Wrapping things up

I am almost in disbelief. I woke up this morning and am realizing that this is my last day in the middle east and on the one hand feel as though I got out here yesterday. On the other hand, it seems as though I traveled to the Dead Sea in a snow storm three years ago!

So much has happened over these last two weeks. I have seen and heard and learned a great deal about the current situation that Iraqi refugees are facing. I have also learned a great deal about the issues of the middle east; their complexities, their history and the ways in which their are woven into the fabric of this refugee crisis. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity.

I will not even attempt to summarize the trip in this blog! [the book should be out shortly and can be yours for the low, low price of $29.95 :-)] Seriously though, there is really no way for me to capture this experience right now in some nice and neat package. Part of this os due to the fact that I am still processing much of what I have experienced.

The other and more significant part of this is because this is not a nice and neat situation. This is a crisis of enormous proportion and I do not say that to be dramatic. The number of refugees fleeing Iraq and number of internally displaced people within Iraq is huge and is only getting bigger every day. This crisis is going to get a lot bigger before it gets any better. And still we are left with the question...what are we to do?

• What are we to do about about a situation that is a direct result of our actions?  Whether you think the war was right or think it was wrong is not the point. 

• Jimmy Carter was the first (as far as I have been able to discern) that spoke of our "moral obligation" to respond to situations such as this...so what is our moral obligation? Do we have one?
  

Today is our last day and we will spend it in the most appropriate way...visiting with and listening to the stories of Iraqi refugees. When all of the debates are over; after all of the political dust has settled; when the world turns its attention to a "new" situation and problem; these are the men and women and children whose lives have been turned upside down. These are the folks who find themselves living in a country that is not their own, unable to return to the country that is.

It has been and continues to be a privilege for me to listen to these stories and visit with these people on your behalf. I am blessed to have been sent out by you (folks at SVPC). I will look forward to returning to share with you all that WE have experienced and discussing/discerning all that WE might be called by God to do as we continue to open ourselves up to the Spirit's leading in our lives and in our church.

See you in church on Sunday!

The Lenten Journey Begins

I'm not sure I ever imagined that I would be in the Holy Land for the beginning of a lenten season. Last night our delegation was talking with one another about the tangible, palpable presence of God as we walk around these streets. It is as though you can feel God's presence oozing out of the ground!

I woke up this morning very early so that I could be in prayer as you all gathered for Ash Wednesday service. That service for me has always been a significant time of reflection, confession and repentance. My thoughts and prayers have been with SVPC as I have started this day, and this journey through lent. Perhaps Steve or Karin can save some ashes for my head when I get back :-)

Our time on Jordan highlights so much the different circumstances that Iraqi refugees are facing. Amman itself is a fairly "western" city as it serves as the banking center for the Arab world. While the government in Jordan has been very supportive of the refugees coming here from Iraq, the sense from the organizations with whom we are meeting and the refugees themselves, is that there is greater fear here in Jordan as refugees are concerned with being deported. The government has yet to deport refugees (unless they violate the law) yet many refugees are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being identified and found to not have the appropriate visa/documentation. This is very different than what we were hearing in Syria where it was widely understood that the Syrian government, while putting restrictions on Iraqi refugees, was not going to enforce those restrictions and deport people back to Iraq.

We also met last night with a couple of Iraqi refugees who are living here in Jordan, have worked with a US company in Baghdad, and were in the final stages of resettlement. [There stories are so different than the stories we heard in Damascus and so different than the ones we will hear in eastern Amman tomorrow.] These two men both were delightful to talk to and had great personalities, both have families, both speak very good english, both are very educated (one a degree in mechanical engineering, the other is a CPA), both have financial resources and both were trying to figure out of they wanted to "start all over again in the US." 

As we talked and met with them or conversation centered around where there would be good schools for their children, housing options, the level of job they could get as they are frustrated that their credentials and degrees will not be immediately recognized upon arrival in the US, etc. They were trying to chose whether or not they wanted to go to the US, as opposed to others we have talked with who have a greater sense of fleeing. 

I found myself less sympathetic to them and their situation as we talked given who we have already met and the stories that we have already heard. After all, they have choices...they have options...and they have the means to ensure a lifestyle that the overwhelming majority of refugees have never (nor will ever) experienced. And just as I was settling into this view, it dawned on me...these two men are exactly like me.

 

• They have little kids...check. 
  
• They are professionals who are educated, attended graduate school and have degrees and certifications that enable them to do a certain type of work...check.
  
• When imaging where to live, their families situation is of primary concern...check.
  
• They have a lifestyle that they are used to and want to continue enjoying...check.
  

They are fleeing their country and have left everything behind (cars, home, material possessions and business) because they have a very real fear for their lives and the fact that they will be targeted to be killed by militia because they have been associated with the United States...NO CHECK!

Though their situations are dramatically different, their reality is very much the same. Their country is in a state of absolute chaos as killing and violence and looting and kidnapping dominate the streets.

Last night as we were talking with these two men [both of whom I hope end up in San Jose with their families!] it was suggested that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, to which one of the men replied, "There is no light because that tunnel goes around in a circle."

What a poignant remark that I hope and pray is not the case. Unfortunately, I have yet to see or hear anything that would suggest that there is a light coming any time soon.  But today the journey of lent begins, and in that journey, as I return to my devotional, I am reminded that:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men and women. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it."

John 1:1-5

Let us pray...

