Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan...leaving Monday

Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan; Leaving Monday
May 17, 2005

Greetings everyone,Where do I begin? There's been lots of changes in just the past couple days.On Friday, our Iran visas for the entire group were denied by the embassy. Thiswas really disappointing since I was doing lots of research and preparation togo, and I was especially looking forward to studying a Shi'a dominant (both inpopulation and in politics) society such as Iran. However, the Afghanistanvisas have cleared. Since people had already blocked out the time on theirschedules, it seemed best to try and arrange an alternate delegation for thetime which would have covered Iran. Saturday, Ladhan proposed that we go aheadto Syria and Lebanon as was planned for when I would have been on spring breakbut things were crazy there then. I agreed to go--two great countries to learnabout and speak on when I return home. So, that would be three countries in onemonth--Syria, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. Intense, but very exciting.Sooo...Ladhan called again today, and has asked me to be the delegation leaderfor the Syria and Lebanon part of the trip. Someone else will take over inAfghanistan. This is because I speak Arabic, am familiar with the politicalsituation, particularly surrounding Palestinian refugees and Israel, and haveled several delegations to the Middle East before for CPT. Wow! I'm lookingforward to it. Mostly I will be doing the group facilitating stuff and helpingprepare the folks for cultural issues, etc., I am very excited that GlobalExchange uses local alternative tour guides on their trips to arrange all thelogistics (transport, housing, food, meetings, etc.) I used to handle all thatas well--uff da! But I love it and I can tell my energy level is getting backup to where it used to be. I miss this line of work!My supervisor for my summer job which starts July 5 (orienting new internationalstudents and working on their ESL) was a missionary's kid in Lebanon and Syria.He really encouraged me to go, and said he would be there himself if not forwork commitments right now. My Arabic professor this past year also is fromSyria. They're both giving me plenty of helpful tips and people to meet.McCormick seminary (our joint campus) has a strong connection to the Near EastSchool of Theology in Beirut, so that is a comfortable connection, too. (And apossible future work or study site, I also hope!)I leave Monday, the flights are getting arranged, I'm packing up, throwing apotluck Saturday night here to welcome my brothers (James and Andrew who arecoming for the next two years and for the summer respectively) and say goodbyeto folks for the month, and get them all excited about the trip (hopefully theycan help with speaking connections after I return). Between legs, I get 3-4days to relax in Beirut, which is a truly beautiful city. Then we fly to Kabul.I still return around the 23rd of June.James and Andrew will be feeding my cat and hopefully enjoying abundant workopportunities around campus for the summer. It will be nice to have twohouse-sitters, and I know the single seminary women are a tad curious also ;)There may be more to report soon, and I am enjoying the responses. I'll let youknow how it goes!peace,Le Anne