Halabja part 2

Following the visit to this memorial, we returned to the farm and toured the green houses filled with amazing looking fruits and vegetables! If you want fresh, this is definitely the place to go! After our tour, we went back to the “canopy” for a fairly traditional Kurdish meal, followed by tea. They all got a kick out of some of the Americans putting the sugar cubes in the tea rather than putting the cubes in your mouth and sucking the tea through the sugar. They sure do their tea sweet! Then we hopped back in the car and headed back to the city where we visited the family’s house. Here we sat and talked in the first room for much of the afternoon. Then we headed out to the beautiful mountains. Here we were able to watch the traditional Kurdish dancing (how-per-que) for a while. Since it was too late to set up and have a picnic, we decided to leave and head somewhere else for visiting. We ended up at a location tucked away in the mountains. There was a beautiful garden complete with a small spring. Here we were served Do, pronounced “doh” (ask me about this drink later, I cannot even put it into words, but will not be drinking it again if I can help it!). The basis of this drink is goat’s milk which undergoes a certain process that takes about a week to make. After this, we were served fresh watermelon, which was our clue that it was about time to leave (it is customary to leave shortly after fruit is served). Then we piled back into the car and headed for our city of Suli.

Oh but the day didn’t end there! Once we returned to our house, it was filled with people having a great time. All were there to help celebrate one of our Kurdish friend’s high marks from tests at the university. After dinner and dessert were served, it was time for playing a big group game. We decided to play “Mafia” which turned out to be quite interesting in the first round when two the “mafia” turned themselves in easily and voluntarily (not how the game is supposed to go). Once we all got the hang of it, we enjoyed our time of talking and visiting with everyone. Then finally it was time to head to bed and process the day’s events. Wow! What a day!