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.
Everywhere we went in Turkey, Lesley was absorbed with the super-abundance of cats! She snapped photos of fluffy tortoise shell cats exploring wooden crates in Diyarbakır, fluffy white cats, short haired black cats and all varieties of tabbies playing in Gülhane Parki, and then in Eminonu, I caught and quickly lost the urge to snap kitty photos. Here are all the cats that I caught on my memory card.
Second stop, dinner. Specialties of Istanbul: levrek (sea bass) and çupra (sea bream) are plentiful. Also available are mussels, prawns, etc.... But Kumkapı being popular among Istanbul natives and Turkish tourists, dinner doesn't come cheap. 
It is virtually impossible to go to Turkey without coming home with a little box of Turkish delight. Usually I go for the double pistachio variety at Hacı Bekir... or when Mu goes to Turkey, I receive (can't afford this myself) a lovely box of exquisite dark and milk chocolate coated lokum from Vakko luxury department store. This time, I tried something new from a little shop called Locom Lesley discovered in Sultanahmet... and something impossible to transport home to Erbil - this amber colored bit of sticky sweet lokum gently wrapped around something soft, creamy and closely resembling mascarpone.
We then came upon these little streets lined with little shops like the Locom Turkish delight shop. 
And finally, back to the street running parallel to the Sultanahmet Cami. 
Photo by Lesley Gaj
About a week ago, before I left for a few days off in Turkey, our resident dentist came over to visit sporting this brand new scarf that she bought in the bazaar. While I thought it looked great on her (she was wearing it around her neck, not her head... I insisted she try it on her head), I couldn't see myself wearing one... until I got to Turkey. There I realized there are plenty of people wearing them as scarves and they look great... and they are about twice the price!
Until very recently, our block of Naz City was devoid of much animal life... with the exception of the doves (pigeons?) that fly from building to building and nest under the eaves of the roof (and perhaps a few unruly staff members). But recently, new staff moved in bringing with them chirping, meowing, purring, barking animal life!
Did you know that people in some countries in the Middle East use their word for pistachio as a term of endearment for a someone sweet? I didn't (well until my Lebanese friend explained to me why she called her brother and sister Fustu and Fusti). I also didn't know that the shells were encased in soft pink hulls. These ones aren't really fresh as I forgot they were in my fridge... but am posting it now to remember how tasty they were... season for finding them in the grocery stores seems to be over.
Being as I live in "Iraq" people always think that the situation is much like what they see of Baghdad on CNN... and perhaps think that this post is about the security situation in my city. They'd be wrong. It is about a much more serious problem.... for me in my safe little self-centered world revolving around home and work and the problem of not having anything appropriate to wear outside my home ("at work" in other words). 
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. 
