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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
Monday, November 04, 2002
Sunday, October 20, 2002
Departing!
Departing!
October 20, 2002
Hi everyone,
Well, my ticket is here and all the stuff I'm packing is spread around the living room floor. I am also starting the first 48 hours I have had all to myself since being home. Yeah, I miss solitude, I had lots of it up in Nazareth, and none of it once I got to Hebron, sometimes I can't stand the thought of it when the possibility arises (people have started calling me an extrovert which is new and very surprising to me), but it feels good and
re-centering when I've got it. Pretty much these days I'm at a point where if other people are around I feel like I ought to be with them, even if I'm really tired, and feel guilty for closing the door to my room. Oddly enough, the first thing I did was go outside and prune all the trees and bushes. We got one warm afternoon, then back to windchill. I had to scrape my windshield this morning and was disgusted. The other day, it snowed.
Time to return to the Middle East, I say.
I guess I was a sucker for punishment this time home, or maybe just motivated. I somehow racked up 17 speaking engagements and six interviews. Most of those were unplanned and after the paper ran the story about my going to Iraq. For the most part, I found that youth groups were more interested in Iraq, and Palestine was for more 'conservative' groups--somehow, it seems, now that Iraq is on the table, Palestine has
become much less taboo. Although I did have a senior church group today that wanted to know all sorts of things about Iraq and strongly voiced their disapproval for the war. That was neat. The messages of support I've received from friends, family and strangers has been quite moving and uplifting. Thanks very much to those of you who sent them. I will think of those words in more uncertain moments over the next couple weeks.
I'll be getting back into Minneapolis if all is according to plan on Feb. 7th for another 4-5 weeks home. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up then with everybody I missed this time around.
Well, guess the next message will be from Iraq! Talk to you then!
Le Anne
October 20, 2002
Hi everyone,
Well, my ticket is here and all the stuff I'm packing is spread around the living room floor. I am also starting the first 48 hours I have had all to myself since being home. Yeah, I miss solitude, I had lots of it up in Nazareth, and none of it once I got to Hebron, sometimes I can't stand the thought of it when the possibility arises (people have started calling me an extrovert which is new and very surprising to me), but it feels good and
re-centering when I've got it. Pretty much these days I'm at a point where if other people are around I feel like I ought to be with them, even if I'm really tired, and feel guilty for closing the door to my room. Oddly enough, the first thing I did was go outside and prune all the trees and bushes. We got one warm afternoon, then back to windchill. I had to scrape my windshield this morning and was disgusted. The other day, it snowed.
Time to return to the Middle East, I say.
I guess I was a sucker for punishment this time home, or maybe just motivated. I somehow racked up 17 speaking engagements and six interviews. Most of those were unplanned and after the paper ran the story about my going to Iraq. For the most part, I found that youth groups were more interested in Iraq, and Palestine was for more 'conservative' groups--somehow, it seems, now that Iraq is on the table, Palestine has
become much less taboo. Although I did have a senior church group today that wanted to know all sorts of things about Iraq and strongly voiced their disapproval for the war. That was neat. The messages of support I've received from friends, family and strangers has been quite moving and uplifting. Thanks very much to those of you who sent them. I will think of those words in more uncertain moments over the next couple weeks.
I'll be getting back into Minneapolis if all is according to plan on Feb. 7th for another 4-5 weeks home. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up then with everybody I missed this time around.
Well, guess the next message will be from Iraq! Talk to you then!
Le Anne
Wednesday, October 02, 2002
Headed to Iraq...
Headed to Iraq
October 2, 2002
Hi everyone,
This will be a lengthy letter.
I just wanted to let those of you who are tech-savvy know that I will be doing a live tv interview TOMORROW (Thursday) at 3:30 pm. This will be broadcast on streaming web video via internet, so you may log on at www.kollegeville.com (yes with a 'k') at that time. The topic is middle east peacemaking, Israel/Palestine and Iraq. Guess I'd better get some beauty sleep...
Next, I am updating my lists for Palnotes (my list), the Hebron team list, and my action alerts and articles lists. If you are on some and don't want to be, let me know this week. If you aren't and do want to be, same goes.
Next, if your congregation or other group would like CPT literature in small quantities (like the Signs of the Times quarterly newsletter highlighting all of the projects, free or free-will donation to subscribe), please send me a mailing address and I'll take care of it for you. Or if you want to subscribe yourself also.
And then, if you know radio stations or newspapers who would like to interview Iowa CPT workers who are traveling to Iraq on an emergency humanitarian delegation in October, please also let me know. I am more than happy to do press work. I'm not really available to travel out of town any more than I've already scheduled, but can do lots over the phone or email.
If you read the Des Moines Register yesterday, call them up and tell them they did a
lousy and irresponsible job. Or at least a lousy job portraying CPT as irresponsible. Meanwhile, the Globe did a far superior article with actual facts about the humanitarian situation in Iraq necessitating such a trip and actual reasons for us going. I like my reporter over there an awful darn lot, as you all can tell.
So anyway, as the press got hold of it yesterday, the time has come to tell you I will be going to Iraq as part of a CPT emergency humanitarian delegation. We will be accompanying civilian areas such as schools, hospitals, and bomb shelters, and documenting and reporting on the situation, particularly if US military activity results in civilian losses. The Iraq Peace Team will ultimately comprise over 100 people arriving over several weeks throughout the winter. In addition, the team will be carrying in and distributing $20-$30,000 worth of vital hospital supplies, particularly leukemia medications. (Leukemia and other cancers, as well as serious birth defects, have skyrocketed since the first Gulf War and the US-sponsored UN sanctions do not permit hospital supplies to enter.) I anticipate staying 2-6 weeks depending on conditions, then returning to Hebron for my usual 3 month stint. This brings me back home about late Feb-early March. My teammates and good friends Peggy Gish and Anne Montgomery are going with me, a group of about 15, joining others on the ground from Voices in the Wilderness.
