The Waterstraut Waterspout: Banned Countries Week: Iraq

Yesterday we had our overview of Iraq, the 6th of our 7 Banned Countries.

A couple of Iraq facts for you:

The capital is Baghdad, 95% of the country is Muslim, and they speak both Arabic and Kurdish

Speaking of Kurdish, that's northern Iraq where it is a bit more stable. Iraqi Kurdistan (the Kurds), as it's called, is an autonomous region, and home to some of the greenest mountains in the Middle East

Iraq has a rich history, and some old settlements and monuments to show it off.

The Citadel of Erbil is one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements. Erbil is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and is built upon a 'tell', basically a mound of ground that has grown over centuries by basically building cities upon cities (yay mud bricks! It seems very eco-conscious). The Citadel of Erbil is something like 100 feet above the surrounding area. Erbil is just 55 miles from Mosul, where a war is raging.

South Africa may get to claim it is the cradle of humanity, but Iraq claims it is the birthplace of civilization. Along the Tigris and the Euphrates, Iraq was once Mesopotamia (along with Iran, Syria and Turkey).

Iraq is also home to a 9th century minaret, the Great Mosque of Samarra, that when it was built, was the tallest in the world at 171 feet.

And while Egypt (and Sudan! Don't forget Sudan!) might be known for pyramids, but Iraq has it's ziggurats. Made of mud bricks, they were made as a shrine to ancient Gods. The most famous, and iconic of these is the Great Ziaggurat of Ur.

Iraq is obviously not without it's problems. The official US Department of State travel warning warns against all travel to the region, and cites violence in the form of kidnappings, Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), and rockets.

For those living in Iraq, they are faced with checkpoints, minefields are all over the place, and in area's like Mosul (the 2nd largest city) there is a shortage of food and water.

We talked about Saddam Hussein, and the weapons of mass destruction that were never found. (Though the boys already knew about that from George W's Birthday).

The situation in Mosul is ongoing, and important, because it's really ISIS's last major stronghold. Over 114,000 people have been displaced in Mosul alone due to the fighting.

Iraq was originally scheduled to take place during 7 wonders week, so we made sure our activity at least gave a nod to the 'wonder': The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It's actual location hasn't been decidedly determined, but it's thought that the gardens were in current day Hillah, Iraq. Ledgend has it that a Babylonian rulder built the rooftop garden for his wife who missed her green, mountainous homeland, out of the ruined city of Babylon.

Our hanging gardens were really less of a wonder, and more of just a field trip to Lowes, but you know, work with that you have.

We had three hooks hanging from our front porch when we moved in, and I figured eventually I'd get some hanging baskets (I've always wanted hanging baskets, I just never had a place to actually hang them!) We figured there was no better time to get the hanging baskets. I didn't even micromanage the boys, I let them pick whatever flowers they wanted, even if they didn't match, or particularly seem like 'hanging' plants to me.

Herman, the neighborhood cat, who I'm pretty sure used to live here, was happy to take part in our first home school activity in the front yard.

And the baskets do look pretty!

After all of that, the boys made their Iraq post cards.

For dinner we had Tepsi Baytinihjan, a traditional Iraqi casserole (which I knew would look better in the dish it was cooked in than the plate, so I snapped a picture when it came out of the oven), cauliflower fritters, pita bread, oranges (they have lots of citrus), and Skillet Berry Apple Cake

This meal earned one and a half spoons up

Peyton and I liked it. (He hated the cauliflower fritter, but I thought it was fine- though it seemed like it needed something to dip it in). We didn't love it, and we wouldn't request to have it all again, but we also wouldn't mind eating most of it again.

Again, besides me, that cauliflower fritter was an 'absolute no'. And, Asa said it was his least favorite meal so far. Calib said 'well, I mean, I ate it', and Hayden ate mostly pita, oranges, and cake for dinner.

But man, that cake. That was awesome, everyone agreed on that. Peyton even took another piece, or two (or three) later. I mean to be fair, I cut them into small squares, but he still ate a lot of it.

I did finally convince Calib he could handle coloring in a country on the table (everyone but Peyton is super paranoid about messing it up, because I warned them all how once it's on, there's really no getting it off).