Teacher experiencing Iraq

Most people witness modern-day historic moments on television. DeeDee Baumgarner, 49, is living the images we see on television.

Baumgarner, who raised son, Nick, now 23, in Yuma and taught physical education and coached swimming at Yuma High School for nearly 26 years, just witnessed the second-ever democratic election in Iraq firsthand. She moved to Iraqi Kurdistan in August, where she is the English program director for Millennium Relief and Development Service in Sulaimaniya.

Baumgarner, in an e-mail interview with the Yuma Sun, said her road to Iraq started about 10 years ago when she went to Chile to do humanitarian work. It was the first of many trips to Chile and other countries - she went 15 times in 10 years - where she participated in building projects, taught first aid and CPR, knitting and English.

"Mostly, though, I built relationships because, worldwide, I’ve found that’s the thing I do best. It was my 'Chilean connection' that brought me here to northern Iraq."

In 2008, a Chilean friend asked if she could go to Iraq for six months as a part of an NGO project funded by USAID. The project was to teach English to first-year university students.

"I had never been interested in visiting the Middle East, so I was amazed at how my heart told me to try to come here. I talked to my principal, Steve Pallack, to my District Superintendent Toni Badone, went before the school board, and early in 2009, I was living in Sulaimaniya, Iraq!"

Baumgarner and four other Americans taught over 750 students during this time. During two two-week breaks, she said, they also gave intensive courses to the professors, as they discovered that their level of English was lacking.

"When the six months was coming to an end, I realized that I was making a great impact in many ways, and after a lot of soul-searching, I resigned from the YUHSD in the summer of 2009."

She came back to Yuma for two months to rent out her house, sell her things and give talks promoting cultural diversity at the local high schools and then moved back to Kurdistan in August.

Other English teachers from the states are helping, including Betsy Brown of Yuma. "I just picked her up at the airport at 3:30 this morning," she wrote Friday.

Baumgarner has started her own language institute as a way to make a living. She volunteers at a women’s center in a village called Rapareen, which means “Revolution.” They teach English, sewing, handicrafts and computer classes, and Baumgarner is trying to get an aerobics program started.

She just started working with two local high schools in Rapareen ("one for boys and one for girls – they don’t mix the two") and will be providing their teachers with “best practices” instruction, as teachers have never had any teacher training.

"For those teachers in Yuma who complained about T4S, don’t take it for granted, it works," she quipped.

She's volunteering with the Olympic Training Center there, helping future Olympic swimmers, and will be running a coaching clinic for all of the swim coaches in northern Iraq.

"They were proud to tell me that they got their training methods from Iran, who got them from the USA, so they were good. I had to let them down a little bit and tell them that Iran and America haven’t had political relations in over 30 years, so their training methods were just a little outdated."

She is also teaching PE university students (women only) how to teach swimming.

Baumgarner said a couple of things initially surprised her when she arrived in the country.

"The first thing was, it didn’t look like the Iraq I saw every day on the news in America. I live about 30 miles from the Iran border, so it’s really mountainous, green, has lakes and rivers, etc., NOT the hot, dust, dry desert that you see in Baghdad.

"I was more than pleasantly surprised to see that it looks just like Yuma, with the foothills, the Colorado River, etc."

The second thing that surprised her is that the people "love" Americans.

"Everyone I met said, 'God bless America and God bless George Bush!' They really feel that we saved them from certain ethnic genocide that Saddam Hussein was trying to wreak upon them. This is the reason that the Kurds really don’t want the Americans to pull the troops out of here."

Baumgarner said some unforgettable moments involved the U.S. military.

"There aren’t too many Americans here, especially women with light hair and blue eyes. Last year, for the celebration of Newroz, the Kurdish New Year which is on March 21, my friends and I donned our finest 'jilikurdi' (Kurdish clothing) and went out on the streets with the million or so others from Sulaimaniya.

"People from here were excited and happy to see an American girl in jilikurdi. They’re really proud of their traditional clothing, and I love wearing it, because I feel like a princess.

"I saw some American soldiers so I went over to talk to them. They were really surprised to see me, and their first question to me was, 'What are you doing here?' Being the smart aleck that I am, I said, 'Celebrating. What are you doing here?' They told me that they were keeping the peace."

Another time, some of her university students rented a bus and took her on a picnic. On the way, they passed through an American military checkpoint. U.S soldiers boarded the bus looking at everyone’s ID card.

"I was sitting in the back seat, dancing to the Kurdish music with some of my other students. When the poor U.S. soldier got back there, he looked at me in shock, and asked me, 'Are you OK?' I told him, of course I was.

"He asked if I was being kidnapped, and I said, no I was going to a picnic. He just shook his head and said to be careful."

The Iraqi national election, which occurred just a few days ago, was "really a fun and interesting learning experience for me," Baumgarner said. "First of all, by law, the campaign can only last one month. That’s it! Americans should take note of that.

"The way that they campaign is to hang flags and banners around the city, have round-the-clock TV programs promoting the candidates and their forums, and the fun thing, drive down Salim Street (the main drag, sort of like 4th Avenue in Yuma) after dark waving campaign flags, playing music, stopping to dance in the street, etc."

On election day, Baumgarner said, she and her roommate “hit the streets” because they wanted to take pictures of people voting.

"Here, because this is only the second democratic election EVER, voting is a big thing. People dress up in their finest jilikurdi, take their whole family with them and walk to the polling places."

Because of the threats of violence, roads in and out of the city, the airport and businesses were closed for five days. No one could carry a weapon for two months before the election and still today, she said.

"People were in a happy mood, and when I’d ask them 'Dengi de?' (Did you vote?) they’d proudly hold up their purple right-index finger as proof. The ink still hasn’t worn off of my friends’ fingers and it’s five days later."

Baumgarner took a lot of pictures and then started walking home with friends. "When we were almost home, we saw a group of five women and a young boy coming up our street, so we decided to take just a few more pictures.

"We met and talked to these women from the poorest part of our village, and then they proceeded to invite us to their home for lunch. Of course we said yes, and off we went.

"We went down into one of the furthest neighborhoods in my village, a place where I’m sure Americans haven’t gone, as everyone in the village lined up at their gates, saying, 'Behairben' (Welcome). I’m 5 feet 9 inches, over a head taller than all of the women here and still taller than most men, so I stand out in a crowd. That’s a good thing, I think.

"We ate lunch, met family and friends, went on a picnic, met more family and friends, got invited to another woman’s house for tea and met more of her family and friends, and by the time it was getting dark and it was time to walk back to our side of the village, we were friends with everyone."

As for the language, she said making so many new friends is helping her. "It’s good for my language learning, too, because like in the states, everyone speaks the same language (Kurdish, Arabic and Farsi here) but have different accents to get used to. I’m getting the hang of it all, though."

To learn more about Baumgarner, visit her Facebook page. Also, her team leader in the NGO, Heber Vega, has a Web site (www.hebervega.com) with lots of photos.