July 17, 2021 - (Part 1 of 2) Driving to Duhok

We travel once each week to Duhok in Northern Iraq near the Iraq-Turkey border. We have three families of Saints in and around Duhok. We go up on Wednesday or Thursday and return to Erbil on Saturday. Friday is the Sabbath in Iraq and so we have Church meetings in our second apartment in Duhok on Friday morning. It's about a 2 1/2 hour ride if we leave early in the morning. Here are a few photos of the journey and our great members. 

A challenging life in a challenging environment.

A strip mall along the road to Duhok. Most of them have garages for repairs. We don't see many accidents but we do see a lot of broken down cars along the road. 

A village along the road to Duhok.

There are several checkpoints along the road where we have to stop and show our residency cards and our passports. The soldiers have machine guns. They are making sure there are no ISIS soldiers etc.

A cowherd at work in the rural areas.

A more modern stop for refreshments along the long road.

This farmer preferred human tarp straps to try to keep his melons for market in the pickup. It was a simple cloth spread over the melons and it was up to the boys to keep them from rolling off the truck. 

A more intense checkpoint... patience... patience... patience.

And yet another checkpoint...

Notice the concrete stairs with no railing. It's hard to find a railing anywhere in Iraq. It's a challenge for us just to descent to our parking garage in Erbil...

Another strip mall and another garage... these places also often have a small men's barbershop... so you can have your car adjusted and your haircut while you wait. 

The farmers do everything by hand... You don't see any John Deere equipment out here!

A home along the road...

Heading into the more mountainous area on the way to Duhok.

A shepherd with his flock.

Smart shepherd and sheep taking temporary refuge from the hot sun in the shadow of the billboard.

A closer shot of the sheep basking in the shadow of the billboard.

This shepherd rides on his donkey as he leads a long line of sheep.

The shepherd and his donkey heading into the distance with his obedient herd.

More sheep... and there just does not seem to be a lot for them to eat...

Sheep in town...

Obedient sheep heading home into the village.

Sheep out in the open range and the shepherd has build a humble, makeshift pole tent to give his sheep and himself some relief from the sun.

Here our section of divided highway has come to an abrupt end without any notification. Thank goodness there were some cars in front of us that we saw slow down... why post a sign when everyone will sooner or later figure it out for themselves... it was also a useful spot for local farmers to come and sell their wares to a rather captive audience 😀.

This long line of trucks and cars on the other side of the highway is lined up for gas at a station that sells it for slightly less than what you find in the towns. They must wait for hours. In fact several drivers were socializing out on the highway. 

Rules of the road in Iraq are more suggestions than law, it seems. In this photo we are traveling on a divided road that is two lanes in the direction we are going... but this pick up truck has decided it's easier for him to use the same section of highway to get where he wants to go in the opposite direction... and this is not as uncommon as you might think in the country.

Here we are again on a divided highway. The car you see on the left is in the oncoming traffic lane as he approaches the curve. The cars you see in the distance on that side of the street are coming towards him.

Here is that same passing car and he is still in the opposite lane. As you can see the car coming towards him has now had to go over to the shoulder to go around him to keep from hitting him. Both drivers seemed to have a "business as usual" attitude towards this. Many drivers do the same maneuver even when going around a blind curve. Consequently we have to approach curves assuming there is someone coming around it in our lane, so you quickly learn to stay more to the right. 

Children here don't seem to have to wear seatbelts. We've seen kids hanging out of car windows as the cars swerve around corners.

Our next post will have more pictures of Duhok, our branch of Saints there, and our 2nd apartment --->