Massif-Salahaddin, Kurdistan, N. Iraq
Sunday, Sep. 19, 2004
As some, but not most, of you know, I am back in Kurdistan for 11 days to visit friends. Things are mostly very peaceful here although there is a marked increase in security in the streets of Erbil/Hawler. This is a very low-key trip for me, and I would be hard pressed to explain what I have "done" in the past seven days: drink tea, visit, drive in the countryside and, yes, get very sick for a day or so.
Attitudes about the situation to the south range from pessimistic to something akin to "well, let the Arabs kill each other off" -- always a very difficult point of view for me to get my mind around. One Kurd from Baghdad that I talked to extensively seemed genuinely disbelieving at the thought that Americans DIDN'T actually know what they were doing. After all, aren't we the most powerful nation on earth? Kurds remain strong supporters of keeping Americans here in Iraq--they don't want to be left alone in a "bad neighborhood," as they say. In fact, there are really only two points of consensus among those I have talked to: the U.S. was right to come in and remove Saddam--and that the rest has been a disaster.
Although I came to visit friends, this has turned out to be a wonderful "linguistic holiday" for me: I really haven't "done" anything except visit, drink tea, and listen to people talk. In some odd way, studying Arabic this summer gave me a boost in both my Persian and Kurdish pursuits. I feel as if I have learned a lot of Kurdish and Persian in these few days--while my Arabic lags. Now and then, however, I am able to express a complete thought in Arabic--which most people around here do understand--although they often consider Arabic to be the "language of the oppressor".
One small but interesting development since I left in May: the opening of a small "body-building" gym here in Salahaddin. Open in the mornings to women and in the afternoons to men, this gym represents (for me) some small step of progress toward giving women (and men) and place to go, exercise, and mingle. Women (and men) are not expected to be seen walking (or heaven forbid: riding a bike--this means they can't afford a car!) around with no purpose (i.e. just for exercise).
As far as being sick goes, suffice it to say, it was very bad. I am feeling better now after being peppered with pills, an injection, and a saline IV (that's a first)--and the attendance of a wonderful doctor. Can't say really what helped but at least the injection (they LOVE injections in Kurdistan--pills just do NOT get the same regard) helped with the nausea. I must say that, temporarily, Kurdistan's wonderful food lost ALL appeal. It turns out that coat racks make great IV stands.
