In all honesty, I really liked our Nairobi life. Mild weather, green everywhere, the hustle and bustle of one of Africa's largest metropolises. By now you all know, Africa is under my skin. It's what I know and where I feel most comfortable.
When she made the decision to go to Iraq, I thought it was out of necessity, that it would be short term. Eventually, I figured, we'd find a way to make the 5:00pm G&T session on the back lawn, with the dogs, a permanent fixture.
Still it's hard to mount to a case to stay when you've got no job, no residency and bills need to be paid. Harder still when your marriage consists of Whatsapp messages and bi-nightly Skype calls. Long distance marriage sucks even more than a long distance relationship. Trust me, I have now done both!
in a very short period of time, I found myself traversing the northern hemisphere by plane and train to the shores of le lac Lemand in Switzerland. I had a fanastic week of briefings and brushing up on my security training, which included building my first ever snowman, before catching more trains and planes to the Kurdish Region of Iraq.
She has already done an excellent job of giving you the geo-political rundown on the whole Kurdistan v Iraq v OAGs scenario, so I don't need to go there. Let's just say that as a Western Australian, I've always had a soft spot for successionist movements. I think we Western Australians could probably learn something from the Kurds! We just need our own version of the Peshmerga and lots of oil!
So far my first impressions of Erbil are relatively positive. Of other places I've lived, it reminds me most of Islamabad, except that we've swapped the Taliban for another OAG. Essentially Erbil is a town under siege, with a heavy military presence everywhere you go. But as I have often seen elsewhere, people are just getting on with their life, largely obilivious to the war going on just 80km away.
The weather. In the first two weeks in Erbil I have experienced a combination of snow, sleet and rain. It did peak above 15 degrees for a few days last week which gave the impression that come the middle of July we're going to be hitting somewhere between 40 and 50 degrees. It is certainly the land of extremes.
The cars. As an avid car watcher, Erbil is quite the place. Plenty of Audis, Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs and I've even seen a Ferrari. Apart from the European vehicles, there are also plenty of fuel-guzzling American stock cars, including plenty of sported up Camaros. Apparently there is quite an active drifting scene both in Erbil and even in Mosul!
They might have the cars, but sadly Erbilians don't have the skills to match behind the wheel. It's definitely an improvement on the driving in Sudan (which is not saying much), but let's just say most of them would lose their license within a week if they were to drive in Australia or NZ. They seem to find it very difficult to choose from one of two lanes and spend most of their time behind the wheel taking and posting selfies on FB. Please don't try this at home...
Food and wine are expensive. As I have posted on FB this morning, we paid $60 USD for a bottle of Malborough Pinot Noir from Yealands Estate on Thursday night (TGIT in Kurdistan). I may have also paid $35 USD for a steak the week before. Having access to the comforts of home, like a good wine or a nice steak, make me think that living in Erbil is going to turn out OK.
So here we are, for better or worse, living the Erbil life. It may not be the Kenya life I dreamed of, however we are together. We both have work and look forward to being re-united with our earthly possesions from Khartoum (which we haven't seen for a year!) and our four legged boys. This will hopefully bring some much needed stability to our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment