A bit of history...

Call to prayer at the beginning
 of the  ceremony

As most of you know, the area of the world I live in used to be ruled under Saddam Hussein. I am not very good with my history, but I am going to try and give a brief background on the the area I am living and the trauma the local people I live amongst have experienced.

For years Saddam played an important role in the Baath Party which is an Arab political party in Iraq and Syria. Saddam worked his way into a high position in politics and became vice-president of the Baath Party in 1968 after they regained power over Iraq. In 1979, Saddam officially became president over Iraq.

One of my close friends who works
for the military She was on duty
keeping the place safe and
secure for the day's ceremonies.

Now, I am living in the northern area of this country which has been trying to free and be independent from the rest of Iraq for quite some time now. Saddam was not in favor of this, and made it clear to the locals of Northern, Iraq by wiping out complete villages of people. In 1988, he went as far as to drop gas bombs on a particular village which wiped out 4-5,000 civilians within 5 hours. These were his own people that he brutally controlled.

      A lot of other stuff has happened to the locals of Northern Iraq that I wish I could explain to you better, but basically this region has gone through massacres, genocides and plenty of hardships because of the dictatorship that oppressed this country for so long.

       On March 16th, 2013 the village that had been massacred by the chemical gas bombs and its surrounding cities and villages came together in remembrance of this horrific day that happened 25 years ago. I went with a good friend of mine and her parents to listen to speakers and musicians to remember this day. Twenty-five years seems like a long time for me because I still wasn't born when this genocide took place. But for some of our students, neighbors and other locals in the city this is a reality they had to live through. My best friend still remembers when her and her family packed up their things and fled to the neighboring country in 1991 during the Gulf War. Some of you reading this might still remember reading about this in the news as well...

         As dark as the remembrance day was, it was an unforgettable cultural experience. It makes me grateful for the protection that the Lord has covered me with so far, and grateful for the people here that things are so much better than it used to be. There is still lots of corruption, but this area has come a long ways in reestablishing themselves...even in the past year.


          I wish I was better at history so that I could fill you in even more about this area that I love and have called home the past year, but unfortunately what I have told you is about the extent of what I can remember as far as specific dates and details go. Thanks for reading and please remember to keep this area of the world in your "thoughts."








A short fragment of one of the only English speakers at the ceremony.