I have spent a great deal of time thinking through the possible consequences and penalties of my actions, as it violates US law for US citizens to travel to countries deemed 'enemy territory.' It is also against the law to distribute the medicines. I have consulted with the seminary, my team, and several of you already in forming my decision to engage in civil disobedience. It is possible I could serve jail time or be fined when I return. I have decided to refuse any fines imposed on me, and am willing to serve jail time, but will speak out publicly as much as possible before, during, and after, should that eventuality occur. Voices has led 45 educational and humanitarian delegations to Iraq in defiance of the sanctions, and has been penalized considerably lightly given the provisions of the law. So we shall see. I am of course nervous, but my experience of leading two emergency delegations in Palestine, as well as living and working through two invasions, as well as Voices' carefully built relationships with the local community in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, gives me a sense of what to expect. While I am anxious about the process of getting there, being there, and then getting back to Hebron, I also feel a calm resolve and have since the opportunity to participate was offered to me.
Anybody got a used video camera? Just checking my options. I tried to bribe KIMT the other day, no luck so far. (I promised first crack at the pictures).
But enough for now. I did three speeches and an interview today and got called up to do three more talks, all work and no play are making me duller by the minute. I got a potluck dinner in my honor tonight at the Presbyterians and will do another one with the Wesleyan Methodists and it looks like I'll have plenty of stored reserves to insulate me through the winter over there. Pass the hot dish...
Le Anne
October 2, 2002
Hi everyone,
This will be a lengthy letter.
I just wanted to let those of you who are tech-savvy know that I will be doing a live tv interview TOMORROW (Thursday) at 3:30 pm. This will be broadcast on streaming web video via internet, so you may log on at www.kollegeville.com (yes with a 'k') at that time. The topic is middle east peacemaking, Israel/Palestine and Iraq. Guess I'd better get some beauty sleep...
Next, I am updating my lists for Palnotes (my list), the Hebron team list, and my action alerts and articles lists. If you are on some and don't want to be, let me know this week. If you aren't and do want to be, same goes.
Next, if your congregation or other group would like CPT literature in small quantities (like the Signs of the Times quarterly newsletter highlighting all of the projects, free or free-will donation to subscribe), please send me a mailing address and I'll take care of it for you. Or if you want to subscribe yourself also.
And then, if you know radio stations or newspapers who would like to interview Iowa CPT workers who are traveling to Iraq on an emergency humanitarian delegation in October, please also let me know. I am more than happy to do press work. I'm not really available to travel out of town any more than I've already scheduled, but can do lots over the phone or email.
If you read the Des Moines Register yesterday, call them up and tell them they did a
lousy and irresponsible job. Or at least a lousy job portraying CPT as irresponsible. Meanwhile, the Globe did a far superior article with actual facts about the humanitarian situation in Iraq necessitating such a trip and actual reasons for us going. I like my reporter over there an awful darn lot, as you all can tell.
So anyway, as the press got hold of it yesterday, the time has come to tell you I will be going to Iraq as part of a CPT emergency humanitarian delegation. We will be accompanying civilian areas such as schools, hospitals, and bomb shelters, and documenting and reporting on the situation, particularly if US military activity results in civilian losses. The Iraq Peace Team will ultimately comprise over 100 people arriving over several weeks throughout the winter. In addition, the team will be carrying in and distributing $20-$30,000 worth of vital hospital supplies, particularly leukemia medications. (Leukemia and other cancers, as well as serious birth defects, have skyrocketed since the first Gulf War and the US-sponsored UN sanctions do not permit hospital supplies to enter.) I anticipate staying 2-6 weeks depending on conditions, then returning to Hebron for my usual 3 month stint. This brings me back home about late Feb-early March. My teammates and good friends Peggy Gish and Anne Montgomery are going with me, a group of about 15, joining others on the ground from Voices in the Wilderness.
I have spent a great deal of time thinking through the possible consequences and penalties of my actions, as it violates US law for US citizens to travel to countries deemed 'enemy territory.' It is also against the law to distribute the medicines. I have consulted with the seminary, my team, and several of you already in forming my decision to engage in civil disobedience. It is possible I could serve jail time or be fined when I return. I have decided to refuse any fines imposed on me, and am willing to serve jail time, but will speak out publicly as much as possible before, during, and after, should that eventuality occur. Voices has led 45 educational and humanitarian delegations to Iraq in defiance of the sanctions, and has been penalized considerably lightly given the provisions of the law. So we shall see. I am of course nervous, but my experience of leading two emergency delegations in Palestine, as well as living and working through two invasions, as well as Voices' carefully built relationships with the local community in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, gives me a sense of what to expect. While I am anxious about the process of getting there, being there, and then getting back to Hebron, I also feel a calm resolve and have since the opportunity to participate was offered to me.
Anybody got a used video camera? Just checking my options. I tried to bribe KIMT the other day, no luck so far. (I promised first crack at the pictures).
But enough for now. I did three speeches and an interview today and got called up to do three more talks, all work and no play are making me duller by the minute. I got a potluck dinner in my honor tonight at the Presbyterians and will do another one with the Wesleyan Methodists and it looks like I'll have plenty of stored reserves to insulate me through the winter over there. Pass the hot dish...
Le Anne
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