Team members during this period were Anita David, Lukasz Firla (intern), Michele Naar-Obed, Beth Pyles and Chihchun Yuan.

The team continued its work with internally displaced people along the border and started developing a writing project with a Kirkuk-based women's peace and justice NGO for young women in Kirkuk.  Team members also finished a fifty-four page report about the border villages in northern Iraq, entitled, "Where there is a Promise, there is a Tragedy: Cross-border bombings and shelling of the northern village peoples of the Kurdish region of Iraq by the nations of Turkey and Iran.”

04 January

The team attended a presentation at Nature Iraq.  A member of “Plan 4 Land,” an Iranian NGO, gave a power point lecture that covered the biodiversity and conservation of wildlife in Iran including the Caspian seal and Persian leopard and jaguar.  The NGO focuses on educating the youth about their natural environment.  “The youth will teach their parents,” the presenter commented.

06 January

Naar-Obed, David, Yuan, and Firla visited the Zharawa IDP tent camp.  Six out of 132 families will remain in the camp indefinitely.  “We cannot move into town and we have lost everything in the village.  We will not go back to the village if there is no guarantee for our safety,” one of the IDPs told team members.  The camp now has a well but the pump has not been installed.  As of 31 December 2009, no water had been delivered so the families have been buying their own water.  They also have to buy their own benzene to run the generator.

Naar-Obed and Yuan visited one of the village leaders at his house in Zharawa.  “We want you to make a meeting with our new Prime Minister,” he told the CPTers.  “You can open the door for us and we will tell him our needs.”  Naar-Obed and Yuan spoke with him about the possibility of the villagers uniting and working together for the good of all the villages.  “We need to do that and we need you to give us training,” he said.

Meanwhile, Firla and David decided to walk from the Zharawa IDP camp to Rania, about a ten km hike.  Within an hour, the Asaish (security police) picked them up because they had received numerous phone calls from people in the area who saw them walking.  The Asaish insisted on driving the two to Rania and eventually put them in a taxi after confirming that people were expecting them at the Rania Youth Center.  The team met up at the Youth Center and spoke with the director about the condition of the IDPs

10 January

One of the Zharawa village leaders met with Pyles, David, and Naar-Obed at the CPT office in Suleimaniya.  The three proposed an online media campaign that would include a series of videos highlighting each of the eleven Pshdar villages.  The village leader agreed to organize a meeting with the other leaders so that CPT could present the proposal to the group.

 13 January

Firla, Pyles, Naar-Obed and David attended the opening of an art exhibit at the Emna Sooraka Museum in Suleimaniya.  “Our ideas have been imprisoned for so long.  Now we are free to express ourselves through our art,” said one of the artists at the exhibit.  This museum was once a notorious prison during Saddam Hussein’s regime where Kurds were tortured and killed.

 14 January

Two representatives from PANA organization, a women's peace and justice NGO in Kirkuk, visited the team at the CPT office to discuss the plans for a project to produce “zines” (a small circulation publication) with young women students about their life in Kirkuk.

16 January

Naar-Obed and Pyles met with the director of the Rania Youth Center to get his opinion on the best way to advocate for and work with the villagers of the Pshdar region for protection of their rights and for immediate living subsistence.  "If the villagers can stand together with one voice, they will be stronger," he said.  "I am a member of the journalist syndicate and I can help to amplify their voice through the local media.  I am ready to work with all of you anytime."  They discussed holding a press conference, followed by a march to Parliament, and publishing an open letter to Parliament in local newspapers.  They also discussed producing the series of videos about the villagers.

 20 January

Firla, Pyles and Naar-Obed met with village leaders from six of the eleven villages in Pshdar region.  Together, the group brainstormed ideas about the video campaign and organizing themselves to speak with one voice for their rights and their needs.  "We are too small and the government doesn't care about us.  We need you and other NGOs to speak for us," one village leader said.  Naar-Obed responded, "Think of how annoying a tiny mosquito can be.  A mosquito may be small but it gets a lot of attention."  “  But you can easily swat a mosquito and kill it," another leader responded.  "What about a swarm of mosquitoes acting together as one group?”  Naar-Obed said.  The village leaders agreed that they would work together as a swarm and made plans to return to the camp to make banners for the video campaign.

28 January

The team's translator received a phone call from two of the Pshdar village leaders who said that the video campaign and banner making was called off because many of the villagers are afraid of any campaign that might upset the two main political parties.  The team also learned that sustained shelling had occurred very close to four villages.  No injuries or damage was reported.  One of the village leaders went back to his village to check on his family.

31 January

Naar-Obed and Firla met with a UN representative who painted a dim picture regarding the political situation in the Kurdish north.  "It is hopeless here.  There is too much corruption and the younger generation only cares about acquiring material possessions."  In speaking about the situation of the border village IDs, he said, "The KRG does not control the area where those villages are located.  It is controlled by PJAK (the Iranian armed Kurdish liberation militia).”  UNHCR wants to close down the Zharawa tent camp and encourage the villagers to return to their villages even though the KRG cannot guarantee their safety and has not given them full compensation for their losses.

The UN representative also updated the CPTers on riots that had recently occurred in the KRG due to lack of services from the government, and random violence that was occurring throughout Suleimaniya due to upcoming national elections.  He predicted that more violence would occur throughout the campaigning season and bloodshed would occur after the March elections.

A friend and previous team translator from Baghdad arrived for a three-day visit.  He painted a depressing picture of life in Baghdad and throughout southern and central Iraq.

David and Yuan took their kittens to be spayed.  Since the spaying and neutering of animals is a new government initiative, the operation was filmed for local television and the surgery was free.