The Hardest Day (Part 2)

          The day continued after lunch by visiting a local museum in Suli. This was not a normal museum, but an old prison where Saddam Hussein had dissenters tortured and raped. The prison opened in 1986 and closed in 1991. I have never been to the Holocaust museum or visited a concentration camp, but I think the experience would have been similar. As we walked around the different rooms of the prison, our tour guide explained a little of how the prisoners were treated. What was even more powerful was a man who came up and had the tour guide translate how he had been held in the prison. It was really hard to be in that space. It was hard to see the holes in the wall where prisoners had their hands nailed. It was hard seeing the blood stains. It was hard seeing the man show others of how crowded the prison was. It was hard hearing the stories of women being raped.
          At the end of the tour we entered an exhibit of a long room covered with small pieces of mirror and tiny white lights. Each piece of mirror represented one Kurd killed during Saddam Hussein's reign. Each light represented one Kurdish village destroyed. I don't remember the exact numbers, but the room seemed to go on forever. There were hundreds of thousands of pieces of glass and at least four thousand lights. After the official tour we went as a group to a basement room where there was a separate exhibit showing pictures from Halabja, the city in Eastern Iraq where Saddam had used a chemical attack to kill 4000-5000 civilians, most women and children. For more information on the Kurdish genocide visit http://wn.com/the_anfal_museum/biography.
          We met as a group to try to process what we had just witnessed at a nearby park. I am struggling to find the words to describe how I was affected. After experiencing something like that, words are hard to come by. I kept just replaying the line to my favorite Mumford and Sons song in my head... "Give me hope in the darkness that we will see a light. Because oh they gave me such a fright. But I will hold on as long as you like, just promise me we'll be alright."
          The day was long from being over, though. We next spent hour at the downtown Baazar before getting in taxis to meet go to the homes of the families of those killed in the demonstrations. The following is my journal excerpt about the experience.
       
          "One family (mother, father and two young girls) drove almost an hour to be with us. They met us at the house of another family's (father). Those two killed had been ages 11 and 6 months and thirteen. Hearing their stories and seeing their tears was really hard. I began to tear up and it was all I could do not to break down crying. And they were so glad that we wanted to hear their story and be willing to tell others. They even invited us to dinner. I felt so humble and unworthy. The mom of the youngest son told us of her desire to leave Kurdistan because the government does not care about her son's death and trying them to be quiet. The government has been trying to work out a private negotiation instead of acknowledging their part in his death. The families are refusing these private negotiations and working towards legal justice even though they might need the money and it is dangerous to speak out against the government. The mother was scared that they would kidnap their daughter in exchange for their silence.  The second house we visited, the victim had been 28 and working to build a home for himself and his fiance. After his death his mother went crazy for three months. Their house is full of pictures of him and they live in mourning everyday. I felt so bad for the other sons (one of which looked around my age).; not only did they have to deal with their brother's death and their own grief, but it seemed they now permanently live in their parent's grief. The parents told us that they can't move on and think about their son all the time.  In the car afterward, I prayed, truly prayed for the son around my age. I prayed that he would be able to find life after his brother's death and find joy in life despite all that has happened."

I have not lost someone close to me and I have no idea what it is like to lose a child. But just remembering the parent's tears brings me to tears. It also brings questions... Where was God? Where was God when that eleven year old boy ended up at the demonstration? Where was God when Saddam Hussein began his genocide against the Kurdish people? 

Where, oh where was God?

The Hardest Day (Part 1)

