Greetings from Baghdad!

Hi everyone,

Greetings from Baghdad! I don't know what updates Chicago has sent out for us, so I'll try to give a brief update. We had a pretty good trip with two nights in Amman, Jordan, followed by a sixteen-hour bus ride on the oil road through the Syro-Arabian desert and into Baghdad. We're staying at a really neat hotel where all the walls are covered with carved clay tiles with Arabesque cityscapes. There's a monkey and a parrot in the lobby, I'm trying to teach the parrot to say Marhaba, and the monkey crawled up my leg and bit me through my pants leg and sock, fortunately no damage except that it’s sore. Glad I got my booster shots. He's bitten everyone on the hotel staff and a couple of the Voices people and no one has died so I guess I shouldn't worry and more importantly neither should you!

Tomorrow we'll hit the road splitting up the group to go to Basrah in the south and Mosul in the north, where we'll be meeting with churches and hospitals. I'll be going north and hope we get to drop by Ninevah. The southern group is going to Ur. Yesterday was our first full day here and we went to an orphanage and the Amariyeh bomb shelter (which was destroyed during the first Gulf War, killing several hundred civilians.) Today we visited the University and met students, then sat with the preeminent cancer research doctor in the country and learned about the effects of depleted uranium and other health disasters since the previous war. The photographs of the babies with cyclopeia, icthyosis, hydroencephaly, and extruding vital organs were difficult to see, yet a very quick visual lesson in the effects of radiation absorption. I'm working on a presentation for all this similar to my Palestine talk so you can all see this better. We met a professor today who remarked, "This is the cradle of civilization, which is about to be erased from the earth by the most civilized nation on earth." That pretty much sums up the sentiment. People are expecting to be blown to bits. When at the shelter, we heard one woman say, "people will not go into the bomb shelters now (after the Amariyeh bombing) They say, 'we go in there, we'll die. We stay at home, we'll die.' Although a student also remarked, "we are not 'afraid.' We are a courageous people." So many thoughts and feelings here about the near future.

The reception here has been good, though the situation heartbreaking. People around here haven't gotten many tourists in a long time I guess. When locals find out we're American, we usually get suprised grins and 'welcome!' Iraqis are extremely polite and well educated people, even more so than Palestinians though I never thought that possible. Somewhat similar to Cuba, college education is free to all who qualify on their exams. I can explain more of the demographics later, but the artistry and architecture is overwhelmingly beautiful. I asked our guides if we could get pictures of the mosaic mosques and fountains and statues around the city, things we never see on TV at home. It's so unlike I ever imagined here that I have to tell you all to come see it for yourself. I could easily feel at home here, I would love to spend another month here at least. It really reinforces my sense that I should spend most of my life educating other Americans about all the different people and places we consider 'enemies.' I'd like to write a little more about my developing theology of enemy-loving and the in's and out's of that, but I will wait until returning to Palestine. We are sharing a computer among 30 people here. The weather is extremely warm though the season is changing, and I should have brought more formal clothes. I am just scraping by on my dressiest outfit here. (My black 'Palestinian' slacks and a button down cotton shirt) The local women wear long though sophisticated skirts, and nice blouses, or blazers. I gotta spiff up if I want to stay here long.

That's enough for now. I'll probably write again next from Palestine.

Le Anne