bumpy road to recovery

It has been a week since my surgery and 4 days since I have been back. The last few days everyone has been asking after me and telling me that I should be taking it easy. In truth, there is still a little more recovery that needs to be made, but a couple hours teaching doesn't really cause me much grief. I think the only thing I have really done wrong this week was to not stay a few extra days in Istanbul so as to avoid the rocky overland route back to Hawler. Ordinarily, I would fly Istanbul- Erbil direct on Atlas Jet... but all the seats were sold out until Wednesday, so I bought a ticket to Mardin instead. Getting a ticket to Mardin as a domestic destination was a stroke of luck as there are many flights to Diyarbakir, but Mardin-bound flights are infrequent. (If you look on the map above - top left corner- you will see that Mardin is at least an hour's drive closer to the Iraqi border.
In the Mardin airport, I was lucky to run into a Paris-based Baghdadi businessman who was going to Dohuk to visit his siblings in their new safer city. He was able to give me a lift, saving me $160.00 US. (In my delicate state I was willing to pay this exorbitant sum to go directly to the border rather than to do public transport to Silopi and transfer to the border from there.
The real issue regarding my travel, however, was not related to time or money, but rather to the road conditions in the Kurdish regions of Turkey. The roads are very poorly maintained... meaning potholes more jarring than the oversized speed bumps on the path to our apartment. Even though the driver carefully selected the side of the road to drive on by the condition of the asphalt, bumps or sudden swerves back to our side of the road (to avoid the oncoming oil trucks and mac trucks) were unavoidable. Needless to say, I didn't feel so hot by the time I got to Zakho. But at least from, Zakho, my fragile health was not in the hands (or cars) of strangers. In Zakho, Mu met me and drove me to Hawler (Arbil on above map). This was a long stretch, but not nearly so bad due to recently maintained roads and careful driving. Poor Mu. After dropping me off, he had to continue on to Sulemaniya taking the long route through Koya instead of passing through Kirkuk as the latter route is more dangerous after nightfall.

Anyway, I am sitting on my sofa now and wishing that I had delayed my trip back... or at least taken my camera with me as Mardin is beautiful. Above please see a picture I stole from the internet.