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.