Making a difference in Iraq

Some students take a year off from school to backpack through Europe, others spend a year sailing around the world’s oceans, but Rezhyan Akrayi did none of these. She went to Iraq.

Akrayi, a senior international business major, left Jacksonville in July 2006 and stayed in Iraq until June 2007. There she worked at a local school teaching English, translating for professors and reconnecting with family she had long been separated from.

“I learned a lot about myself and more about the region,” Akrayi said.

While in Iraq, Akrayi lived in Irbil, which is the capital of the Kurdish self-governing region. Irbil sits at the top of Northern Iraq, but in the south of the Kurdistan region, one of the more peaceful cities of Iraq, according to USA Today.

Akrayi, who had never taken a break from her education, decided it was time to take one. She took the opportunity to return to her birthplace, the place her parents were from, and to reconnect with a culture she left behind when she came to the United States at a young age.

“I always wanted to know,” Akrayi said about her birth-place, Akre, located about two hours away from Irbil and her family. “I never had cousins or aunts.”

Aryan, Akrayi’s sister, accompanied her to Iraq in to reconnect with their shared past and the many cousins, aunts and uncles who waited for them. Aryan is a graduate student from UNF who majored in political science.

Shortly after arriving in Irbil, Akrayi and her sister found a job at Hawler High School, a local Kurdish school. Hawler houses students ranging from seventh to 12th grade. Akrayi, who is fluent in Kurdish, taught seventh grade students how to speak English throughout the duration of her trip.

“I decided I wanted to do something to make a difference,” Akrayi said.

Akrayi occasionally worked as a translator, helping the high school to build connections with visiting professors from various countries such as Sweden and the United Kingdom.

When Akrayi was not working or sweating from the summer heat in her apartment that lacked electricity, she and her sister were out and about doing everything from visiting historical spots around the region to hiking through the mountains that paint the local landscape.

Akrayi ventured out to see how people were and what they needed.

She was constantly “trying to make connections, so as to let people [in the U.S.] be aware of what is going on,” Akrayi said.

“You not only appreciate what you have, but try to make a difference there.” Akrayi said

Fear finally struck after 10 months in Irbil on the morning of May 9, 2007. A truck loaded with one ton of explosives concealed underneath detergent and shampoo bottles exploded while between two buildings, devastating the security headquarters and the Interior Ministry building, according to a USA Today Report.

The suicide bomber was responsible for “killing at least 15 people, wounding more than 100 and showing that no corner of Iraq is safe,” according to the report.

Akrayi and her sister were in their apartment when they felt the building shake as the bomb went off around 8 a.m., Akray

i said. The morning before, she had been driving by the spot the bombs went off at approximatel

y the same time. They booked their tickets home that week, a month earlier than originally planned.

“I appreciate it more here,” Akrayi said. “A lot of people my age don’t know much about the world.”

After Akrayi graduates from UNF with her degree in international business, she plans to start working and hopes her profession leads her to traveling and helping people. She plans to return to Kurdistan in the future, she said.

E-mail Amanda Tew at features@unfspinnaker.com.