The Feast of Saint Qardakh the Martyr

 The Iraqi Chaldean church has gone through some very difficult times of late and this church was named after a priest that was killed five years ago. He had been a very dynamic person and was making a big difference in the church before he was killed.

 Before the service started the choir was singing from the balcony filling the church with really beautiful music.

 The alter boys and girls were waiting beside my pew for quite a while and were a bit restless.

 There was a great procession of priests at the beginning of the service. They are all lined up under the cross wearing red sashes. Many people arrived after the service had begun, so that by the time it ended the church was nearly full.

 The service was one hour long, but there was a lot of singing, standing and sitting and commotion going on, so it didn't seem that long.

 After the service everyone went outside to enjoy a potluck of sorts. There were no lines, just general milling about to obtain food. It all seemed to work out and everyone was fed. The temperature was perfect for standing around outside - much cooler than it has been.

The meal ended with a Mountain Dew (255 ml) with a pull off tab.

Lunch Time

There are two long tables like this one in the dining room. The English teachers eat with the students, while the priests eat at the head table. We sit with the students so that they have a chance to practice their conversational English over lunch.

We always have a salad based on cucumbers and tomatoes. This one has egg plant as well.

The rice is always mixed with short egg noodles.

So far, we have always had a red sauce with vegetables in it, such as okra or egg plant, and often it includes hunks of meat.

For this lunch the meat was on the side. It was tinned tuna, straight out of the can.

We usually end the meal with fruit, though apparently none of it is grown in Iraq.

Backdrop for Scene One

In the afternoons we are getting ready to put on a production of Jonah and the whale. I have a group of people working on the set. Here is the backdrop for Jonah on the ship to Tarsus.

The Kitchen Garden

 The kitchen garden is steadily being expanded by the gardener. Some of the plants don't look that happy to be out in the 45 degree sunshine. These plants were started in the greenhouse on the property.

 Here's the gardener taking a texting break. Cell phones are everywhere.

There is definitely success to be seen in the garden, though at this time of year you have to look closely to find it.

Evening Prayers

Every evening at 7:15 p.m. we all go out to the chapel for evening prayers. The Chaldeans have their own cross without a body on it. I will get my students to explain the symbolism, but I suspect the twelve points represent the apostles, the four points near the center the gospels, and the center Christ, but I may be way off. 

The liturgy this evening was unusual in that we were asked to recite "Our Father" followed by 10 "Hail Mary"s four times. I now have the "Hail Mary" passage memorized:

 

 Hail Mary, full of grace.

Our Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of they womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Out by the pool

 In the afternoons we hold workshops for the students that are less formal than the classroom. We have the students divided into groups working on various aspects of a drama we will put on at the end of the course. I have the stage crew. We went out behind the seminary to look at the stage that is kept in storage in the back. To my surprise, there is an unfinished swimming pool behind the seminary. It appears to be the pen for a lone chicken. In the hot wind I thought a pool workshop would have been a good idea, had there been water.

Dust Storm

 My camera didn't really capture the hot, hot howling wind and the shortened horizon. It was dark and hazy all day. It felt a lot like standing in front of a huge blow dryer on extra hot. These pictures were taken at noon from the roof of the guest house I'm staying in.

Morning Chapel

 Our mornings begin with a chapel service at 7:15 am. It's already quite warm, as the sun has been up for just over an hour.

 This was our first day of the Intensive English Language Program, so our service was in English. Usually it is in Sureth (Classical Aramaic), or Arabic. The Chaldean church is part of the Roman Catholic umbrella and so they use the same lectionary as in other parts of the world.

 Each of the chapel services includes a time for communion. This time it was lead by the rector of the school.

Orientation and Placement

 This was our first chance to meet all of the Intensive English Language Program students. We gave them a bit of an introduction to the teachers and to each other and then the logistics of what they needed to do to get through the placement tests.

We teachers worked in pairs to interview each student and give them a reading comprehension test having them read a short passage and then giving comprehension answers orally. They then did a written test. The interviews took from 10:30 am until 1:00 pm and we still had two people left to interview. After lunch we finished the last two interviews and then marked all the written tests. The fun part was divvying up the students into classes with similar abilities. I landed up with 11 students. I will be teaching the highest level. I will have ten men and one nun.
I am looking forward to meeting my group of students tomorrow morning after breakfast.

Now the real fun begins.

Shwarma Time

 We picked up take away shwarma sandwiches in town for 80 cents each.

The guys behind the counter were hilarious and asked Diana to come pose for a picture. They loved her Egyptian Arabic. We'll have to go back for the great customer service, not to mention delicious sandwiches. The place is called, "Max Toast".

Preparing for Orientation

 Here's Carolyn working on the bulletin boards

 We plan to have the students put on a musical drama for the closing program. The students will spend the afternoons practicing singing, acting and for some, making props, backgrounds and costumes. This is the valley of Nineveh, and everybody knows the story of Jonah.

Nifty trick

In Iraq tea is served in little tea glass saucer combos. This waiter cleared the table and balanced all the glasses and saucers in one hand. Pretty talented. (For the ultra observant, yes, that's my nose at his right elbow.)

The Chaldean church in Suleimaniya

Father Ayram met us and encouraged us to teach the seminarians well.

Pomegranate Season

Despite the somewhat odd colour, the juice tastes like pomegranate without all the trouble of the seeds. We did manage to draw a small crowd as we shared a glass and took pictures.

Suleimaniya Market

 This man was selling mostly nuts; cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds and pistachios.

 

Things got pretty crowded when a big bus drove by.

 The Kurdish men wear skull caps and turbans such as these.

 Cow tail anyone?

The vegetables were arranged so neatly.

A Sombre Experience

The Red Museum

This museum commemorates the genocide of the Kurdish people by Saddam Hussein.

There are bullet holes in this building left as a reminder of the struggle for freedom. 

 This cell held up to 85 men at one time. Women and children were held in another building.

This long hallway has 182,000 mirror shards on the walls - representing the 182,000 souls murdered and has 4,500 lights on the ceiling representing the 4,500 villages which Saddam wiped out.
We also saw torture chambers and a gallery of  photos of people killed with mustard gas.
A very sobering exhibit.