I'm catching up on posts that I started a month ago and never finished. In January I had our first meeting with the community and tribal leaders that went amazingly well. Nothing could have prepared me for the day though. I mentioned in a previous post that when they all arrived I was in a bit of shock. The next day got even more...interesting. I started our meeting with a brief introduction of who I was and who we were. At that point one of the Sheikh's from Baghdad asked a question which my translator translated for me word by word. He asked how old I was, if I was married, where I was from and who my family was in order to determine who I was because I was going to be working with them. I asked my other staff member how I was supposed to answer that and he said, very carefully. I told the group that I and my family were from Chicago and I was very happy to be here. I then sat down and shut up. Over lunch the same Sheikh came to my table and said that he thought in order to create peace between America and Iraq he should take an American wife. Thankfully the rest of the afternoon went well and then came dinner.
I arrived early and sat down at the table to wait for our group. Then the group of Sheikhs come in and they all sat down surrounding me. My dear friend from Baghdad arranged to have one of our NGO partners sit between him and I to serve as a translator. After about 15 people sat down one of my staff came in with the group and just stopped, stared at me, laughed and then thought to ask if I was ok. I said, yes. Then the next staff member came and did the same, then the next and the next. You get the picture. So, the NGO gentleman had told me earlier that I had gained weight since I last saw him. It seems that you can feel free to talk about someone's weight in Iraq, but not certain other things. Anyways, dinner arrives and I wait for everyone else to start eating. At that point the Sheikh orders the NGO guy to put some food on my plate. At first he refuses to give me any rice because rice is fattening. At the same time the Sheikh reaches for half a chicken and goes to put it on my plate. I said no thank-you I am a vegetable eater (there is no real translation for vegetarian) in Arabic. He says, but you are in Iraq, and I explained I had been a vegetarian for 20 years. He said that was not possible because I was not a day over 18. I laughed and said nice try, but I was still not going to tell him how old I was. He threw back his head and laughed. Nothing like a little banter with a Sheikh. All in a days work.
I arrived early and sat down at the table to wait for our group. Then the group of Sheikhs come in and they all sat down surrounding me. My dear friend from Baghdad arranged to have one of our NGO partners sit between him and I to serve as a translator. After about 15 people sat down one of my staff came in with the group and just stopped, stared at me, laughed and then thought to ask if I was ok. I said, yes. Then the next staff member came and did the same, then the next and the next. You get the picture. So, the NGO gentleman had told me earlier that I had gained weight since I last saw him. It seems that you can feel free to talk about someone's weight in Iraq, but not certain other things. Anyways, dinner arrives and I wait for everyone else to start eating. At that point the Sheikh orders the NGO guy to put some food on my plate. At first he refuses to give me any rice because rice is fattening. At the same time the Sheikh reaches for half a chicken and goes to put it on my plate. I said no thank-you I am a vegetable eater (there is no real translation for vegetarian) in Arabic. He says, but you are in Iraq, and I explained I had been a vegetarian for 20 years. He said that was not possible because I was not a day over 18. I laughed and said nice try, but I was still not going to tell him how old I was. He threw back his head and laughed. Nothing like a little banter with a Sheikh. All in a days work.
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