impending elections

These days our city is alive with activity, flags flying on every car, horns honking, young people hanging out cars, screaming...Our street in particular is wild with activity, especially as the sun starts to set. The Iraqi elections will be held on March 7th and the entire country is gearing up for it. Banners are everywhere & huge, life-size posters adorn every bridge. We've heard that it can actually be dangerous to go to a certain part of town in the evening because the rivaling parties are all there daring one another & acting very foolishly. People have been attacked and hurt. Sometimes at night the noise can be so deafening that we can't sleep! Politics is definitely a big part of life here and many are ruled by their "party". Although we try and keep out of politics, it's difficult to ignore it totally when so many of our friends are deeply involved. In fact, one of my best friends is running for parliament. Pray for peace to reign in the election process!

Valentine's in true Kurdish style

Well, today is February 14th so Darrell wanted to take me out for dinner. We had heard about a Chinese restaurant in town and decided to try it out. First of all, the road leading to the restaurant was totally torn up so we had to climb over all kinds of debris just to reach the entrance. We climbed the stairs to find a very plain restaurant with filthy tablecloths (covered with thick plastic), zero atmosphere, men drinking lots of beer & liquor and loud Chinese music. We sat down and looked at the view outside our window; empty fruit boxes, laundry hanging, paint cans, stale bread. I just couldn't believe what I was experiencing. I tried to pull the soy sauce out of its holder but it was so crusty that I had to pry it out! So much for a romantic dinner but the food was actually quite good; better than any other we've tasted here. The owners of the restaurant all put out their own dinner and sat down to eat. When we were ready to go, we got up and stood at the counter waiting for someone to come and give us our bill. The whole experience was just so "Kurdish-like" and we laughed all the way home. Here's a picture of our table. It actually looks a lot nicer on the photo than in real life!

Romantic evening at the LIFE Center

Friday night, February 12th, we decided to have a romantic dinner for couples at our center in celebration of Valentine's Day. We ended up being 14 couples, American and Kurdish, and a wonderful time was had by all. As usual, the comments that we received afterward were "it was the best time we've ever had", "we never experienced anything like this before" and so on...Our interns outdid themselves decorating the coffee shop with flowers, candles and beautiful table settings. Our evening started out with a sit-down dinner, beginning with 4 kinds of salads, followed by roasted chicken, curried rice & vegetable medley. Heart-shaped, pink frosted cookies were at each place along with their names printed on a cute place card. Romantic music, door prizes, the Newlywed game, silly skit by Darrell & I, Kurdish dancing & American slow-dancing...all made for an unforgettable evening of LOVE. It was fun to bless our Kurdish friends with this special evening and they were truly overwhelmed with gratitude. We were amused at how they blushed when asked certain questions! (for example, "when & where did you first kiss your wife"?) There was great commotion and laughter over this; many had their first kiss the day they were engaged. We were told that it is rare to ever have a fun, romantic evening with your spouse like this. They loved it!