Welcome to Sulaymaniyah

I have arrived in the land of the Kurds!

Angèle and Florence welcomed me at the airport with open arms, quite literally, they had their arms in the air cheering on the other side of security as I was passing my last checkpoint. *High five*! I did it! 

Life in Kurdistan is honestly nothing like I pictured it would be, or rather how it is pictured in the news and media. I feel so safe here! Okay, it might be because we have a bodyguard following us everywhere (more on him later) but the people are so welcoming and kind, the food is delicious (salt, sugar, and lots of oil... my kind of diet) and the whole area is so intriguing, we can see the snowy Iranian mountain tops from the sunny streets of the city of Sulaymaniyah.

Picture time!

This is the view we have from our apartment:

 Absolutely stunning, the sun hits the streets and casts an orange light on the city. The building next to ours (seen on the right) is still under construction, which is becoming a problem in Kurdistan as not enough funds are going into construction so there are a lot of abandoned sites and unfinished buildings. Crossing our fingers for this one...

More views from the apartment. Beaut 💯


So back to our bodyguard situation...

We are truly the most blessed in the world to have upon us an angel as security. Or should I say, a guardian angel (heh).
Mohammed drives and follows us everywhere, so lucky for him (but mostly for us) he gets to join all our exciting excursions. He's a very patient and wise man, but he also knows how to get wacky and crack a joke or two, some good knee slappers if I may say so. Ah yes, grand times with Mohammed, and much more to come. We will be joining his family for dinner tomorrow, after we cook with his wife to get some essential Kurdish cooking tips.

So anyway, what is it that I am doing in Sulaymaniyah for three weeks? Glad you asked.

Florence, Angèle's mum, works in collaboration with Kurdistan Save the Children (http://www.ksc-kcf.org) and introduces art programs that allow children to participate in projects to help them communicate through drawing, painting, and creating. For three weeks, we will be going to three different sites and coordinating projects involving mural painting and building restorations to not only make these centers more appealing to the eye, but also to encourage community involvement amongst the children.

We are hitting up these three locations:

1) The Educational Training Center for Children with Special Needs

This hits really close to home, which is why I'm so thrilled to be part of this project. This center hosts children with special needs, amongst them autism. It really amazes me that a place like Kurdistan finds the resources, during a time of economic distress, to provide care and attention to these kids. I applaud them.

We will be working with the children on painting the walls around the building according to their own vision. As some of you may know, my little brother has autism, and I always see him use art as a way of expressing himself in spite of his verbal deficiencies. Hopefully, I'll be able to bring some good inputs into this project and I can't wait to get started.

2) IDP Camp: Displaced Iraqi Refugees

The takeover of ISIS has displaced many families, forced them outside their homes and into more secured areas like Kurdistan. We visited a camp with Arab Iraqi refugees and got a chance to interact with the children as well as some of the men (no women in sight...unfortunately *sigh*). We will be painting a few walls with the children to brighten up the camp and make it more child friendly.

3) Cultural Center of Bazian

We're kind of the Xzibit of Kurdistan and going for a "Pimp my Cultural Center" look where we're going to repair the cracks and repaint the entire building. Our plan is to encourage community involvement to have children paint the black band with colorful motifs and drawings. "Yo dawg, I heard you like fresh paint, so I pimped up your exterior facade with flowers and farm animals." (Excuse the extreme early 2000's reference)

We went through all the children's drawings to select which ones we will chose to enlarge. *The chosen one*

All righty, that's pretty much it so far. Lots to come in the next few days!

PS: Eh heh, sorry about not posting daily, it's honestly been a pretty eventful past couple days, but Angèle and I are beyond excited to share with you what's coming up!! So many pictures and a few videos, so stay tuned!