It is afternoon and the sun is slanting in the west, losing it's intensity. Three of us teachers visited Michelle Obed and other CPT members at their house within walking distance of our home in the upstairs of a day care center. Michelle and Chichun will be spending 2 weeks at the Zharawa internally displaced persons camp where 600 people displaced from 11 villages are staying with 45 available tents with no shade nor toilets. Their displacement is a result of Turkish and Iranian bombing of the villages. The CPT team will attempt to get some media coverage of the plight of these people. How to get the international community to show compassion and respond with a helping hand? It feels as though we continue to harden our hearts towards each other and the least among us. I am reminded of a reading of Granny's dated February 1940, from "Selected Writings" which I start my mornings with. "The End of the Line" describes how she sees a man who has lost everything sitting on the subway train and her heart FEELS his pain and despair. Other people react with ridicule. I pray that we soon will have a world in which most people can respond to those in need with love and mercy. Is that so hard to imagine?
I will go bowling tonight with new friends. The Bowling Center is three stories high; the lanes are on the first floor, restaurant on the second, and war games, pool, and air hockey on the third floor. This is a new added attraction to the city and people flock to it. There are no obvious cinemas showing Hollywood movies but the TV has plenty of typical American fare with Kurdish subtitles.
We now have a kiddie pool on the roof and it comes in very handy on the hot afternoons when we return from school sweaty and tired.
Until my next blog, sarchow or xuah afiz, see you later. I miss my family and neighbors!
Hi Martha,
ReplyDeleteI was pointed in your direction by Jeannie Kirkhope of the Gift of Tears Catholic Worker in West Virginia. I'm a theology student from WV, currently working on my doctorate at St Michaels' College in Toronto. I'm working on political and liberation theologies and Appalachian studies.
I recently came across references to a WV_based CW publication called The Mountain Worker. I know the CW archives at Marquette have copies, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it out there anytime soon. I would love to track down some copies of the paper for my research. I'm told that you or your sister may have been in WV at one time and might know where I could find some copies of the paper. If you have ay suggestions, I'd appreciate it!
Peace,
Michael Iafrate
m.iafrate [at] utoronto.ca