          The last Sunday of my trip was the hardest day I experienced on the trip. The entire day was full of meetings and experiences that ripped a hole through my heart. Even now, weeks later, I can still feel the intensity of that day and I am only beginning to realize the impact it will have on the rest of my life. On that day I saw the worst of what humanity can be. But more importantly I saw the hope that exists within a broken community and within the Kurds who have devoted their lives for the cause of peace.
          In the morning a local mullah (Islamic leader) came to tell us about the Arab Spring demonstration that occurred in early 2011. He explained to us how the KRG (Kurdish Regional Government) has the same system as is familiar all around the Middle East. The government claims to be a democracy, but during the elections there were many pressures against the people and the government is extremely unjust. And so the people began to protest.
          The mullah told us how he believes the Islamic faith calls for an end in oppression and his role is to advise others to speak out against oppressions and encourage people to not use violence. He wants Muslims to be the best human beings they can. He believes that Muslims must not harass non-Muslims, other religions or secularists, but work against all oppressions. This is the reason why he joined the demonstrations to speak out against the government and call for a jihad of peace. He wanted to help the Kurdish people peacefully encourage the authorities to have better government. And the protests were for the most part very peaceful. Guns are very prevalent in Iraq, but at no point did the people use any weapons other than stones against the authorities.
          However, the authorities then used weapons to end the demonstrations. More than 47 people were injured and 10 died in the region. Hundreds were arrested including the mullah. In his case, he as first attacked in his house, kidnapped, and tortured for two days before being released. He was then arrested legally and tried for acts of terrorism. Under this sentence, he faced anywhere from fifteen years in prison to execution. However, they eventually listened to his speeches and found out that he never encouraged anyone to use violence.
          The demonstrations ended after a few months because the people wanted an end to the killings. However, the oppression and injustice from the government has continued. The amazing part of this story is that the mullah did not focus on the bad... he did not seem angry that nothing changed or that he was tortured and tried for acts of terrorism by the government. Instead, he told us of the good that came out of the demonstrations. He told us how the people have so much more respect now for religion and the role it played in the demonstrations. He told us how the religious and secularists worked together and have formed good relationships with each other.
           The mullah told us that he believes at some point the people will speak up again. And when they do, he is ready to suffer to help his people. He hopes that the next demonstrations will be more peaceful, but if they are not, he is ready to die. I was blown away by his faith and commitment to nonviolence. He showed me more of what it means to live an authentic life than anyone else I have ever met. Through his words and actions, even though he is Muslim, he showed me how to live as Christ. 

Sulaimani and Hawler

          Sulaimani is the city where CPT is headquartered and we stayed in the CPT house for the rest of our time in Kurdistan. I wrote in my journal that first night, "It is weird being in a city. I have to admit that there is a huge part of me that already misses the villages and the mountains. You can see the mountains but it is not the same. However, as one of my fellow delegates pointed out, I could just as easily fall in love with the city." This turned out to be true. Even though Sulaimani looks so different from the rural villages we came from, the hospitality of everyone I met was the same.
          Our first full day in the city was relatively uneventful. The morning was free time, which I spent catching up on my journaling and checking my email. In the afternoon we had a long debrief about the first part of our trip. Then a long time friend and colleague of CPT came to talk about the current political situation in the city/country. We learned about the demonstrations that took place last year during the Arab Spring. We also learned of some of the actions the CPT team has taken. That evening we went to dinner at Kanar's (the delegate actually from Sulaimani). Her house was absolutely gorgeous and the food AMAZING! It was such a great time relaxing with the delegation and enjoying one of the last days in Kurdistan.
          The next day we got up at 5am in order to leave for Hawler by 5:30. I slept the first hour then we stopped for breakfast. It was extremely interesting because we drove through Kirkuk, which is only partly in Kurdistan. The security check point after Kirkuk was difficult because they were worried about letting in terrorists (Kirkuk has a lot of car bombings... 11 people died there only two days after we drove through). I do not believe I have mentioned the check points. All across the KRG region of Iraq are check points that we have to pass through. A lot the driver would just say something to the soldier and we would go on. A lot of the check points knew the CPT team and it was no problem to get where we wanted to go. Although the check points are not nearly as intense as I have heard they are in Israel/Palestine, they served as a reminder that I was not in Colorado, but an area that has seen a lot of conflict and government tries maintain a lot of control.
          Right before we got to Hawler, we found out that the Archbishop whom we were driving there to meet had only scheduled us for a half hour and since we were late, we were not able to meet with him. Instead, we met with the MCC representative for Iraq and learned about MCC's work in Kurdistan as well as the minority groups that live there. The afternoon was spent in the city center where we had the best falafel of my life (no joke) and then explored the citadel, which is claimed to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in the world. I loved this part of the trip and exploring the thousand of years of history and climbing around! I was right in my element!! We then drove back to Suli that night for dinner. 

