In the back of my mind as I write this blog I have security concerns. I would rather not have a flashing neon sign that points to my office and home. Suly is a safe place, but I am still aware of where I live. Then I realized that was kind of ridiculous, because they know who we are. Just yesterday Kari received mail. We were both completely shocked because there are no addresses here. Except, duh, they know who we are. For all of its growth, Suly is a small town and believe me, we stand out. If anyone can figure out what the brothel looking building is, then I am sure they can find me, except everyone already knows who I am and where I live!
In answer to your transportation question- we have security guards and drivers. Thankfully Kari speaks Arabic because our head of security speaks Arabic. Most of our guards speak Kurdish. In that case we manage to communicate in broken Kurdish, English and Arabic. I should say Kari manages because I am still pretty mute. I plan on taking Arabic lessons with one of our staff starting after the end of Ramadan. In the meantime I just keep picking up stray words.
Oh the heat. Ironically, it has been a bit cooler. The temperature is in Celsius and I have chosen not to know! In Baghdad in a parked car the temperature can get up to over 160 degrees. True story. Suly is much cooler thankfully, but it is still over 100 degrees. We are lucky because when the electricity goes out the generator kicks in. Sometimes there is a delay though and it does start to get uncomfortable. Not unbearable, just uncomfortable. This afternoon I was in the bathroom and the power went out. It was pitch black and I did shriek like a little girl. Usually when it happens at night, either Kari or I are on the computer and so we have the glow of the computer. The next thing we need to find our flashlights! As I said, we are lucky, most of the staff live in neighborhoods with rolling blackouts and so they do not have air conditioning through the night. You can kind of understand why they are a bit pissed off at Americans.
This will be a great opportunity to not only learn Arabic, but it sounds like you will have to learn some Kurdish, too. I hope that they have some interesting cultural things and that you can hike or drive through the mountains.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you are picking up stray words quite well! Maybe you can also dazzle them with your French! :)
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