When Cindy and I first went to Việt Nam, we asked ourselves "Are we really doing this?"
I have the same feeling now - am I really going to Iraqi Kurdistan?
The answer is yes, of course. I am out the door in two hours for a flight to Dallas, then Frankfurt, Germany, then on to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq.
Why, you ask?
Because I have a sainted wife who knows I am an adrenaline junkie. When she passed by the conversation I was having with a man on his way back to Kurdistan to work in the refugee camps near the Syrian border, she just rolled her eyes.
The Blackstar Group is a small company based in deep south Texas. Besides offering training to government agencies in coping with disasters, they also respond to crises themselves. Two of their number have already been in the big Domiz refugee camp near the city of Dohuk, helping set up safe water systems. At last count, the camp is approaching 30,000 refugees, mostly working and middle class people who are used to living in comfortable apartments and houses. It is my hope to successfully capture their situation in word and photos as well as show how ordinary Americans work on global situations. Hopefully, my work will appear in some news outlets.
Cameras are packed, I have long johns in my luggage and the passport is in hand. I'll be back home the evening before Thanksgiving. I am told I will have limited Internet access in Dohuk (none in the camps), so I hope you will join me on this adventure.