Notes across several hikes, writing sessions 6, 7, 8 May 2021
A new crop lines our path: we had not been walking along so many outstretched fields of grain on any of the other hikes and trips.
To be a farmer is to be digging for water. It’s an activity that commands their life in day out, it seems from the large deep pits that we pass along the roads - all dried out, or with the shallowest layer of muddy water on the bottom. Water, water, water. The tenders look for it with their bare hands and spades. Some better-to-do famers employ machines if those can be fueled in this heat, the heavy exhausts mingling with their sweat.
The drought is becoming a real issue, one man confirms. It is hard to say if the problem is getting bigger every year; in its cyclical return there is no time for the land owners to panic or wring their hands. “You can’t really rank a lack of something. Whenever the dry season hits, this preoccupies everything that we do. The crops need water, the animals do, and so do we.”As we attempt to scramble upwards along a hillside, we are met by two sheepherders casually driving hundreds of animals across. They approach us a little wearily but do not seem too shy for a short chat. “It is so hot to be doing journalism”, one of the says with a little shake of the head, after Haval has done his best to explain our set-up. “It is even so hot for us, to herd our sheep.”
Fusce faucibus aliquet odio, vitae suscipit urna consectetur et. Mauris in odio et velit auctor sollicitudin. Vivamus lobortis sem nec bibendum dapibus. Cras rhoncus hendrerit lorem, id auctor metus pellentesque at. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Phasellus laoreet felis at magna tempus, faucibus aliquet nisl aliquam. Nullam varius rutrum nisl efficitur blandit. Cras nec sagittis tellus, aliquam bibendum lectus. Pellentesque sagittis dolor ac purus dictum aliquam.
On some days my companions’ crunching footsteps
and the swashbuckling sway from my own backpack
bring out a rhythm that crowds out all other paces in my mind - which, as it turns out,
is already quite full as it tries to keep up with an ever-churning trial of phrases.
While we walk forwards (or any -wards, since our map is not fixed) I test
those few words I have managed to pick up. They should form
the easiest of conversations - I mean, I’m doing hard enough stuff
as it is, hauling my ass up and down -
Yelling out to passers-by Slav, in Kurdish
Explaining that we are here for rojnamenûsîm (Kurdish, again), or introducing
myself as a sahafiyat (some Arabic that stuck). And then I ask the others:
What is your name?
Where are you from?
How old are you?
I can tell them my own name, too,
and count to thirty to tell them my age.
The new sounds ring in my mind. There’s a list of phonetic scribbles in the cover of my
notebooks. There has been some success in these exchanges:
So far on this project, I have had a baby named after me, and a gun.
While I am looking for Ibrahims, I apparently could not
refrain from leaving pieces of myself in return.
Anyway, I end these little roadside chats with the universally known Yallah
When it is time to pick up our backpacks again
(and me telling the other hikers to go Shwaya Shwaya)
Tall trees, with crowns as green as this drought will allow
- or, which, because of those conditions, seem even more vibrant, like oases to our eyes -
shade ancestors’ graves. Sometimes lower growth hides unseen, inanimate enemies that have been laid in waiting decades ago.
Speaking of hiding and adversaries, we have covered plane holes to tank dents - on one occasion, having a fox scatter away from under our feet.
Pellentesque sodales ligula dignissim turpis viverra, et vestibulum odio porttitor. Phasellus venenatis volutpat sodales. Etiam venenatis egestas libero a sodales. Aenean finibus mi ut varius dictum. Curabitur elit augue, placerat eu nunc cursus, molestie pretium turpis. Aenean eu felis lobortis, lobortis sapien at, maximus nisi. Nulla ut nulla et eros bibendum rutrum ac in elit. Suspendisse pharetra tempus lacus ac placerat. Morbi sed ante eu massa cursus ultricies placerat in lectus. Cras vitae odio vel odio sagittis bibendum. Etiam rutrum, eros nec semper viverra, mi turpis placerat erat, vitae viverra leo ante ut nulla. Vivamus sit amet lacus mi. Sed at nulla volutpat, hendrerit arcu sed, mollis nibh. Quisque fermentum vehicula malesuada.
Nullam facilisis pulvinar sagittis. Suspendisse potenti. Morbi sit amet gravida orci, at elementum justo. Mauris et velit quis risus tincidunt mattis. Donec enim tortor, maximus at aliquam vitae, rhoncus vitae lectus. Nullam in ligula sem. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam nisl lectus, elementum non dignissim et, bibendum id nisl. Mauris vestibulum erat non eros sollicitudin vehicula. Mauris aliquet dapibus arcu, ac gravida est pellentesque consectetur. Quisque at lobortis lorem, eget elementum neque.
