I will be the first to admit that when a trip opportunity came up to visit Kurdistan over the American Thanksgiving weekend, I was filled with both excitement and a bit of trepidation. Travelling to the autonomous state in northern Iraq is not most people’s idea of a long weekend getaway! But I am a curious person, and was driven by the intrigue of visiting a country that has been in the news for years as a war zone (well… I wasn’t actually visiting the war zone, but still…). It was surreal to see the beauty of the Erbil region, knowing that its neighbour, Mosul, only 87 km away (or approximately 80 minutes drive + checkpoints) is a war ravaged area. Our guide for the weekend, Sabah, works for the British Consulate in Erbil, and has travelled to Mosul, so he shared his experience and photos with us. They had to go in a convoy of 5 armoured cars, wearing full body protection the entire time. The sights you see on the news are what exist, with buildings in ruins, and bodies littering the streets. (The only thing littering the highways/streets in Erbil state was the rubbish (especially plastic). Even though they were travelling from Kurdistan (part of Iraq), and going for diplomatic reasons, they were stopped at many different checkpoints and questioned, as the Kurdish and the Arab Iraqis do not like each other. Sabah very much emphasized the fact that they are different from the Arabic Iraqis, even if they are Muslims (Sunni). (Perception Challenge, especially for my friends who are bombarded by North American News broadcasts… Islam, just like Christianity, has many different denominations, and just because someone is Muslim does not make them the same as the extremists in the news.) Continue reading Challenging perceptions – Kurdistan →