Golden cages

Someone reads history and thinks that we are beyond many of the violence and cruelty of middle ages, the cold war, the war between iraq-iran... but we continue to find in the news extremely despicable news of injustice where there is a big doubt of human kind conscience.

There has to definintely be a lack  of emotional intelligence of many of us.

Still, sometimes I still make the same error over and over again. Feeling I am excluded from all of that "nonsense" or that people near me is okay; that there is freedom of liberty, rights and human value.

How wrong I was when in a conversation with friends I hear of a neighbor that lives in the "Top Neighborhoods" of Erbil. It is a place where you can even find families of different nationalities, even the families of important politicans of the country, where you would assume it is a different environment... a better one.

Hits, punches and kicks of a husband to his wife in a regular basis is not something you would believe in this place. An iraqui woman now in her thirties married many years ago to someone she didn't even know by that time. Well...at least it wasn't like the situation of her sister who married at 12 years old.

"Leave him!" we would think.

Well it isn't that simple in a place where the woman can't take her children with her if she asks for divore, the husband would keep them by law. A woman that asks for divorce is something unimaginable. Her family is poor and she doesn't have a specific way of preparation to work or maintain a family.

What will she do? What options does she have?

Now, the husband is already searching for a second wife and I don't know if it is a good or bad thing... but now he is demanding her to leave him and tells her she can take the kids, two girls.

Would there be a different proposal of the husband if one of his children were a boy?

Would he change his mind about keeping or not his two girls?



This doesn' happen in all households, I must say. This is a family where the husband is a very "conservative" muslim, Not all families in Iraq or Kurdistan are like this... but this is just one story of a woman that snapped and told the truth to someone else; in a place where everything looks nice and calm.

After expressing her circumstances, the woman doesn't go out of the house anymore.

The Regional Fruits and Vegetables of Iraq (Erbil)

To my surprise...

Most of the fruits grown in Iraq have been unbelievable!

Normally smaller size of all of them that they aren´t managed genetically... or that´s what I think... maybe I am wrong!...

Have tried:

• Cherries (very very sweet!) 
• Cantaloupes (It has been years... or even a whole life without trying such a deligious cantaloupe)
• Kiwis 
• Watermelon (you find it everywhere)

Small fruits and vegetables (than what I was used to)

• Cucumber
• Cantaloupe 
• Green Pepper
• Tomatoes
• Kiwis
• Onions
  

De Dubai a Erbil...

Al parecer las niñeras y amas de casa tienen que ser de lugares aledaños a kurdistán, por que las personas kurdas pueden estarse muriendo de hambre, pero nunca limpiarán casas ajenas ni a cuidar niños.
Es por esto que hay agencias que te consiguen a personas para la limpieza o niñeras, sin embargo, algunas con promesas de ir a Dubai; pero al llegar al país les dicen que no hay nada para ellas y que la opción es ir a Erbil (algo que ya se sabía desde el inicio). ¿Cuánto les pagarán las familias a las agencias por sus servicios y cuánto a las empleadas de esa empresa?

Mientras esperaba a Miguel para ir a cenar con una pareja de recién conocidos, me encontré a una señora cuidando a un perrito. Me acerqué a acariciarlo y sorprendida porque las personas de Kurdistán no están acostumbradas a los perros y se les hace raro que los saques a pasear, era un cachorrito maltés llamado Snowball cuidado por una niñera filipina, y ella realmente no adorando cuidar al perrito. Me comentaba que cuidar a un perro es muy dificil, y que su hermana se encargaba en las filipinas de criar perros para venderos en $700 u $800 dolares, siendo eso carísimo. ¿Cómo podía una persona pagar eso por un perro?

El estar de ama de casa después de haber estado trabajando por varios años como mercadóloga ha sido algo totalmente diferente, ser solamente ama de casa no era actualmente lo que pensaba para mi vida... y aun así, la vida te da sorpresas inesperadas.
Rápidamente la vida dio un giro de 360 y es que hace 7 meses si me hubieran dicho esto probablemente no lo habría considerado y menos el estar casada! (si... tuvimos que acelerar los compromisos al ver Miguel (mi entonces novio).
Estoy recientemente casada y en 3 días después de habernos casado ya ibamos rumbo a Iraq.