"If you're not in over your head, how can you know how tall you are?" - TS Elliot

I started work on Sunday (work weeks here run Sunday-Thursday because in Muslim countries, the holy day is Friday rather than Sunday), and headed to Sulaymaniyah Monday morning to spend a couple of days at our office here. Sulaymaniyah is totally different from Erbil. It is about the same size of a city, but has a much more cultural feel to it than Erbil does, which mostly feels full of shiny new buildings and hotels. In contrast, Sulaymaniyah is full of cute little cafes, restaurants and is historically the home to many famous poets, historians, writers and artists. It is surrounded by mountains almost on all sides, and has some pretty great views. 

Sulaymaniyah's mountain ranges

Work has been pretty crazy though. Jumping in and trying to grasp two years of programming and figure out next steps for the next 6-7 months is a challenge, but I'm moving along and starting to get a few of the many pieces to fall into place. I've been in pretty constant meetings so far this week, just trying to absorb as much information as I possibly can. I've been meeting with different program managers and trying to get a sense of where I fit into the scheme of the overall picture, and what communication needs are the greatest. 

One of the interesting projects that we have under this project that I'm working on supports victims of war. In Iraq, (pushed by an American aid worker who worked to document the civilian toll of war in Iraq) all civilian victims of war who have lost loved ones or been injured by US forces, militias or terrorism are eligible for compensation (which I find incredibly interesting and admirable, if unsustainable in the long run, given the current security situation). Our project finds those victims who are particularly in need and particularly creative, and helps them to start small businesses to support themselves and their families. Too many people meet the eligibility requirements of having their lives torn apart by violence, but having something with which to start over is the first step to putting life back together.

The meetings will continue for much of next week, with the exception of Sunday and Monday, which we get off for the Kurdish New Year holiday of Nowruz. While normally this would be a big time for Kurdish Iraqis to travel and visit family in other parts of the country, most people who I have talked to so far have said they plan to stay home because of the conflict. People don't want to leave border areas to the conflict to come and visit their family members in the Iraqi Kurdish Region, for fear of having their homes taken over and not being able to return, and people in Northern Iraq are unable to go to see their families in southern Iraq. There is also added tension given that the holiday isn't one really celebrated in southern Iraq, so it is a factor in an increasingly separate northern and southern divided country and a potential point of conflict. In fact, someone was just telling me today that flying from Baghdad to Erbil, they received an international exit stamp, despite not actually leaving Iraq, and in fact, you need a separate visa for the Northern region and the Southern/Central Region.

Early tomorrow morning, I'll be headed back to Erbil, where I'll continue meetings and start plodding into the world of report writing. More updates to come.