May 16, 2001 — Mudeif Productions

*Planning the rest of our time in Iraq.*

Another morning of translations was more than we could bear, but unfortunately we missed our friend's speech (in English no less!). Again, the "hearsay" approach hadn't made it's way to us. After a less than adequate job of groveling at her feet, we gathered with a smaller delegation of the conference for some planning. Eleven American Presbyterians, including us, had made plans to extend our stay in Iraq past the conference and visit the five Presbyterian churches in Iraq. Yes, that's correct: Presbyterian churches in Iraq! We gathered with representatives from the churches to map out our schedule for the next week or so.

*Bomb crater at the Al-Amariyya Shelter.*

*Picture of a young Iraqi girl killed while taking shelter.*

The entire Conference was then taken to the sobering Al-Amariyya Shelter. Built as one of many bomb shelters during the Iran-Iraq War, it was being used during the Gulf War in 1991. One night in January 1991, as hundreds of men, women, and children gathered to escape the nightly air raids, American and British planes targeted the shelter. 403 were killed, mostly women and children. The UN forces first claimed it was being used as a military installation by the Iraqis, then said it was being used as both, then said their intelligence was bad and stopped short of apologizing for the "collateral damage". Moving memorial photos line the walls in an endless stream, as this shelter has become a symbolic reminder of the ravages of war and the innocent victims it takes in its wake. Both in the shelter and outside of it conference participants engaged in the kind of uneasy, shifty eye-contact that is familiar to anyone who has visited the death camp at Auschwitz, the killing fields of Vietnam, or the 1948 Palestinian ghost village of Deir Yassin.

*One of the ubiquitous images of Saddam Hussein.*

We then split into two groups. Our half visited the Saddam Children's Hospital, where we were greeted with a picture of him lavishing attention upon children. Such is typical of his omnipresence - at a school, he's teaching; at a mosque, he's praying; at a military outpost, he's the general. The purpose of the visit was to see the desperate medical condition the sanctions left Iraq in - something we had known already, hearing how the enforcement of the UN sanctions have effectively prevented basic medicines from entering because they might be used as chemical weapons. Cancer hospitals, as a result, operate with barely a bottle of aspirin as painkiller for the patients to share. This was the intention. Instead, 200 people with cameras descending upon sick children and their families ended up feeling more like a trip to the zoo than a humanitarian venture.

*The audience for the Baghdad Music Group.*

*Marthame after visiting Marwan’s Airdressing Saloon.*

We were relieved to leave the hospital and return to the hotel. After supper, we were treated to entertainment from the Baghdad Music Group. Marthame opted to try his luck at Marwan's "Airdressing Saloon" on the second floor of the hotel. He wound up with a hideous haircut, but a good story. The highlights included having his eyebrows trimmed, his ears plunged during the shampooing, his face waxed, his waxed face doused with aftershave, his back pummeled, and his neck snapped with a towel to signal it was finished. Fortunately, hair grows back, and nothing is too expensive in Iraq.

We talked with one of our Presbyterian counterparts who used to work for the state-run oil company for $1500/month. His son, a doctor, is now earning $10/month (a cup of coffee in our hotel costs $0.40). This downturn is directly a result of the sanctions at work. The money here is an interesting thing. The only bill printed is the 250 dinar note. $1=1800 dinars, so we were all walking around with a big fistful of dinars (which would be a great name for an Iraqi movie).