Jeff Leys
Christian Peacemaker Team
Baghdad

Jeff Leys traveled to Iraq before the war with the Iraq Peace Team and is in Iraq now with the Christian Peacemaker Team.

Three long days are coming a conclusion and I can finally grab a little bit of time to reflect on my experiences here in Iraq, rather than simply pounding out a basic email update.

One thing that is particularly striking to me is the air of normalcy with which Iraqi people are going about their everyday lives. It is the same air of normalcy which I experienced while here in February of this year with Voices in the Wilderness. Then it was an air of trying to carry on with their lives even as the US prepared to unleash shock- and-awe upon them. Now it seems to be trying to carry on with life even as the occupation continues without improvements in their material living conditions and as the insurgent war continues. It is an air of normalcy in abnormal times.

I continue to be amazed at the warmth and hospitality of Iraqi people. In my limited time walking the streets here, I’ve not felt any animosity directed towards me nor any hostility directed towards me. Just a couple of examples will suffice in this regard.

Jeff Leys
Christian Peacemaker Team

Jeff Leys traveled to Iraq before the war with the Iraq Peace Team and is in Iraq now with the Christian Peacemaker Team.

Yesterday we met with the medical staff at a local teaching hospital. We also had the opportunity to visit briefly with children in the oncology ward of the hospital.  The doctors indicated that the supply of medicine has improved somewhat since the invasion.  They also said that they are now able to travel to other countries to attend conferences to update their skills.  For one conference, one doctor was able to get a visa to travel to Great Britain in just 24 hours–a process that would have been long drawn out in the days of the sanctions, with no assurance a visa would be granted. It is clear from talking with these medical doctors that Iraq is continuing to experience the impact of a massive brain drain from the country which occurred during the years of Saddam Hussein. It is also clear that even though some conditions may have improved for the medical community since the invasion, that these improvements come nowhere near being the type of substantive improvements necessary to rebuild the Iraqi health care system–which at one point was the best health care system in the Middle East region.