TRAVEL TUESDAYS #5

I have been thinking about my dad a lot these last several months, so I decided to post about him and his life. My dad was a Peshmerga (translates to 'those who face death') with the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party). He fought for freedom for the Kurds for many years. During my trip to Kurdistan I was lucky enough to have my dad take me around most of North Eastern Iraq, Kurdistan to show me his old stompin' grounds. This one place in particular was special to him because they named the location after my father. Unfortunately I don't have all the details today about the battle. The little I do remember is that my father and his men were able to strategically place themselves on this hillside near a road to fight the Iraqi army. The road was the only way for the Iraqi army to get from on base to another. My father and his men were successful in the battle, hence having the hill named after my father.

My dad standing in front of his hill in the traditional Kurdish clothing men wear.

...brother, sister, dad and myself. Did I mention it was HOT this day? About 120 F +.

TRAVEL TUESDAYS #4

This week I would like to do a brief introduction to the massacre that occurred in Halabja, Kurdistan. The nightmare happened on March 16th, 1988 in which 5,000 Kurds were gassed to death by Saddam's Regime. I got the opportunity to visit this city that is situated about 8-10 miles from the Iran border. We went to the memorial that was built for the victims and the grave site where they were buried. Unfortunately, when we went, the memorial had been burned down by the people of Halabja. They destroyed the memorial out of anger. They felt as if no one cared enough about the survivors and the family members of the thousands that were murdered.











A view of the outside of the burned memorial.












A list inside of the memorial of all 5,ooo Kurds that were murdered on March 16th, 1988. (Notice how some of the names were destroyed in the fire)












A statue out in front of the grave site where the victims were buried.












A closer look at the headstones at the grave site. You will notice that some stones have one line of text, some have two, three and so on. These represent the names of that are buried under the headstone. They buried families together and those who died alone, were buried alone.

Travel Tuesdays #3

UPDATE: Sorry to interrupt my Travel Tuesdays post, but I a have an important message to display. Please read my January 27th post about my commitment to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My fundraising website is up an running and I encourage everyone to visit and help. Every little bit helps and it all adds up! I have a very long journey ahead of me and I will need all the help I can get...
HELP BEGERED HELP SAVE LIVES

This weeks Travel Tuesdays will revolve around transportation. Life in Iraq as most of you would guess is very different than life I am used to here in the United States. Just getting around is something I have taken for granted. Women drivers is not all that common in Iraq. My cousin has been driving for about 10 years and she has said it was much worse when she started. Even today people will stare at women drivers. I didn't drive during the 5 weeks I was over there. The driving is insane! There were some areas of road construction an I was shocked that they don't close the road or lane that is being built. People just drive around the equipment and workers and if you don't want to deal with it...just drive on the opposite side of the road that is already complete! Pure madness but I absolutely loved it!

Travel Tuesdays #2

Since I have so many photos of Kurdistan, Iraq and it was by far the most memorable trip (good and bad) I have ever been on, I will stick with them for a while on my "Travel Tuesdays" posts.


Shopping for material for Kurdish dresses in Shacklawa. There were so many colors to chose from, I finally picked a beautiful orange material.

These are "hats" that men wear under their head covering. The color and style is dependent on what tribe you come from. These were all hand woven and absolutely beautiful.

Old style traditional shoes. I am unsure, but I think these are shoes for men. This picture was taken at a Textile Museum in Hawler (Irbil, Iraq).

This is the current style of traditional shoes men wear. Though most younger men where everyday common sneakers or other styles of shoes.


Yes, that is a tomb you see. I just thought it was one of the oddest things I saw. This was in the middle of a huge bazaar in Hawler. I ran across it each time I went out to go shopping.

Travel Tuesdays

This summer I traveled to Kurdistan, Iraq. I was there for 5 weeks and traveled through most of north west of the country. I got this wonderful idea of sharing my photos with blogging "Travel Tuesdays" from Ramona. The photos I am sharing today are from a day trip we took to an area called Ali Bag.