Coffee, Chaos & Courage

Yesterday was a day in which it was a true privilege for me to be a part of this delegation. We met with seven (7) Iraqi refugee families yesterday who have relatives that have already resettled in the US. We brought hugs from their families members in the Silicon Valley, listened to their stories and received their kindness and hospitality (in the form of inviting us to share a cup of turkish coffee or tea with them and a snack). While there are hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Damascus, there are definitely concentrated neighborhoods and areas where pockets of them are living. Our 7 appointments were in two areas outside Damascus, close to the airport.

I must tell you that I am not really sure how to "blog" about these stories [so my early disclaimer is I will look forward to sharing the stories with you in greater detail when I return :-)]. How can I possibly capture the intense emotion of the stories people were sharing. The representative from the State Department had made the comment three nights ago when talking about the people from the State Department who have to interview refugees, "I can't even imagine having to listen to their stories all day." To which I wonder how much harder it is to have to have lived those stories. 

We met:

• Houssein's wife and his brother Abbas who were living in an apartment in a worn out neighborhood. They were our first appointment and revealed to me what the day would be like when upon being shown a picture of their husband/brother who was living back in the US, their eyes swelled with tears and they began to sob as the pain of being separated came out and the grief that families feel as they struggle to be reunited became so clear.
  

• Then there was a family who looked liked they lived next door; well dressed, well educated and well aware of the months they have been waiting for their case to be processed. They spoke of life in Baghdad and the night their home was broken into by militia members, forcing them (at about 70 years of age) to flee to their roof, jump onto their neighbors roof and run away.
  

• Or the family whose son worked for the US as a contracted worker for the Department of Defense. Their son was a part of a security team who was murdered in an ambush almost a year and half ago. They asked us why they had not heard back from anyone following his death.

• 5 of the 7 families we met with were Assyrian Christians and they spoke of being the targeted minority in Iraq. They spoke of families being targeted and many with family members who have been killed, their homes burned down, people being kidnapped and the high ransoms they paid to free their loved ones. And almost each family at some point gave thanks to God for blessing of their lives...and meant it! [How differently will those words sound to me in a prayer...often that I am leading...where we thank God for the gift of our lives. It is a gift and so much more so than simply familiar words in a regular prayer.]
  

• 2 of the 7 families we met with were Muslim and they too spoke of the religious persecution they experienced as neighborhoods became identified as Sunni or Shiite. The Sunni Muslims no longer safe in a Shiite neighborhood and vice versa. Their experiences of fear and violence being very similar to their Christian countrymen.
  

Everyone we met with gave an almost identical picture of Baghdad: a city in absolute chaos as people are being kidnapped, killed and terrorized daily; people who lived together for many years as neighbors no longer know who they can trust; religious persecution taking place everywhere and against everybody.  It is a city that truly is in chaos and a city that most of the people we met with will never, nor would they want to ever, return to again.

I could go on and on with these stories about people fleeing for their lives from Baghdad and trying to maneuver through a process that is capricious at best and unjust at worst. And all of these stories come after meeting with 7 families during the course of one day...one day.  Add to these stories the stories of the 2 million+ other refugees and you get a sense for the scope of the crisis our world is facing. And to be clear, this is a reality regardless of whether or not you think our invading Iraq was a good/bad thing; a right/wrong thing. The fact of the matter is that the majority of these people are fleeing a country because of the instability created by our (as US citizens) decision to attack Iraq. The conversation that will help the millions of refugees fleeing Iraq is not whether or not we should have gone to war, but what is our responsibility given the fact that we did.