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!