Back by popular demand....

Hello All,

Due to the high demand for my witty commentary (just kidding), I'm starting up another blog! I don't have any pictures this time, but I hope that you read it anyway. Please! : )

Well, to review.....last year I was living in Connecticut working for a non-profit there, but I became a victim of the economy and started looking for a new job in mid-January of this year. Happy New Year! Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a new job as a Program Manager for another international humanitarian organization. I am living and working out of our office in Baghdad working with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Returnees. IDPs (for those of you who don't know) are people who have fled their homes to resettle in a different area of their country. They are basically refugees who don't cross an international border, but are still displaced from their home area, usually due to conflict or some kind of disaster (like a tsunami or earthquake). Returnees are either refugees or IDPs who are returning to their original location once they feel secure enough to do so. A little social studies for you…. ; ) I am very excited about my new position and the work that I will be doing!

I went to my brother’s wedding in Las Vegas on Mar 14th and got to spend some time with my nieces and nephew! Then I hopped on a plane on the 15th and headed over to Amman, Jordan. There was a regional meeting at that time, so I was lucky enough to meet quite a bit of the staff that is over here in my neck of the woods and they were all great! From Amman, I headed up to Beirut to go to the Iraqi embassy and pick up my visa so that I could fly into Baghdad. On March 20th, I was very excited/nervous to arrive in Baghdad with a couple other staff members. I have mostly been settling in and getting situated. I am starting to have a better idea of the direction that I will start to move in and I can’t wait to get started.

I was lucky enough to be able to travel north to a town called Sulemaniya, which is very green and surrounded by mountains. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed it. Plus, I received a great orientation and was able to get in a site visit to watch some of the work being done with extremely vulnerable populations nearby. I was also very lucky to meet a friend of mine there. She was in my grad school program in Sri Lanka and is also working for this new organization. She was in town for some meetings and it was great to finally see her again!

I got back to Baghdad today and decided that I couldn’t put off starting the blog for much longer, so I decided to tackle it tonight. Hope you enjoy it, even if there aren’t any pics! : ) I have taken a couple, but I haven’t downloaded them onto the computer yet. I promise I will take more pictures in the near future and will hopefully even motivate to get them onto the computer and uploaded here.

I really like Baghdad. It is starting to get quite warm here. It has beautiful architecture and statues. The first few days, we were able to do site visits to several neighborhoods and I have had a few meeting in the International Zone (IZ…aka Green Zone). We even drove past Firdos Square, which is where the Saddam Hussein statue used to be. People are in the streets and there are lots of shops. There are some traffic circles with a large green area (like a park) in the middle with benches, etc. and I’ve seen little boys playing soccer there a couple of times. You can feel the history here. I have to keep passing the Tigris River, which just seems so historic in and of itself. My movement is still a little limited for security reasons, but I look forward to getting to know this city/country, the culture and the people here much better.

Well….until next time. Please keep in touch! And let me know what you are up to! People always write to ask me what I’ve been up to, but they hardly ever tell me what they’ve been up to. : ( Can’t wait to hear from you.

Love, me