Shathah

We have a wonderful woman that comes everyday to clean our house/office and cook a noon-day meal. Her name is Shathah...and we have become quite close. She calls me "Mrs." I can't get her to call me by my name. She loves water and spends a good bit of each day washing our driveway...and our neighbors driveway...and the street out in front of our house. It gets quite dusty here, so some washing is necessary, but probably not to the extent that she does it.

She is a good cook, although she tends to fry everything. Our meals mostly consist of a very good rice and something to put on top of it (ie. soup.) Also, cucumber and tomato salad is almost served daily.

A day in the mountains for N. Iraq

These are pictures from a trip to the
mountains ouside of Erbil. It was
a beautiful day...and one that I
won't forget. The people to the
left are Dick, a retired colonel from
Illinois (he now works as a
consultant to the Barzani family
and the current government)
and Pam, the mother of a friend
here in the English Village. She has

been visiting from Australia and
needed a traveling companion for

day, so I was glad to oblige.
It was quite a day...and ended
with dinner at a tribal leader's
compound. We happened to meet
him along the way and he is an
old friend of Dick's.

This is a beautiful waterfall
in an area called "the gully."
It is actually a canyon with
mountains all around.

Our favorite produce man

Between 11am and 1pm our favorite Produce Man
drives down our street honking his horn. I believe
that we have become his best customers. He
often pauses extra long in front of our houses, making
sure that we know he is there in case we want to buy
some fresh vegetables and fruit.

English Village,Erbil, Iraq

These are some pictures of our home in
English Village Sub Division in Erbil, Iraq.
As you can see, all of the houses are the
same. Some friends were giving us a
ride home the other night and as we
turned in to our neighborhood, Eric
told them that our house was the square
tile and concrete house on the left.

During the day our home doubles as an office. From approximately 8am-6pm there is quite a hub of activity. There are two Kurdish men that have an office in our home and ther are visitors that are in and out all day. We serve alot of cups of tea every day and meet some very interesting people.

Friday is the only day off during the week, and Eric and I look forward to the "quiet" on that day.

This is a picture of Rayan, who has an office in our home. On the day that I arrived he had purchased three begonia plants and placed them around the house and he let me know that the house needed a woman's touch, and that was now my job. It was such a wonderful "welcome" and they are still blooming in the window sill in our kitchen and serve as a reminder of the kindness of the Kurdish people.


Eric, Hawree (who also has an office in our home), Mazin, who works out at the plant and comes a couple days a week for English lessons and Simco (a visitor.)






My kitchen. Actually, we have hired a woman who cleans the offices and cooks a noonday meal for everyone...so, I guess it is her kithcen also. Her name is Shatha. She and her husband have 6 girls and 1 boy. They have moved here from Baghdad and live in a small apartment in Ankowa, the Christian Community in Erbil.

Pansies from my yard. These are for you, Mom.

There is Joy in the Journey

Greetings from #214 English Village, Erbil, Iraq. As many of you know, after much thought and prayer, Eric traveled to Iraq in September '08 with a private equity group called The Marshall Fund. After being here for two weeks, helping with a business plan to re-open a food processing plant in Harir, Iraq, and understanding the heart of the people involved in this project he decided that this was where he would like to be. Nearly 93% of all food in Iraq is imported. With the opening of this food processing plant they hope to start the process of rebuilding Northern Iraq's agricultural business...and develop a market in which they can compete with imported products. Eric has been living here since the first week of October and has found the work to be very challenging, exciting and rewarding.

On March 17th, after Eric was home in Nashville for a week we left together for the journey back to Iraq. On the way we stopped in Pittsburgh to visit our son Peter and his wife Tina and then on to Suffolk, VA to visit our son Jesse and his family and to help Abigail celebrate her 6th birthday and then on Sunday the 22nd of March we departed the great USA from Dulles airport . We were able to spend 3 fabulous days in Florence, Italy on our way, a day in Vienna, Austria and then on to our home away from home in Erbil, Iraq. It is my hope with this blog to give you a picture of our life here, the wonderful people of Kurdistan and the ability,by the Grace of God, to choose Joy in this journey to a very interesting part of our world.