Yesterday I had the day off, so I went with a local friend of a friend and toured a little bit of the city. We drove to the top of a large hill that overlooked the city. Behind us were mountains in Iran! It was really cool to see Sulumaniyah from that height, because it was easier to see the "ring road" that circles the city. We drive this road every day on our way to and from the hospital. There is a concrete/landscaping median down the center, so you have to wait until there is a break in the barrier, and then do a U-turn and back track in the opposite direction to get to the street you would like to turn on. Very interesting. The driving is a little crazy, but nothing like Kenya! There are no marked lanes, and the weaving back and forth across the road is the favored driving style. There are random speed bumps spaced along the road, and it seems that between them you can go as fast as your vehicle will take you until you reach the next speed bump. All this makes for twisty, winding, brake slamming sort of driving that makes sitting in the back of the bus way more fun than the front....
We ate out at a Kursdish Italian Restaurant, which I shouldn't even be telling you about because I have NO pictures! Apparently I carry my camera with me everywhere for no reason at all. The food was good. I ate so much tortellini alfredo that I wasn't hungry until the next morning. There certainly is no cheese shortage in Kurdistan.
The land looks arid and mostly bare, but apparently it was all forested before Saddam Hussein logged the area for lumber to build his 80 palaces. The land was further demolished by Hussein's genocide attack on the Kurds, and subsequent dust storms have removed a lot of top soil. But, they are slowly starting to replant trees here and re-forest.
One of the days we were driving to the hospital, Dr. Novick pointed to the mountains and said "Just over those mountains is your favorite country in the whole world - Iran." Well, once we reached the top of the hill to look out at Suli, my friend said to me, "and right behind you is Iran!" We drove around the other side of the hill so I could get these photos. =) (Yep, dad, I knew you would be so proud.)
Today at the hospital we only did one surgery. The case went very long but our little patient did well and extubated within a few hours of being admitted to PICU. Two of our patients are continuing to be somewhat difficult to manage. Little Vinoos is much improved and I almost got to extubate her today, except she decided to fall asleep this afternoon and refused to wake up enough to get her tube out! Little stinker will most definitely be extubated on night shift. We have plans to fix her hair tomorrow and put it up in Cindy-Lou-Who pig tails. I'll be sure to get photos! Our other little guy, Didan, has had some complications and is not doing as well as we would like. Please keep him in your prayers.
Baby Yosef transferred to the pediatric ward, but not before we all held him and posed for pictures! Then I got to visit him in the ward of course, for physiotherapy. He thanked me by coughing once and then falling asleep. =) I took more bubbles to Ayad and the girls - I don't have new pictures of them because I forgot my camera but I will get some tomorrow.
I finally remembered to take pictures of dinner! Actually, I ate all the tomatoes first before I remembered, so I covered the empty space with bread. Dinner is Chicken Tka (which is Tka Chicken, because they read from left to right...) which is a perfectly seasoned grilled chicken kabob, served with a side of red cabbage and onions, grilled tomatoes, and pickled vegetables, on a half slice of flat bread. It's good. I've ordered it every night!
And just for variety, here is a picture of Kristin's cucumber tomato salad and soup rice.
I assume all of the food pictures are for me- they do look yummy! And healthy :)
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