The Tiziano Project | blog

Gearing up for Iraq 2010

By Jon Vidar on June 11, 2010 7:42 AM | No Comments

On June 1st Victoria Fine and I crossed the border from Turkey into Iraq and just four days later the third member of our team, Grant Slater, arrived. It has been only 10 days in country, but a lot of work! After a long hunt, we secured a place to live with an American-run logistics company. Finding a place to stay was a lot harder than we expected, but the house we found is actually a pretty great setup. They rent out their roof to an Internet provider for antennae space and in exchange we get free Internet and a 24-hour-a-day generator! Power in Erbil is still frightfully bad, so this really was a selling point for us. Plus they have daily maid service.

So far we have spent a lot of time prepping for our courses, meeting with local journalists and editors, and interviewing some of our students. One of the best moments came when the Editor-in-Chief of the Hawler and Kurdish Globe pulled out a couple issues for us to look through. It came as a surprise to both of us when I opened a copy to find one of my photos being used without permission or attribution! His response, "we should have at least given you credit!"

Check out this slideshow to see what we have been up to so far:

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