The curiosity was so big that the public asked for a new gathering when we are back from our travel. We like doing that. We will leave on the 31 of October and we will be back before the 31 of November. Later more. On the picture you see Mr. Ahmed Faraj and me talking. The other image is of the dream of Ahmed. His floating village in the Marshlands.
Yesterday evening Thomas and Sam have left for Europe. And I will leave to day. At this moment it is early morning and I am working in my hotel room with a beautiful view sight of the Arabic Golf. Of course it is an understatement but I shall miss this beautiful weather. We spent over days here to recover from our extreme tiredness and looking back we had a lot of joy over the one-liners used with good intentions and in difficult situations.
Such as:
We like to help you.
I have a brother who is in charge with this, I will call him
My friend is the friend of the governor
Please be patient
Tomorrow in shallah
This is our culture
Thank you so much
I am so sorry
Tell me what you need
No Problem
Bringing presents on difficult moments
It seams to be culturally determined that you don’t say now on a proposal. So if you get not a reaction after three times you know it is NO. We are all very disappointed that we could not spent more time in the Marshlands. To be honest I am not feeling taking serious in my attempt to research the marshlands. Of course we had also a great experience what I would have liked to miss only a small part of it. Also the people are very kind and were happy to see us there. But after 10 days of negotiation we have been exactly for one hour in the marshlands and that is after all my preparation a little bit sad. I know security and problems between organizations played a role in it. But that was not the whole reason there was also other interests what seemed to be more important or more attractive for the organizer in the Marshlands at that moment. I was in one Mudhif, we have beautiful shoots from the marshlands. But the marshlands are bigger I wanted to research more and did not only come so far for only beautiful shoots. There are contacts now on several levels and there are possibility’s to go back. What to say more then In shallah.
This picture has been taken in the old city part of Kuwait. Very nice place what gives me back my memories to old Cairo city.
The last two days we spent talking, calling, much calling, waiting, drinking tea, smiling, sometimes shaking hands, sometimes putting my hand on my breast and then it seemed that yesterday evening the solution was there. Ahmed discovered in our passport that we had a special permit for work in Iraq valid for one month.
That was what we tried to obtain yesterday energetically and now it was handwritten in our visa.
So that obstacle seemed out of the way. This morning Ahmed was leaving for Holland so I was up early to wave goodbye. He seemed very worried. The political situation in Iraq worries him a lot. His advice: Go to the Marshes and then go away.
It is too dangerous now. Marsoomi also looked worried and he is now going to the Governor to arrange our visit to the Marshes tomorrow.
Here we are very safe with a paradise surrounded by fences and patrolling policemen.
This morning last minute talks with Chaib Marsoomi together with Ahmed Faraj. And then the works on the Tigris riverbanks. Now still an image from the past and the present. Soon 5-star hotels at the shores of the Tigris. In the meantime I am not getting bored.
We get visitors everyday. At the building site we met Hasan, Ali and Riaed, workers from MercyCorps. An international movement for help in areas in shock. Yesterday they showed a movie they made themselves about the Marshlands. Finally we saw something about this beautiful land. And unfortunately there is not much left from this paradise for birds, plants and people. At this moment Syrians, Turks and Iranians are building dams in the Tigris and one of the consequences is that the soil gets silted.
I hope that we see the beautiful part tomorrow. Although I know that is an illusion. We met also Mohammed, an Iraqi who lives in Utrecht and is visiting his family here. We talk over the phone everyday and yesterday we lunched together. It is nice to to talk too an Iraqi in Dutch now and then, to understand everything a little bit. And now we wait for Mr. Marsoomi. In the meantime Sam reads an old HP magazine and Thomas did his washings. Sam always translates my text in English and I am very glad with that and the reader will be grateful probably.
The beginning of my day was a wake-up call : “madam,madam,passport,passport”. Then I noticed two made beds so where Sam and Thomas were I didn’t know. I gave my passport and decided to head for my bed. Later there was a terrible pounding on my door. With a confused head I opened the door and to my surprise saw 5 policemen standing there. Hollandia…yes, they made some gestures that I didn’t understand which was clear to them: “Excuses Madam”
That was the start of the day. One hour later Sam and Thomas came back. They made the last shots from Veerman and his team at the house. Because the security had to escort the Veerman team to Kuwait there was no security for us left.
