Posted by Sadie from D007166.N1.Vanderbilt.Edu (129.59.7.166) on Friday, March 28, 2003 at 12:23PM :
Dear Friends,
I had written a rather lengthy update and was ready to send it out when I
received an email from IPT member Cathy Breen in Iraq. Sometimes
brevity is best. This is one of those times. Know that our team in Baghdad is
safe and working hard.
All my best,
Jeff Guntzel
"Amal, dear friend"
By Cathy Breen
March 27, 2003
Amal, dear friend, I visited your once lovely home today. How heavy your
heart is. I can sense your despair and deep sadness, and I am so helpless
to console you. Glass is everywhere shattered and strewn about, the
windows and doors now gaping holes for the raging wind and sand to enter.
Had it been by natural forces it would be easier to bear. But this destruction
is cruel and senseless. Worse yet it is premeditated and purposeful. Its
name is war.
How bitter for you, Amal, you who have given so much to so many. How
harsh and cruel for you who cherish beauty and safeguard it for everyone to
enjoy.
As we walk together over shards of glass, everything looks dismal covered
in layers of sand. Curtains torn and rent and beloved belongings no longer
where they should be. But then nothing is as it should be. As we make our
way from room to room and through the garden area alongside the river, the
jarring boom of bombs tell us that the destruction is not over.
Oh Amal, you whose name means hope. I beg you not to give up, but to
hold fast to hope.
-- Sadie
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