Mountain villages

          Although I truly loved my time in the villages of Kurdistan, we heard some pretty hard stories. The afternoon before we spent the night at Kani Spi we visited a cemetery in the Barzan region. During Saddam Hussein's reign 5000-6000 men from the region were taken to the south, tortured, then murdered and put into mass graves. It is my understanding that only in the past couple of years they have brought the bodies back and created the cemetery we visited. My group had a worship session at the cemetery, which was really powerful.
          During our time in Kani Spi we learned how they fear attacks from Iran and especially Turkey. Iran and Turkey in the last twenty years have been bombing the border villages on a semi-regular basis. We would learn more about this situation as we visited a mayor in another region on the border of both Turkey and Iran, and visiting a school in Sunneh, near Iran. Kani Spi actually lies within three miles of the Iranian border and we could clearly see three Iranian military bases on the mountains overlooking the bases. Kani Spi also lies near a mine field that was planted during the Iraq-Iran war. Many people in the village have been killed as well as severely injured because of mines. We were warned to not go wandering too far from the road because of the danger of land mines.
         The mayor we met with was very excited to have an international delegation come visit and learn about the situation. He had invited the press to come and indeed there were a lot of men with cameras to record our time with the mayor, as well to a camp the local government had set up for internally displaced people. Last summer a lot of villages had been displaced to the camp and had to put up with some bad conditions as winter set in. However, now they have built new trailers that are really nice. This summer there were no bombings, so luckily the new camp has not been used. We can only pray that it will stay this way! But bombings are still a problem, especially from Turkey. A few days before we got there, one village in this region had its water supply bombed. The meeting with the mayor was really informative and our quickly put-together press conference went well. We made the news all over Kurdistan! Here is a link to one of the news stories...it is in Kurdish but still exciting. http://www.kurdistantv.net/default1.aspx?page=articles&c=news&id=94605
          That night we stayed at a cultural center in the city of Rania. It was a nice place to stay and got to talk with some of the workers of the center, one who has visited EMU before! The next day we headed to the village of Sunneh, where we visited a school. We first met with the principle and teachers who told us of how the school operated even after severe bombings and shellings from Iran and the the entire village went to an internally displaced people's camp where the conditions were terrible! The story of the village and amazing people and teachers was incredible to hear. The town has been shelled so often although thankfully not this year. We then went to one of the villager's house for a great lunch and to hear his story. We got to go on his roof and see the places where shells had hit. After seeing his field we went back to the school and interacted with the children. This was a highlight of the trip! They were all so cute and we had fun singing songs and being silly with them. I would really encourage everyone to watch CPT's video about the village at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf5paHI-U_E We then drove back to Rania for a short concert by some students at the cultural center before heading to Sulaimani. 

Traveling into Iraqi Kurdistan... traveling home

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life." - John Muir

         
          Remember this summer when I wrote that in the mountains in Colorado, I felt like I was home. Even though I have never lived in Colorado, when I am up in the mountains I have this overwhelming sense of peace and inner knowledge that I am at home. (Exploring Colorado) Well, as I traveled farther into Iraqi Kurdistan, I got that same feeling. Northern Iraq is extremely mountainous and tall, beautiful mountains like Colorado. The beauty I witnessed still gives me goose bumps when I look at the pictures. As we traveled into the border region of Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran, and Turkey, I felt strangely like I was home. I had never been there before, but just felt this overwhelming sense that I was exactly where I was meant to be.
          I know the mountains played their part in giving me this feeling, but another big factor was the people. All the Kurdish people I encountered on my trip were just so beautiful and loving. I have never experienced such extreme hospitality than what I received in Kurdistan. Even when entering the country, a police officer had to check our passports, but he then apologized for having to do so and welcomed us and gave us a blessing! The first night we stayed at a hotel, but the second night in Iraqi Kurdistan, we stayed with a family in the village of Kani Spi near the Iranian border. Here, one of the families welcomed us into their home and cooked us a delicious meal! We then entered into a time of conversation. This conversation went in many directions, from the history of the village to international politics. I was pretty tired that night and because of translation problems, did not get a lot of what was said. However, one of the village girls seemed to understand my confusion and would smile at me with a knowing look. It is that smile that made me feel right at home. It is that smile that I will remember long after other memories fade.
          We spent the night in the family's house and took a tour of the village, its spring, and the surrounding fields in the morning. The crisp mountain air was so refreshing as we climbed around the rocks and enjoyed our last moments of Kani Spi. I will write in my next posts more about the reason why we visited Kani Spi and spent time in the villages, but I will leave you now with some of the pictures taken by a couple of my delegation teammates so you can understand a little of the beauty I am talking about.

Turkish Beginnings (Part 2)

