A summer picnic

Hello everyone!

Last Friday all the PLC staff and interns went to a picnic in the Iraq countryside near Iran and I want you to experience what we did. So without further ado, a typical Kurdish holy day!

You leave your home early in the morning and take a bus out to the country. The ride is full of anticipation, laughter, and excitement. After two hours of winding up and down mountains on single lane dirt roads, you arrive at the house you will be at for the afternoon. The first thing you notice as you enter the house is the lack of furniture, so you find a place on the large carpets spread throughout the room and recline on some pillows. You spend the entire morning talking and chatting with friends, lazily spending the day in no particular rush.

Lunch is absolutely amazing! It is a traditional Iraqi dish called sara and there is a whole lot of food for such a short name. First, you are handed a steaming bowl of rice which is considered your "home base". Then lots of different bowls full of all kinds of food are brought out. All the dishes have a tomato based broth, but that's about the extent of their similarities. There are beans, ocra, tomatoes, apricots, and all kinds of awesome foods. You're sitting on the ground in whatever style you can manage with a long plastic sheet that acts like a table cloth for all the guests (this is important later), looking at all the good food in front of you when suddenly a heavenly aroma wafts through the air like a thousand baby angels singing in your nostrils. THE NAN BREAD HAS ARRIVED! It's a flatbread like tortillas, but it's warm, slightly doughy, the size of a pizza. Then you  begin spooning out your portion of all the other dishes in to your “home base” of rice, tear off bits of nan bread, and take bites of delicious food intermingled with stimulating conversation from the around the floor. This is where the plastic sheet comes in. You dump all the uneaten food left in the bowls (except for untouched food) onto the sheet and roll it up. Volia, instant clean up!

After you’ve eaten your fill, the men head out to go swimming while the women enjoy a relaxing afternoon alone. You walk a short distance to a small river nearby that appears in the desert like a true oasis. The scene before you is wonderful. The river has cut away bedrock so canyon walls surround you as you swim. You fulfill your childhood desires by climbing up a huge rock in the center. Once you are back in the water you feel the odd sensation of small fish nibbling on your toes. You float along the current and find just around the bend caves of all shapes and sizes littered with old bomb casings from the Iran/Iraq war. This brings into your mind the warning of your local friend, "Don't go too far into those mountains because there are still active landmines even though 16,000 have been removed."

Swimming makes you deadbeat tired, so you are relieved when you return and are handed a large slice of watermelon and a hot glass of Kurdish tea.. The sound of stirring tea and slurps of juicy watermelon fill the room as you doze for a while and then play some games with everyone. After a long day of food and fun, you clean the house, lock up, and head back home. The bus ride is quiet since a lot of people are dozing, listening to music, or simply pondering the happenings of late. You get back to your house and wearily get ready for bed, ready to dream about the pleasant memories formed during your summer picnic.


I hope you enjoyed sharing out recent experience! If you have any questions or any topics you'd like to hear about, let us know in the comments section down below!

Until next time,
Craig

Friends Spotlight

This week Craig and I both got to hang out with some awesome new friends. I wanted to take this opportunity to spotlight those relationships so you could join us in lifting them up.

First, a note on male to male relationships in Iraq. The relationships between men are very different here then they are in America. Since men cannot be affectionate with women in public they show affection toward each other. Coming into this internship I knew this and thought it was totally bizarre. Being here has completely changed my perspective on relationships between men.  Here it is completely normal to link arms or hold hands while walking and greet each other with a kiss. Speech is also much different towards the same sex as you will see in the following spotlights.

Craig and I had an opportunity to hang out with some friends he met at the life center this past Saturday.  We went to park Azadi and walked around. His new friends are from down south and speak mostly Arabic but know a little Kurdish and their English is decent. We spent the night drinking cha (tea) and chatting up a storm. We taught them English and they taught us Arabic. One friend, we will call him Mac, and I had the same notebook where we would write words we wanted to remember.  The same friend sent Craig a text the next day that said, “Morning or night you are light…big or small you are all…young or old you are gold…far are near you are dear…” As you can see, this is definitely something you don’t see in the US.

The friend I want to shine a spotlight on I will call Sam. Sam and I have been able to hang out and talk a lot at the coffee night and this past week we got to have a long lunch together. The conversation was great! We talked about everything from his interaction with the US army during the war, to the Quran, to the life of Jesus. During that lunch we built a great bond. At the end I was leaving and he looked at me with complete sincerity and said, “Brother, if you need anything, money, food, this car, everything I have is yours.”

Please lift up these relationships. It is easy to hang out with people in this culture but please intercede on our behalf that these relationships would be more than just learning English or a new culture. Pray that they would be filled with love, grace, and truth.

