Hawken grad helps rebuild lives in Iraq

From Hawken grad Jeff Bricker`s vantage, Iraq is a lot more than bombs and bloodshed. It`s a place of rolling hills, lush, fertile valleys and boundless potential. For over a year and a half, Bricker`s lived in a suburb of Erbil, the capital city of the mountainous Kurdistan region of Iraq, working for Mid-Atlantic Enterprises, his father`s construction company that is rebuilding areas of the region ravaged by decades of war and strife. The area, in the northeast corner of Iraq, has been relatively unscathed by the current conflict. Construction began in April 2005 to create what Bricker +óGé¼-£76 called \"sustainable communities that will reverse the migration of refugees to the cities back to the villages.\" \"The people here have been persecuted for so long and have still maintained a sense of community. They would like to create a region here where Kurdish people of all ethnic groups can survive and prosper,\" he said. That sense of community was something Bricker, a former rancher from Montana, hadn`t expected. He`d been used to it at home, living in remote areas, relying on a strong support network of friends and family. But experiencing the same in Iraq, a world a way, was a prospect he took with a grain of salt. \"My father had told me in the beginning that I would do well here because it is like Montana,\" he said. \"I didn`t understand that at first. Now I do...The people here are mountain people at heart. When they found out that I was from Montana and lived in the mountains, they viewed me as one of them.\" And when his father died earlier this year and they found out he had waited to tell them, Bricker saw exactly what being \"one of them\" meant. They scolded him for having made himself endure the loss alone. \"They told me that we are your family and we should be with you,\" he said. So, it could be that Bricker sees his time in Iraq as more than helping a distant people in a war-torn area but helping embattled brothers and sisters rebuild their lives. The Kurds` history is one that has been plagued by conflict as the people have sought independence, enduring periods of infighting and Saddam Hussein`s tyrannical regime. It`s estimated that hundreds of thousands have been killed as a result of their longstanding struggles. With Hussein`s capture and the relative calm that pervades, Bricker sees the Kurdistan region as ripe for restoration. \"There is so much that can be done to create an economic base here that isn`t solely dependent upon oil,\" he said. He feels that building homes and the region`s infrastructure is a means to jumpstart the resurgence. Though wary about what will come of the rest of Iraq, Bricker`s feelings are nonetheless hopeful. \"If we can create the right model here in the Kurdistan Region, perhaps the rest of the country will take notice and follow.\"