Situation update

The past couple of days of Kurdish retreats and ISIS advances have been surprising and disturbing, but we remain confident of our immediate security in the Erbil area.  (Housekeeping note: Like New York, Erbil is the name of both the city and the province, so some reports may say things like "ISIS is 10 km away from Erbil" meaning the province and not the city.  We are in Ankawa, a small town on the north side of Erbil city.)

The strategic withdrawal of Kurdish forces to naturally defensive areas, the commitment of the US to intervene with air strikes, the international attention, and the increased involvement of the Iraqi air force in the last 24 hours seem to have greatly strengthened the position of the Kurds.  We are far from the front lines. 

Our house in Ankawa.

We are, however, very close to thousands of internally displaced people who have fled to Ankawa, especially from the Christian town of Qara Qosh, which was taken by ISIS yesterday morning.  Here in Ankawa, the ones who don't have family connections or money for hotels are staying in churches, schools, parks, and St. Peter's seminary (where I will be teaching this fall).  There would be room in our house to host people, but on the repeated recommendation of the church leaders, we have not gone out and sought people to stay here.  This feels very difficult, but we will stay in touch with church contacts and friends of Jim and Deb and hopefully be able to pitch in in tangible ways. 


In the meantime, we are more or less going about life as usual.  (To top it all off, yesterday was our anniversary!  We went out to a restaurant and had pizza and ice cream, which felt strange, given the context...)   We are also paying very close attention to the news, keeping in touch with an NGO security meeting group, listening to partners' views on our presence and the situation, and clarifying our evacuation plans should the need arise.

Kaitlin and Jim are submitting a proposal to get an immediate emergency grant from MCC to give to the local Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese for supplies. The church leadership is very organized; yesterday morning when we stopped by Mar Yusef, the largest church in Ankawa, they were already unloading 15 brand new refrigerators (or air conditioners--we couldn't tell) to use for the approximately 2000 people who had already arrived in the church buildings and courtyard.  In the meantime, many of MCC's partners are shifting their development projects that MCC had been supporting to more immediate relief needs.

It feels wrong not to be doing more personally ("I was a stranger and you welcomed me in...") and I hope there are opportunities to do things that directly help those who have lost so much.  There are about four seminary students whose families were displaced and are now in Ankawa, so we may be able to offer them meals and showers periodically, and housing if their current housing deteriorates.

It is difficult to know how to pray, given on the one hand the imperial legacies of conflict in this region and our nation's apparent return to the scene and on the other hand the brutal and cancerous evil that ISIS seems more and more clearly to be.  My heart goes out especially to the Yezidis trapped on Sinjar mountain, to people hiding in ISIS- held towns, and to the young men of Mosul that ISIS has reportedly begun conscripting into service. 

In Ankawa, Iraq

This past Sunday we arrived at the MCC house that will be our home in Ankawa (pronounced ain-ka-wa), the small and predominantly Christian town near Erbil (ar/er/err-biil), which is the capital of the Iraqi Kurdish region.

However, for this week we have been staying at a nearby hotel because, in addition to Jim and Deb Fine (our predecessors who we will be living with for the next month), there are also five North American teachers (and the husband and 2-year-old son of one of them) who have been here for the past four weeks teaching English in an intensive course for adults.

This 4-week intensive English program (IEP) ended today and the teachers will be leaving Saturday, so we will begin a more normal schedule of orientation and training (and move in with Jim and Deb) on Sunday. 

Here are some of the things we have done this week:

• On Sunday evening we attended the Arabic/Aramaic service at Mar Yusef, one of several Chaldean Catholic churches in Ankawa
• On Monday, Nathan and I went with Jim (with a hired driver and car) on a day trip out to two villages west of Erbil, where an MCC partner organization ZSVP (Zakho Small Villages Project) was distributing food relief kits to IDPs (internally displaced persons, mostly Yezidis and Turkomen) who have recently fled Mosul
• On Tuesday, we sat in on IEP classes and got to know the students, who are in fact mostly teachers themselves at Mar Qardakh school (a local Christian school that is in the process of getting International Baccalaureate (IB) certification and therefore must teach in English)
• On Wednesday, we met with leaders of another MCC partner organization, Iraqi Al-Amal, to get to know the staff and to observe how they and Jim talk about project proposals and make decisions.  They discussed the possibility of continuing aid work in the Ninevah Plain region, around Mosul (yes, it's that Ninevah).  We also got blood drawn for testing, which is the first step toward getting our residency permits.
• Yesterday and today we officially began to study Iraqi Arabic under the direction of Jim, who is fluent.  Starting in September we will be meeting twice a week with Hanady, a native Arabic speaker who has a masters in teaching Spanish (she is on vacation in Europe during our first month here).
• Tomorrow we will attend an ordination service for a young man who is becoming a priest in the Chaldean Catholic Church and send off the English teachers over the weekend.

The road to Erbil from the west.  Things to notice: (1) With good reason, St. Christopher (the patron saint of travelers) is dangling from the rear view mirror; (2) According to Jim Fine, vehicle passing is "the Kurdish national pastime"; (3) the fields are pale yellow with the remainder of the summer's wheat harvest; (4) Erbil is a large and quickly-growing city, marked by the numerous cranes dotting the hazy skyline; (5) it's hazy.

In general, we are getting to know the geography of Ankawa (both on foot and via taxi), meeting lots of people, and absorbing information from Deb (Nathan's future role as English teacher and IEP coordinator) and Jim (my future role as MCC program coordinator).  The food is excellent, the weather is hot but manageable, and we feel tired but good.  

As many of you know, the news out of ISIS-controlled Mosul continues to be very bad. Virtually all Christians have left the city, and most of them have come to the Erbil province, with the final wave arriving last week.  Please pray for them and all people displaced by this conflict.