Eva wrote me this week to say,

Just thought you might be interested in how my visit today went with the Psychiatrist Zainab recommended to me...

His name is, Shaidul Islam, and as his name implies he is a Muslim...He was also very nice and in the entryway I saw he was a Captain in US Navy...honorably discharged in 2003.

I filled out this rather long form about symptoms and then answered questions...In the end he put me on Welbutrin XL for the depression and recent anxiety attacks, and Eskalith to balance out my moods, I mentioned how I tend to go from happy to angry to sad all in a matter of seconds...

Then after a week, I am going to go see him again...we will see how these effect me and if I like them better...

Hopefully this can help me get some more stability to how I am feeling so I feel in control of things again...cause right now I feel like a person with a whole lot of responsibility and barely the sanity to handle it...

I have faith in this Doc though...so Godwilling that faith is not misplaced...

Love,

Eva XXXXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Meran, ever the entrepreneur, emailed me today about investment opportunities in Iraq (most probably in the north, where he's from...) He said*, "Hay if you are thinking of buying some iraqi dinar let me know i will buy it for you becuase i think there is a chance of worth a lot more after elections or in couple years.

for example $1000 dollars will become $1,000,000 iraqi dinar and may be
later you could change it for at least $700,000 becouse there are a lot of corporations waiting to inter Iraq after elections. think about it."

* Forgive the spelling - English is his second language, but he does very well overall!

I was manning the front desk at work today, and a man came to the window. He was an interpreter who was looking for a hearing that he thought was at our office. I checked the sheet he had been given and yes, it was our address and today's date, but no hearing was scheduled according to our records. We left a voice message to a phone number on his sheet explaining the problem, but before he left, I noticed his name tag said he was a Kurdish interpreter, first name of Kazim. I mentioned Meran Abdullah to him, and he said he knows Meran. What a small world, sometimes...*

* I later received an email from Meran saying yes, he remembers Kazim!

Eva and Meran become overcome with emotion as he is called to board the plane... 

Meran says goodbye to his boys; he returns to Iraq to continue his job as interpreter/translator... 

Meran is tackled by the boys on the new trampoline! 

Mu'min proudly displays his new work of art (December 2004) 

Call me crazy, but the more I read and hear about pain/war/injustice around the world (or am I just becoming more sensitive to what's been going on all along...?), the more I am being pushed by my conscience to get directly involved. If you hear about me pulling up stakes, and becoming one of those funny old lady peace volunteer/activists you hear about, going overseas to help whereever & whoever, or walking the streets to publicize the evildoers and the evil they do, don't be surprised...

These are some of my heroes...