A Bazaar Day in Suli

And we went to the market too!  Some highlights to look forward to in the next installment:

• Nate gets his first haircut in Kurdistan from an Iranian Kurd who moved to Iraq during the war because he was agitating against the theocratic dictatorship in Tehran.
• Haggling over Kurdish-English and Farsi-English dictionaries in the kitabkhana (book market).
• Finding out that the only English books in the Suli Bazaar were ones more likely read by my father than anyone else.
• Searching Doctor Street for the best Kebab in the city.
• Learning that Iraq’s English curriculum basically consists of excerpts from The Merchant of Venice and Oliver Twist.
• A tour of the bullet-ridden Red Museum, formerly the Ba’athist intelligence office in Suli, where countless Kurds were imprisoned and tortured during Saddam’s regime (this one will get its own post, as it should).

Also in the works is some research on the politics of the Kurdistan region under the Ottoman Empire…an essential chapter to the story of Kurdish Nationalism.

Things are picking up considerably now that the students are around.  I’ve been doing my best to get to know students since my administrative position allows for little interaction with them.  Two exciting (and more importantly: student-related) projects in the works: starting a women’s varsity soccer team and the AUI-S Debate Society.

So I haven’t exactly gotten in the groove for writing here, per se, but it’s an experiment that is quickly coming to an end.  The café has been selected, the books are being acquired, and potential stories are starting to take shape.  Get ready for some sweet Suli reporting!