Tyler

A somber day

Hello everyone,

As you may have seen in the news, there were a number of bombings in Iraq today. The numbers are still coming in, but the latest estimate is around 82 people killed. Everyone from PLC is fine, but it's still a terrible thing when we're working so hard for peace.

Keep the Shi'ite people in prayer as they were the target of these recent attacks.

Thank you all for your support,
Craig

You Have to Stretch Before You Can Run

Well folks it's stretching time,

We are winding down our 3rd week in Iraq and I am finally starting to get a good stretch. This week I've had the opportunity to be frustrated physically, culturally, and spiritually. And I'm glad because this is a huge reason I came to Iraq.

Physically I'm feeling a little beat up because my body is not cooperating with the type of food we eat. I thought I ate a lot of bread and meat at home but that was nothing compared to the amount I eat here. Also, the temp has reached 100+ and will only continue to climb as we continue to wear long sleeved shirts.

Culturally, I love it, I really do. I'm starting to get past the novelty however. The people are so nice and helpful. They will literally stop what they are doing to help you out, especially if you are American. I'm just getting past the stage where it's fun and cool to be the new guy, the one everyone wants to look at and and talk to.

Mzgowti Gowra (the great mosque) in the Bazaar.

Spiritually I am being challenged by the different views of the people around me. Not only am I living in a predominantly Muslim culture but I am also living with people who do not necessarily have the exact same theology I do. During our weekly "home group" at the Courtney's, we listen to different sermons that challenge us to think about what we really believe. We discuss different view points and ask challenging questions.

I tell you these things not so you will worry about Craig and me but to give you some direction in prayer to our Almighty Creator.  We are in good hands, but as I have said before and will say again, thank you so much for your prayers, we could not continue on our journey without them. I can safely say that I have personally felt the prayers of those of you that are praying faithfully at home.

Hanging out with Sam (right) and his friend at the coffee night.
Their beards put mine to shame!

Now for some good news. Last week I told you about the coffee night where we have the opportunity to meet local Kurds who speak English. Well last week was amazing. Craig and I both made many friends and exchanged numbers. It looks like we might even start playing on a soccer team with one of the guys I met. Please keep all of these relationships in mind. Hopefully next week I will be able to report more on the formulation of these friendships.

Tyler

Check out all the interns in this awesome intern video by Monique

Birthday in Iraq

Hello everyone!

My birthday weekend has come and gone, but I had an awesome time with all the new people I've met from PLC.

In the morning we had a time of prayer with the staff. One of the staff members introduced us to Syria and its current situation. Syria is full of corruption and strife, to the point that the local men cannot move from village to village without being shot at. We spent the entire morning in prayer for Syria and it was inspiring. The very thought that we can talk directly with God still makes me gape in wonder at His immense grace. Afterwards, we all headed to the local bazaar, which is a whole bunch of street side shops, full of the most awesome sights you'll see in all Iraq. From small goldsmith shops to butcher shops next to children's clothes, it's amazing anyone can find their way around. After wandering around for a few hours, we stopped to get some ice cream where we met a mid-20's shopkeeper who insisted we see his shop. So we headed out across the street into a mall building, right in the middle of the bazaar! While we were talking, he told us we could take some clothes for free. Now, one thing about the culture here is that everyone tries to give you something, usually to be polite, but occasionally people here will literally not let you pay for things. So we refused his gift as politely as we could and convinced him that we didn't want to take his wares for free, but it was an odd experience especially given America's traditional "out for #1" attitude. Then Tyler heard back from his friends I thought we were meeting at a local park, so we headed over to the park to hang out and chat with our local friends. Imagine my surprise however when instead it was the staff and interns from PLC with a surprise birthday picnic! Best office ever, I'm telling you. We were at Park Azadi which means freedom park. It's a place of both happiness and sadness. It's built over a place of devastation, where hundreds of people were executed and buried around the area over the last couple decades, but now it's a beautiful park full of flowers, families, and fun. I think it's a beautiful picture of recovery and growth. So after dinner the rest of the interns and I went to go ride some amusement park rides, located in the park itself! We hung out for a little while longer to relax with some chai tea and when it got late, we headed back to the house. A pretty awesome birthday in Iraq!

Work is going well, we're starting a new newsletter which I got to write and some more blog posts from the rest of the interns. It seems a little slow, but Matt assures me that we'll really start picking up when we start our summer Remedy Missions. I'm so excited for the Missions and I can't wait until we start covering them. Keep updated with our goings on at the PLC blog page!

One last thing before I go: all the interns have decided to make our conversations with everyone, including ourselves, more personal and impactful. I want to challenge you all to do the same and try to make every meeting with others significant.

Until next time,
Craig