before i leave. time to reLAX". I honestly feel like I shouldn't be alive, much less awake. 

Here I am sitting on a bench watching a young lady systematically yawn every 30 seconds while she posts photos of an empty LAX to FB(which I will not do because 1. it seems way to cliche and trendy 2. I am lazy), and I am confronted with a solid 3 hours to prepare for the 48 hour journey which will take me to Chicago, Frankfurt, Istanbul, then finally Iraq where I will abide for the next 10 weeks. It seems so crazy that I was nonchalantly telling people over a year ago that I wanted to go to Iraq, and now that day has come! The difference is that back when I initially wanted to go, it was truly me just wanting to go. Me wanting to escape and to something fun. Now I know it is what God wants for me. I cannot ignore it. 

In the past 6 months he has radically changed my heart, and my mind. He has brought some incredible revival, discipleship, and brotherhood into my life, and has set me on a new course. He has given me a skillset to use for him (design), and now an opportunity to bless other people through it! I have never been so excited in my life! It feels like everything I am has been leading to this point. Something special is going to happen. This is the crossroads of my existence.

My goals for this trip:

Serve whole-heartedly and selflessly, that I might gain the spirit by giving my all.

Make an impact on the people of Iraq and the world by means of design for the Preemptive Love Coalition

Design practical products that can help spread awareness and support for the 30,000 kids ailing from literally broken hearts in Iraq

Create an art piece that reflects the culture and people that Preemptive Love is focused on that can be sold or auctioned to raise funding.

Finish reading the Bible.

Maintain an open mind.

Anyways, I am going to praypare for my journey. My goodness the puns.