Newroz, Part دوو
We just finished celebrating our second Kurdish New Year—or Newroz—here in Sulaymaniyah, and it was a great time!
If you were around for last year’s Newroz, you may remember that we had just arrived and some big-time protests were happening. But this year was much less political (though still hectic), and it was cool to see many friendly faces in the crowd.
Over the past 12 months God has blessed us with some incredible new friends; Arabs, Kurds, devout Muslims, local Christians, and the list goes on.
This city is a lot more eclectic than I realized, and it’s been a major blessing to be a part of it.
Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” in Kurdistan
Last night, Cayla and I watched the No Reservations episode that took place in Kurdistan. If you’ve ever wondered what life is like here, or if you’re interested in visiting at some point, I’d highly recommend you watch this. It gives an accurate depiction of Kurdish culture and shows just how safe our little corner of the world actually is. Hope ya like it!
The Langa
See how happy these guys are to be working in The Langa?!
If you walk past the big mosque, into a small produce section and then hang a sharp right before the sweetshop, you’ll find yourself in a truly magical place.
Cayla making ice cream!
It’s a perennial garage sale minus all the stuff I hate about garage sales. No crowds of psychotic people pulling hair and calling “dibbs on that whole table” at 4am. No impossible-to-find residential locations. It’s always in the same, labyrinth-like maze deep within the bazaar, which gives it an insider feel. Like a super-hip club for old ladies.
Cayla has harvested numerous goodies from The Langa: a popcorn maker, all kinds of super-nice, name-brand clothing (most things cost just a dollar or two), and loads of other stuff. But the best thing she’s found to date was an ice cream maker. My crazy, cooking genius-of-a-wife has now whipped up 5 pints of homemade ice cream, and every pint is more incredible than the last!
For the first time (ever?), I actually look forward to shopping. I run out of steam after about 10 minutes, but that’s still 10 minutes more than ever before. I can’t wait to see what we’ll find next!
How Saddam is Keeping Me in Shape (Albeit Inadvertently)
It just so happens that Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime built a youth center in our city back in the day. It’s now the equivalent of an even more ghetto YMCA (if you can imagine that) with basketball, soccer and tennis courts and weekly practices and league events.
Though my ‘youth’ years are in their twilight, the youth center still lets me play whenever I want (and I’m friends with the basketball coach–pictured below in the cap) and I’ve made some good friends here. Below is a picture of some of the guys I’ve enjoyed dunkin’ on these last few weeks.
Ok, so I can’t actually dunk. But wouldn’t that be sweet?!
Newroz! | Photos From Our 1st Kurdish New Years
This week is Newroz (now-rose) for the Kurdish people, and it’s been quite the occasion. I’m glad our friends here encouraged us to move over here in time for the beginning of spring and Newroz.
I think the beginning of spring is a beautiful time to have a new years celebration since everything actually feels new. Logical points to the Kurds for not putting their new years in the middle of winter.
So I decided to wander the city with a borrowed telephoto lens to take a few shots of the festivities. I was surprised at how politically-charged a lot of the protests were, but with all the protests that are going on across the Muslim world I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at a celebration/protestation fusion. Here’s a brief look at my tour around the city:
I started my walk on the main road near our house. People were saying there’d be a big ‘parade’ happening on the road, but I was surprised at how small the crowds actually were.
Kurdish men doing a traditional dance for Newroz
So I hopped a cab and headed for the bazaar in hopes of finding a larger crowd. I succeeded.
I elbowed my way to the roof of a nearby hotel to snap a few shots of the masses.
This father stopped me and requested that I take a picture of his son. The kid was really cute.
Pretty sure they thought this picture would end up on the cover of some newspaper, cuz they begged me to take it.
I finally got sick of people accosting me for pictures and ducked down a nearby side street. I walked for awhile before finding a little boy building his own personal bonfire in the middle of a busy intersection. This is what I mean by celebration/protestation. To an outsider like me, a fire like this seems pretty far removed from anything resembling a celebration. Sometimes protests and celebrations really do seem indistinguishable (though certainly extinguishable, har har!).
Friendly fire?
A little further down the road and I found a severely eccentric man building a fire, giggling to himself and smoking cigarettes while jumping through the flames.
He held his cigarettes in his hand the entire time.
Not sure what compelled him to do this, but the pictures turned out pretty cool.
The last picture I took on my walk. She was so cute in her traditional Kurdish "Gili Kurdi!"
For more pictures from our first Newroz, check out our Flickr stream here.
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