Okay... So I'm an American...

Last night Huner, our Kurdish friend, wanted to take all of us to a concert. He was super excited about it, because the singer, Diyari, is the most famous Kurdish singer. Unfortunately, between finishing teaching and eating dinner, we ended up arriving after the concert had begun. When we arrived, there were crowds of people outside who didn’t get into the show either. However, after a few minutes of standing around, our group was pulled through the thick, rambunctious crowd and in through the door. I had to hang on to the girl’s arm in front of me for dear life so I didn’t get lost in the crowd.
Finally, when we got in, we watched as the guards with their guns had to push all the others back out the door who tried to follow us in. Why were we so privileged to have entered the building and not the rest of them? We’re Americans. We spent the rest of the first half in the lobby, and at intermission, they took us down and sat us on the front steps of the auditorium for the second half. We definitely had the best seats in the house! (Don’t worry, we didn’t steal anyone else’s seat…)
To give you another picture of how the Kurds view us as Americans, Huner asked us girls to slide down a little so he could sit with the guys. A Kurdish guy, who we didn’t know and who didn’t know Huner was with us said to him, “You shouldn’t ask them to move, they’re our guests.” It was really a humbling experience, and made me feel a little awkward, since I don’t feel at all related to the “America” that gave them their freedom. (See my last entry for more info on that.)
The concert ended up being great. It was a style of music I’m completely unfamiliar with. The singer was backed up with a great strings section, a few woodwinds, some classical guitars, and a Kurdish instrument called a saz. The guys on the violins were producing some sounds I’ve never heard come out of a violin before. When the concert was over we went to a really nice place and got some milkshakes. It was really a great evening of music, fun, and hanging out with the other teachers and the amazing couple who is in charge of us. I will try to post a video on Facebook that I took at the concert. (It might be too big to load on the internet we have here.) And also, Pat took a picture as the guards were pushing the last guy out of the building. I’ll try to post that on this blog if I can.
We also started teaching a few days ago. Ironically, the saz player from the concert was in one of my English classes today! That was a surprise! I’ll write more about how teaching is going in my next entry.