By Cathy Breen
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad
Dear Friends,

It’s hard to believe that a full week has gone by since our group of four arrived in Baghdad, raising Voice’s numbers in Iraq to eight. As I lie on the roof (so much cooler than inside) gazing up at the stars or watching the sun come up over the city, I sometimes wonder if I am dreaming. Gunshots in the night, however, and the sounds of helicopters overhead and periodic tanks roaring down the road help to remind me of where I am. In terms of the many visits with Iraqi friends, conversations and stories too numerous to relate, events in the house and in the country, New York city seems like another lifetime.

Tomorrow Ed, Kathy, John and I plan to go south to Basrah for a couple of days. Here the heat is blessedly dry, but in Basrah we will be hit with the humidity, something I’d rather not think about. Before we depart, I am hoping today to get something more off to you all. Caoimhe, Ewa and Michael will head to Hilla where tomorrow there is to be an official ceremony to turn over power to the Polish troops there. They represent the 3rd largest contingent of foreign troops in the land, 2,500, I believe. Ewa, who is Polish/British herself, is especially knowledgeable about that country’s own history of occupation. It is because of her presence among us that some are going to Hilla to do some sort of symbolic action at the ceremony to raise awareness that a formerly occupied country is now occupying Iraq.