Vrijdag, 30 juni. Bill's blog
I hope I do justice to this story.
Jano Rosebiani is the Kurdish film director that has
put together this workshop. And his receptionist is a
young woman named Rausha. Her birthday is tomorrow and
she will be twenty years old. She is an Arabic Shia
Muslim originally from Mosul which is just south of
the Kurdish region.
Last year her family moved to Duhok which up near the
Turkish border and she now lives here in Howler where
she works, attends University and lives at a hostel
here in town.
Her favorite TV channel is the Oprah Channel and she
loves the Dr. Phil show - "because he helps people".
She also has one of the biggest and brightest smiles
that I have ever seen. And she smiles all the time.
Her father was an election official in Mosul. I say he
was an election official because last year he was
killed by terrorists. In front of Rausha and the rest
of her family.
Yesterday we asked her if she minded talking to us
about her father. She said "Of course, I don't mind at
all."
She not only told us about what happened to her
father, she also explained that terrorists attacked
his funeral and set off a bomb that killed 30 more
people including her uncle. At that point I didn't
know what to say.
Sven managed to ask her how she felt about everything
that happened to her family. She replied that it was
okay because she believes that everything in life is
something to learn from even something as horrible as
what happened to her father and uncle. She said
everything in life is a learning experiance.
Now I don't know if Rausha is in a little denial or
maybe just hasn't processed everything that happened.
But what she told us next was the real kicker.
She said she doesn't think think things here in Iraq
will get better any time soon, but that she is still
hopeful about the future. When Sven asked how she
could continue to be hopeful when she doesn't think
things are going to get better she responded simply,
"East or West, hope is the best."
I'm going to take her at her word, and hope I can
remember that myself.
The Baghdad students left on a plane this morning.
Last night we hung out, laughed and ate Doritos. I
probably won't be able to come back for the short film
festival when they show there films so I may never see
some of them again. But I will always remember them,
that is for sure.
Next week, we'll visit the sets of the filmmakers
filming here in Kurdistan and we'll get to travel a
lot more. We're looking forward to it.
