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Sulaimaniyah: The gift that keeps on
giving
10.10.2009
By Talibatan, English Instructor at the American
University of Iraq (Kurdistan region) at
Sulaimaniyah
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October
10, 2009
SULAIMANIYAH,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The best way I can
characterize life here for the past two weeks is one
surprise after another, each of a different kind,
all making my life increasingly ‘normal’.
Take the souq that is called the bazaar. Like any
Middle Eastern market, you can find, of course, your
run-of-the-mill pirated DVDs, fake lacostes (bought
two yesterday), live animals (I’ve already promised
my students a Thanksgiving turkey feast American),
and light up Kurdistan flag wall-hangings (the one
in my living room looks great).
But the market’s prevailing importance can be summed
up in three words: Meat, rugs and gold. Those of you
who know me and who have read this blog before will
understand why I listed the following surprise
first. My fondness and longing for red meat has been
satisfied tenfold. Last Saturday on my weekend
bazaar trip, I found a plethora of butchers who had
mostly been closed during Ramadan and Eid.
|
Kurdistan has rappers. Here is a massive sign for
the ‘West Boys’ who performed during Eid |
Best of all I came
across an English-speaking butcher and ended up with
4 beautiful baby lamb chops and the words for my
favorite assorted meats and cuts – lamb, steak, cow
and chop – in Kurdish. True salvation, though, came
when I noticed the ground beef, ready and waiting to
become my first Kurdistan burger. While
unfortunately the meat is very lean, being grass-fed
(boo) not corn – all the
fake-American-meat-loving-organic- health nuts would
be in heaven – a colleague at the University told me
you can easily add fat to make it a real burger.
Hamdulilah. Like I said, one surprise after another.
There are only 4 stores at the Sulaimaniyah bazaar
that sell those kinds of rugs that we westerners go
crazy over. I had visited them briefly before, but
this time found out that they have beautiful Persian
and Iraqi Kurdish rugs for about 1/16th of the price
you’d find anywhere else in the world. I bought two
and will probably buy six more. I really needed
them,www.ekurd.netconsidering
24 of my past purchases are sitting in my mom’s
basement because I have no floors for them. Then
again, every time I go home another seems to be on
one of my mom’s floors, which makes me nervous…and
buy more rugs. Also significantly less expensive
here is gold. Nothing new if you’ve been to Damascus
or Istanbul, or any souq around the region for that
matter, but the gold here is a la Steven Martin in
Father of the Bride: the ‘chipper’ chicken.
What really makes the trips to the bazaar, however,
is the company of students. They point out shops I
would never notice, explain the design on
traditional scarves, and are the real reason I have
the lamb chops.
The last materialistic surprise I will mention is
red wine. Over the past few days I have noticed one
legitimate wine store and that my usual grocery
store has started to sell wines that I have seen in
the US, albeit crappy ones. There is no Cotes du
Rhone or Matchbox Felino Malbec, but it is red wine
and it will have to do. Unlike my fellow Talibatan,
traditionally, I’d rather drink no red wine than bad
red wine; I usually order a beer when at a bar-bar
establishment that only has the house stuff. But
here I have surrendered to the opposing school: any
red wine is better than no red wine. It’s just part
of the integration process folks.
In other breaking news: Kurdistan has rappers. Here
is a massive sign for the ‘West Boys’ who performed
during Eid:
I missed their first show, but lord knows I won’t be
missing the next one. The West Boys, however, are no
Smokey G, the most popular and talented Kurdish
hip-hop artist. You can check out his dope beats
here and here. Here again AUIS students were of
great assistance. I heard Smokey G in a music store
at the bazaar, but the owner did not have an album
available. The next day one of my students went back
and put some songs on his zip drive for me. Word.
The only thing I need now is a car in which to
listen to my Smokey G. (If this reference is
unclear, please see ‘About the Talibatan’.)
The Author: I arrived in Iraq on Sept. 8 to begin
work as an English Instructor at the American
University of Iraq (Kurdistan region) at
Sulaimaniyah. The University has been around only
two years and is going great places in many
different ways. It’s an exciting time to be
involved.
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