After decades of being apart, I met again my 60’s Iraqi friends

My visits to Iraq since 1969 have taught me something important about our society and shaped my view of the world. I’m still happy about that. I am also glad that my friends in Iraq have given me the opportunity to really get to know their country, not superficially, but thoroughly by welcoming me into their families.

When I was young my father, a cattle farmer in the Netherlands, received trainees from abroad every year. I was 18 years old when a student from the High Institute of Agriculture from Abu Ghraib came to the Netherlands for 6 months to learn about Dutch agriculture on my father’s farm. He was not the only one, because a total of about 12 students from Iraq came to Dutch farms. All the way by train from Baghdad, accompanied by their director, Dr. Abdullah Al-Azawi. During his students’ internship period, he visited them all. So my family also got a visit from him. And during the conversation, in which I asked all kinds of questions about Iraq, he said: why don’t you come and see for yourself. That was an invitation I could not refuse as a curious young man. In the hours after school time I started working at a gas station to earn some money for the trip to Iraq, where I was allowed to stay with him at his home in Abu Ghraib in July of the following year.

And with Joad from Najaf, who showed me his city. And let’s not forget Abdul-Sattar from Baghdad (Zafaranyah), with whom I kept in touch by letter (we didn’t know e-mail then…) even after my return trip to the Netherlands. He invited me to stay at his house on my next visit to Iraq. Of course I also visited Qussai a few times, the trainee who had gained practical experience on my father’s farm.

I visited several places in Baghdad. There was, I remember, an optimistic atmosphere. A new government had just come in; they had made education and health care as their policy priorities and they wanted to make Iraq a modern country.

I became good friends with several students from the agricultural institute in Abu Ghraib. For example with Samir, who took me to Karbala, where he came from. And with Joad from Najaf, who showed me his city. And let’s not forget Abdul-Sattar from Baghdad (Zafaranyah), with whom I kept in touch by letter (we didn’t know e-mail then…) even after my return trip to the Netherlands. He invited me to stay at his house on my next visit to Iraq. Of course I also visited Qussai a few times, the trainee who had gained practical experience on my father’s farm.

In 1971 I traveled to Iraq for the second time. But now for almost 3 months. I stayed partly with Abdul Sattar’s family and partly in the student building of the institute in Abu Ghraib. But I also went with one of the students to his family in Shaqlawa.

Since this visit I have followed all developments in Iraq with great interest. Unfortunately, I saw how the country was getting worse and worse due to the war with Iran. That also made it impossible for me to visit my friends again. It wasn’t until the summer of 1989 that I succeeded again and I was able to visit all my acquaintances again. And a few months later at New Year 1990 I went back again for a short visit, but then the opportunity to visit Iraq came to an end: the war over Kuwait, the economic boycott, the invasion by the United States, the civil war, the problems with ISIS. It wasn’t until 2021 that Iraq reopened its borders. That was a signal for me to look up information on the internet about the possibilities of going to Iraq. And so I came into contact with Iraqi Travelers Cafe via Facebook. I posted a message there, asking if people would help me find my friends from the past. I accompanied that call with a number of photos that I had taken during my previous visits. I received an overwhelming response to that, and importantly, I finally got back in touch with my old friends through one of the members of ITC.

In May of 2022 I went to Iraq for the fifth time. Iraqi Travelers Cafe arranged a fantastic meeting at the Babylon Mall with my friends whom I hadn’t seen or spoken to in over 30 years. But it wasn’t just a reunion with my old friends, it was a great reunion with Iraqi culture. A way of life that is certainly different from the European way of life in some respects, although globalization is also bringing us closer together in everyday life. Television, internet, Netflix have taken care of that. And in the future probably also the increasing tourism to Iraq and hopefully also from Iraq to Europe, when there are fewer visa restrictions. ITC can certainly play a role in this.

Finally, I would like to mention a few things that I noticed during my last visit to Iraq, comparing it with my previous visits. In the first place, the will of many young people to participate in the construction of the country. Therefor the government should cooperate by creating employment. I also noticed that too little has been done in recent decades to improve the infrastructure, while education has lagged behind. Finally, it is a pity that in some places there is a lot of garbage lying around. There is also a task for the government and the population themselves. Do not forget that a tourist will always prefer a clean country, so if one wants to promote tourism in Iraq, there is also a task there.