Get Lost We went to the mall. We loaded the taxi full of our purchases, realizing too late we couldn’t tell him where we lived. A phone call and lots of wild gesturing occurred before we were on our way. We made it home and gave our driver a great story about crazy American women. [...]
As humans we spend a lot of time on food. Our team in Greece is no different as they spend a lot of time on food for themselves and others. We've found a few recipes that our teams have really loved. Here's an easy Orzo Salad for you to add to your repertoire! 1. Start with 1lb of [...]
Our work at the center is still going very well. We have had people showing up nearly every day except Friday for English lessons. But today almost no one has appeared because the metro is on strike. I have loved teaching much more than I thought I would, which is good because it is a much larger part [...]
Here's a first-hand account from one of our team members one what it's like to serve refugees in Athens. It's been a whirlwind this week. It's hard to reconcile the anxiety and hesitancy I had right before arriving to the joy that seems to course through my soul. It is not a sugar sweet happiness, [...]
When I think of fatherhood – and especially when I reflect on becoming a dad for the first time – it’s very much linked with my experience of living in Kurdistan. When our oldest was born (he’s 4 now), my wife and I had been teaching there for a year. Just long enough to finally [...]
I went to bed with the taste of dust in my mouth. This morning every surface of our fairly well-sealed home was covered in a fine layer of tan. The rest of the world outside was even more thickly blanketed with powder... more dust. Each footstep poofs and all of my roommates sneeze. "God bless [...]
“I need you to fly to Baghdad.” I was in the shower when I got the phone call from my friend. I don’t usually get phone calls, most of my communication in Duhok is done over text, so a phone call means something serious is going down. My friend is also the person [...]
I’ll always remember my first Newroz in Kurdistan as the time a Kurd literally gave me the shirt off his back (and his baggy trousers too!). My wife and I were picnicking with the family of one of our students. Among the many cousins, aunts, uncles, and others, there was a grandfather (or perhaps he [...]
The Hilly Adventure (We often field questions about the schools and what the students are like and how good their English is. This was written by a fifth grader at the School of the Medes. It has errors and inconsistencies, but it is a great example of the joyful imagination of our students there.) Ch. 1=The [...]
For a few days this year Nashville was a winter wonderland. Snow fell for one whole day and it was glorious! Nashville isn't famous for having snow, but my daughters, born and raised in Nashville, love snow! Last January we were living in Iraqi Kurdistan. Every winter in Iraq we missed having snow. It snows plenty in Iraq, just [...]