So Mr. Marsoomi called the police and that was the beginning of a series of visits to police stations and even the Governor’s office. It was and is not simple, somewhere something went wrong in communicating but I don’t know where yet. Finally Mr. Gazan, head of the media department of the police came and after extensive talking we were asked to come to his General. He was residing in a beautiful building, especially his room. To much to explain, think of a lot of blingbling. Glass tables on golden (!) hands many golden lions, many artificial flowers. Very big sofas. What was very special was that we were being filmed and photographed (secret service) and that Thomas and I were doing the same. They accepted it and went on filming. Two large plasma screens. One with connection to eight other locations. The General gave his permission to film in the Marshlands and provided security for our stay. But his supreme boss the Governor did not give permission. So all of us went in the car to the Governor. Unfortunately in a meeting. And now, 5 hours later he still is. In the meantime people called their brothers who are minister and others who are friends with the Governor. We are waiting and know that in every city there is a meeting.
Because if a new government comes to power, then there will be a new governor in every city. So the new powers to be prepare for take-over and our case is peanuts at the moment. Twelve hours later. Alas. The Governor has decided. We can no longer leave our garden of eden. Tomorrow back to Kuwait. This the first phase of the
project of the Land of Two Rivers.
In a moment we are going to make a boat ride on the Tigris river. A boat without engine but with paddles. If we are lucky we will just catch the sunset.
But, no; no sunset in a romantic boat. This is already the third day that the promised boat is cancelled for one reason or the other. Then a few pictures of our site The Garden of Eden and the city Al-Ahmara.
Genet (paradise). A paradise with dolphins and a sad looking mermaid. Beautiful fountains. Playground material never unpacked, a slide ramp already rusted away.
But alas, in this hot paradise no swimming pool, not even a small pool. They hope Westerners will come but they definitely want to swim. I think it’s an interesting subject. The Tigris in front and till yesterday it was a big mess of plastic waste.
I spoke to the Cheik about it and he noticed it to….as a consequence it looks already
much better. A small carload of garbage was removed but still it is not clean.
The designer of the fountains comes from Baghdad. He learned the trade from his father who learned it from his father. Here in the garden of Eden no woman is to be seen. Last week some professors from Baghdad were here to do exams at Amarah University. Among them there were also some women. Why do I mention this. Well to be honest I become a bit rebellious. I’m beginning to feel oppressed by the dress code. And all day only men. Men who clean the windows. Men who bring tea. Men in long white dresses who sit behind closed doors. Men that weed. Men that paint dolphins. Men who serve breakfast. And so on and so on… Men who always politely say “Good morning Madam” and men in the office who want to learn me the word
“adebitsch” (phonetic) which means step by step.
To day it is Friday and as I thought no work on Friday the Muslim sunday day. All around me they work to completed the garden around this hotel. I promised it before, one day just a blog about this place. Sam en Thomas are to the constructing place of the house and I use this morning to bring order in my pictures of yesterday and that helps to get my item for the blog of today.
Yesterday was a very intensive day. The day before we met Dr. Riaed S Jassim chairman of the investment commission of Maysan. I met him on the place of construction of the house. So I expected him to appear but in stead of that four man in two white Nissan’s came and introduced themselves as business men who where looking for investors in the city. Of course they started to speak to Thomas. But in this case he was very correct and said to them:” There is miss Anne she is our director you have to speak to her”. Unfortunately I did not managed to get through this business thinking so at least I said yes on a proposal if I wanted to see a beautiful place on the Tigris. And there on that spot it became clear that there was something else going on. I was taking pictures of very crazy things (in their mind crazy things) like old cars and old house, something on the ground. And that made them stop to convinced me that this spot was a beautiful place for a 5 star hotel and the only thing what was needed was an investor. So they asked me what I want to see. My answer was :”The city of course, the live in the city and the university”. And that all happened.
So we passed by a very old Soul and the market and finally we ended up in the university where we had a meeting with the staff of the university and they invited me
to talk about my mission. So I told them that I was an artist and that my first interested her in Maysan where the marshes. So then they introduced me to the director of the fine Arts department. And the rest of the stay in this part of the university was overwhelming. I touched the first Reed, I got a private concert in the theatre hall.
I got a beautiful painting and at least I entered the ceramic department where they explained me that they where still working with mud. There was no money for an oven. The sun was since the first made sculptors on earth their oven. So while the rest of the world went a long in their development and where talking about the first founded sculptors in Mesopotamia, where we are right now in the middle of it.
They where not taking part in our development.
So let’s start to collect money to provide then an oven. This is the start of my business today.