          I meant to post this the day after my last one, but life has gotten into the way. This past week has been extremely busy as I have finally caught up on school work, attended many Spiritual Life week events, had a awareness day for Congo and gathering student signatures in support of our resolution, skyping with dear friends, visiting my cousin Cara in Washington D.C. and much more. So now I want to go back a few weeks and write about my time in Turkey.
          My group successfully made our way across Istanbul by tram, ferry, foot, and bus to the local Istanbul airport and got on our flight to Diyarbakir, Turkey in the southeastern part of the country. Diyarbakir is a large city of over a million people and felt much more Middle Eastern than the European city of Istanbul. The city had a much more authentic, traditional feel to it than Istanbul. Three members of the CPT team, along with a Kurdish delegate member met us in Diyarbakir, where we first had a time of introductions before dinner and a meeting with a local organization.
          So first I need to write a little about the situation of Kurds living in Turkey. This information comes from the people we met while in Diyarbakir, as well as some news sources I have come across. There as been an armed struggle between the Kurdish and Turkish government for the last 30 years, which has included 3,000-5,000 Kurdish villages being emptied, as well as countless lives lost, economic sanctions, and much more. One of the main complaints of the Kurdish people living in Turkey is that they want to teach their children in their native language, but are not allowed. School systems are now offering Kurdish as a second language, but only giving children the chance to speak it a couple hours a week. The harsh conditions against the Kurds in Turkey have led many to protest. However, speaking out for the Kurdish cause can lead to arrest. Since 2009, 10,000 people have been put in prison for working for the Kurdish cause.  I would encourage you to read about the local hunger strike going on in the prisons and the protests it is causing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20138995 and http://www.bianet.org/english/human-rights/141611-a-scream-of-self-inflicted-pain
          The local organization we met with was working on behalf the children who had been displaced. When villages are emptied, the people move to the cities to try to find work. However, work is hard to come by and it seems to be the children who suffer most. We saw many children out on the street begging during our time in Diyarbakir. The organization then tries to help children deal with conflict and create centers for the children.
          The next morning we met over a delicious Turkish brunch with a social worker is facing 18 years in prison. She told us a lot of the horrible situation in Turkey and her own views on the Turkish government, as well as feminism and other topics. I was just amazed at her story and her humbleness as well as hope. She did not want us to use her name when telling her story because her story is not unusual...she is just one of many facing prison, but she was lucky enough to be waiting trial outside of prison instead of inside so she was able to meet with us and tell us her story. She really was an amazing person who believed it was her duty to work for her people and their rights despite of the terrible consequences she faces. I felt so blessed to have been able to interact with her and learn from her.
          The rest of the day was spent exploring the city walls of Diyarbakir, looking out towards the Tigris River (the birthplace of civilization!), playing with kids on the streets, and eating amazing food  while getting to know the people in my delegation. The next day was spent traveling by a public bus (really nice bus I must say) along the Syrian border to begin the next phase of our journey into Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkish Beginnings (part 1)

          I find myself finding excuses not to update my blog. Although these excuses (mid-term exams and make-up work) are legitimate, I realize the need to continue to process my trip. I thought as time went along, it would be easier. However, I am not finding that to be the case. Even now when I am completely over my jet-lag and back into the swing of school, I find it hard to find the words to write of my life-changing experience. What could I possibly write to convey the vastness of my trip and feelings? But I shall try and what better place to begin than the beginning of my trip.
          My trip began with a nine hour flight from Washington D.C. to Dulles. Not looking forward to this leg of the journey, I was pleasantly surprised to start off the flight with an engaging conversation with the man sitting next to me. The following is my journal entry from that flight:

"Plane ride has been good so far. I am sitting next to a Serbian sculptor. He is 72 and has really been a joy to sit next to. He told me how travel is necessary to understand the world and gave me advice to stay in school as long as I can. He talked about when he was a student and didn't know what to after ward, his teacher told him to go straight ahead. Straight ahead was a brick, windowless wall. His teacher said he needed to forget all what he learned and find a way to go straight ahead. He told me that I will come to this wall and will need to find a way to go ahead. When I told him I want to work for peace, he seemed worried about me being able to find a job and actually make a difference. He told me how the optimism goes away after college. He also told me about a friend of his who was an activist and ended up jailed by the US military. He told me to go into this work I need to be strong. He asked me how I've tested myself... I didn't know how to answer and he told me to hit a police officer and go to jail. He then proceeded to tell me of the five months he had spent in jail, the people he had met, and how he never regretted that experience. When he talks he seems to have such a joy, for lack of a better word. His English isn't perfect but you can tell he really loves talking to people and also loves his work as a sculptor. I felt so blessed to have been able to talk to him."

The flight did not seem so long because of this conversation, a couple hours of sleep, movies, and delicious meals (I highly recommend Turkish Airlines!) and soon I arrived in Istanbul. After meeting another member of my delegation at the airport, we caught a cab to our hostel and met the rest of the group minus one person who had been denied entry into Turkey. (He was supposed to be one of the co-leaders of the trip, but another CPTer stepped up into this bit of responsibility.) We ate dinner in a cafe outside the famous Hagia Sophia and made plans for the next day to get to the other Istanbul airport where we had to catch a flight to Diyarbakir in Southeastern Turkey.