Back to work

It's strange to think that at the beginning of the week I was still on leave, relaxing at Hotel Rigby. I always find it odd how I just switch between my two lives like that. People often ask if it's difficult. The first few days of leave sometimes are - I will often battle really bad dreams and lack of sleep. But it also feels normal as its holiday for me. From experience, I know that the tough part is moving back, whenever that will be. Coming back to Iraq is always hard in terms of leaving people behind, but not in terms of readjusting. I always just pick up where I left off and I do feel relatively at home here. But  every time, I do have a few days of wondering how much longer I want to live and work like this. Every rotation is more tiring than the last as the cumulative effects of stress build up. There is definitely a shelf life to this kind of work for me. But I also know from experience that my emotions are not always to be trusted, and something is likely to happen that will remind me of why I love my work.

I started back at work on Tuesday after 3 hours sleep. Our working week is Sunday to Thursday and so I only had an official 3 day week which was nice. The office is still pretty quiet as lots of people are on leave. I came back to 720 emails and 850 Skype messages so that kept me busy! But generally thing seem to have been surprisingly quiet during my leave. Which meant I could take the time to catch up with staff and get my head around things before we get super busy again.

I had to wait for Friday for my first 'this is why I love my job' moment. I was invited to lunch at a staff membersf house. One of my staff is from Iran, and has been living in Kurdistan for 6 years. Another of my staff is from Pakistan, and some time ago they had discussed a special dish that exists in both their home cultures and that they both miss. The Iranian lady had hunted for the ingredients and rang me on Thursday very excitedly to invite me to join them for a special meal the following day.

So it was that on Friday lunch time I went to her house to eat with them. I was not the only guest - they had invited some Iranian friends, our Pakistani and Lebanese colleagues, Syrian friends and American. People popped in and out. Someone was asked to play Iranian music. We heard their stories of fleeing their home in the night years ago to avoid being arrested by the intelligence services and how they started their new life from scratch in Iraq. The generosity of people here continues to surprise and challenge me. Their desire to share what they have, both materially but also in terms of relationship is inspiring. This was the first time they had found the ingredients for this dish in 6 years, and their first thought was to share this occasion, and not just with fellow Iranians. They chose to give us a glimpse in to their homeland and I was blessed. How much I still have to learn. I think of the English sausages sitting in my freezer and the Cadburys in my fridge, and how I have planned to share them with fellow Brits 'who will really appreciate them'. Hospitality and generosity are definitely gifts that are more prevalent in certain cultures, but I also think they are habits that can be learned. I hope that 2+ years in the Middle East so far has helped me to learn to be more open handed with others, but I still have a long way to go.