Barzinjah

Okay, little recap: we are painting murals in three different sites to enrich the child-friendliness of the area.

FIRST PROJECT: Barzinjah

Barzinjah is a village in the mountains east of Sulaymaniyah, halfway to the Iranian border. 

There, Kurdistan Save the Children put in place a refugee camp for Arab Iraqis who fled the ISIS invasion. 

It's really hard not to fall in love with all these kids, they emit such a positive energy despite all the hardships they've gone through. Such strong hearts and brave souls. And they're so freaking adorable!! "Miss! Miss! Picture, picture!" They were born for the camera 

We selected a wall in the camp to paint with the children. This will brighten up the site and teach the children how to conduct manual work properly and effectively (importance of applying primer before paint, cleaning your brushes after work, etc.) 

Angèle seems happy, but inside she's actually crying because our work area was a complete dump. But never say never! Let's paint this wall.

STEP 1: Clean and brush the wall.

 Yay team!

STEP 2: Apply primer.

We had little spectators (too young to hold a brush) supervising and making sure everyone was on task. Good work little pals!

STEP 3: Paint the wall.

What we did was select the children's sketches that they drew on paper and enlarged them on the wall.

Okay, so for this step, things got kind of messy. By 'kind of', I mean kids were going free-style on the wall and splashing colors everywhere. Long story short, I had to put down my camera and help the kiddos paint. But I promise they did the work! This is the "after" pictures.

Original drawings:

Original drawings:

So here ya go. Project #1 completed! 

Go community involvement!

You know what's really fun to do?

Snapchat face swap with bearded men!

Enjoy:

Marie swap with French bearded man.























Marie swap with Kurdish bearded man.























Angèle swap with Kurdish bearded man.






















Angèle swap with Lebanese bearded man.

It's Friday, Friday 🎶

Okay it's actually Sunday, but in Kurdistan their weekend is on Friday and Saturday, so today is technically Monday.

Recap of this weekend:

FRIDAY- we went on a lovely hike in the mountains of God-knows-where (need to double check the name and geographical coordinates). The beginning of the hike was pretty interesting, we saw a bunch of Kurdish families picnicking alongside the road. Picnics are super duper popular in Kurdi, it's basically an occasion for not only families but particularly females to exit their homes and actually feel a breeze of fresh air once in a while. Not to be culturally insensitive, but yeah women don't go out as much as men over here...

Anyway, we made our way through the picnic stations where they were dancing and listening to music (just overall having a grand ol' time) and we found the trail that took us alongside the river and to the top of a hill where we enjoyed a breathtaking view.

Picture time!

OH EM GEE you guys we found a little, itty bitty turtle and a grand, old wise one too! 

And up we go!

I mean, can this get any better? This is Kurdistan by the way! Totally did not expect so much green and flourishing landscapes.

After the hike, we rushed home to get ready for the dinner party (see previous post...)

SATURDAY- Picnic time! That's right, the Frenchies got their turn. We went to picnic with some friends on Saturday because it is ten times less crowded than on Friday's.

We were joined by a Kurdish friend who is an ex-combattant of the Peshmerga, the military force in Kurdistan. He told us all about the resistance against Saddam's reign of terror, very shocking stories that put us in awe. Much respect.

His sister even put together a typical Kurdish meal for the picnic, dolmas! Yumm (see previous posts...)

And then you can always count on the French to bring booze...

After eating like kings, we went on a digestive hike. We followed a trail alongside the fields.

Funny thing about this trail (well, not so funny but) is that it used to be infested by mines. During the war, Hussein planted mines all over the mountains to impact the Peshmerga. It's only been a year that the whole area has been demined. Soooooo let's just say that if you had too much to drink and it was time to pop a squat in the bushes, you would be slightly cautious of which bush to pick... ya never know if they missed a mine. Nerve-racking peeing excursions.

But besides that, the walk was lovely! We bumped into a shepherd and his sheep, saw cute little baby animals, and climbed on top of the world! *casual hike*

*Heart melts*

All righty, that's pretty much it for this weekend. Now, off to the refugee camp to finish painting the walls with the children. More pictures coming soon!

The End 

...

(well, until tomorrow)

Party don't start till I walk in

What's better than getting together for a dinner party with some friends? Adding homemade pasta to the mix, that's what!

We invited a few of the Kurdish homies over (aka work friends of Angele's mum, I know it might sound crazy but I don't know too many people here) and took out the pasta machine for a spin!

DJ Pasta in the house! Let me hear it for all my tortellinis tonight!

Very successful dinner party.

Dinner at the Mohammed's

As previously stated on the last post, we have a bodyguard with us at all times when we are outside in case of the unfortunate event of a life-threatening situation. That sounds really intense, but worry not, this is a very unlikely probability and we just have him for precaution.

His name is Mohammed, and not only is he a great security, he is a translator, a caring nurse, and of course let us not forget, an amazing friend. He is like a ray of sunshine, so nice and friendly, always with a smile on.

A few days ago, we were invited to Mohammed's home to learn how to prepare a Kurdish dish called dolma with his wife and daughter, Basos and Lona.

This is dolma: leaf-wrapped rice and stuffed zucchinis and peppers. The trick is to wrap the rolls like cigars, nice and tight.

After the wrapping, you put the pot to steam for 45 minutes. Basos, the wife, took that waiting time as an opportunity to dress us up, and the results were magical:

As you can see, Angèle is a natural model. It's like this dress was made for her. I joined in on the fun, it got real intimate. 

"Everything the light touches, is our kingdom Simba"

Back to the kitchen...

Or should I say, dinner time! We ate Kurdish style, on the ground, knees crossed, with enough food to feed a village. 

You can spot Mohammed Jr. sitting next to Mohammed Sr. 

Brothers, let us feast on this glorious night!

Scrumptious! 😋

I was not sure what to expect for Kurdish food, so let me reassure all of you reading this back at home: the food here is gooOOOod! *Two thumbs up*

Yay! Thanks to Mohammed, we were able to have a traditional Kurdish meal. With his amazing family, we had the time of our lives, between food and clothes, we were more than satisfied!