On the road again!

We are wrapping up what has proven to be 4 very fruitful days in Damascus. I continue to be grateful for the access we have been getting. Yesterday we had some more conversations with the United nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), met with one of the leading economists in Syria to discuss the economic impact the Iraqi refugee situation is having on the Syrian government/people, and then spent a significant amount of time with 2 representatives from the State Department who work in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). 

Later this morning we will be heading out into the field to UNHCR's refugee registration center so that we can see first hand the process of getting refugees registered. Being registered essentially enters people into the system so that they then become eligible for the variety of services provided by the UNHCR, of which resettlement is one service.

Then this afternoon we will be driving back to Amman, Jordan, where we will be reunited with our colleague who was denied entrance into Syria. Then it will be three final days of meetings with people serving in similar roles in Jordan as those we have been meeting with here in Syria. We will also have a day or so to visit the eastern part of Amman where the large pockets of Iraqi refugees are living.

So many observations...so little time! It seems that each day I sit down to write this blog I find myself thinking there are 100 others entries I could make! For instance:

• When do I [and how do I?!] capture the conversations I am having with my colleagues about the Muslim faith and the history of Islam? 
  
• When will have the time to share all that I am learning about the Arab world, its history and how the social/political/cultural dynamics we are currently experiencing came into being?
  
• When do I talk about the perception the Arab world and the Middle East have of the United States and share the things that have shaped that perception? 
  
• What are people's feelings about the war in Iraq and the role the United States is currently playing in its humanitarian aid?
  

Perhaps I have my outline for my first Adult Learning class when I get back! Karin-we'll talk :-) [By the way, I am not at all trying to tease people with these bullet points. I have learned a great deal about each of them and genuinely will be looking for ways to share what I am learning with those of you who are interested in listening when I get back. I am just so aware of how much there is to share...a massive amount...and feeling almost like the "Star Thrower" (www.webtree.ca/inspiration/thestarthrower.html) every time I sit down at my computer.]

I'll end with a thought though about one of the other questions that has made its way to me, and that is:

If most of the refugees are Muslim then why don't Muslim countries help them? 

The answer is that there are and they do! To put things into a bit of perspective, the United States has stated that it will resettle 12,000 Iraqi refugees into the US [The US is very far off of that pace currently and has not reached its number/goal since 2001]. Other countries are resettling what amounts to be a few thousand refugees per year meaning that essentially 1.5-3 million people have flooded into primarily Syria & Jordan. Everyone we have talked with has said that these countries have gone above and beyond in their willingness to welcome and take on the burden of these millions of people. For example the economist we spoke with yesterday spoke about the impact the refugees are having on social services, health care system, increased costs of security and processing. The Syrian government has assumed this cost largely on their own.

One thing (among many) that has become crystal clear to me as I spend time out here is that this region in general, and the countries we are visiting in particular, are feeling the affects of the current Iraqi refugee crisis profoundly and are supporting/caring for their Arab brothers and sisters in significant ways at significant costs.

Super Bowl Monday [in Damascus!]

Couldn't find the Super Bowl on any Syrian channel this morning at 2:00a.m. That's OK...I'm sure I didn't miss an historic upset!!!

We are gearing up for another packed day of meetings. Yesterday we shifted our meetings from the refugees themselves to people working for organizations that manage the resettlement process and those providing aid. The access we have been given has been pretty amazing. Ellen from Catholic Charities in San Jose (the person who put together the delegation) has done a fantastic job of coordinating meetings with a wide range of perspectives. Her 30 years experience has also meant that most of our appointments have been with director level staff...as Ellen describes, "people pretty high up on the food chain" in this work.

Yesterday we met with a representative for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the country director for The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), a representative from the primary player in refugee work around the world-the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and a Catholic nun from the Good Shepherd sister, Sister Mary Claude, who is on the front lines of ministering to the Iraqi refugees her in Syria.

In meeting with all of these people two things [more really, but two for now :-)] are becoming really clear:

1) People who are working on behalf of and with the Iraqi refugee population are feeling an enormous amount of pressure to do their jobs. This is a result of the attention that the Iraqi refugees have been getting, but even more so because the size and scope of the crisis is getting bigger and bigger everyday. For those for whom numbers put things in perspective here are a couple:

• UNHCR had registered about 30,000 refugees in Syria from 2003-2006. Since that time (13 months) they have registered 125,000.
  
• The World Food Programme of the UN is planning on increasing the number of Iraqi refugees in Damascus that they provide food for to increase from 125,000 last year to 360,000 by the end of this year.

Staggering numbers that illustrate that this crisis is growing, and the concern from many of the people with whom we are speaking is that the crisis is growing as the interest and resources begin to shift away.

2) The second thing that is clear to me is that this process is a mess. After our first night in Amman we talked about the name of our delegations report being "Designed to Fail." Little did we know then what we are seeing now! To say the process if registering, interviewing and examining people who are refugees is cumbersome would be an insult to things that are cumbersome. I sat yesterday and listened to the Chief of IOM in Syria explain the process that she has to deal with and even I [with zero experience] was left speechless and the hoops, delays and hurdles that are built into the process.

To illustrate what I mean: when people show up at UNHCR they are given an appointment to come back and register that is 6 months later. Once their appointment arrives, they register and their information is sent on to Cairo, then processed through Beirut, before it makes its way back to Damascus...and then that person can be interviewed for the first time. Which wouldn't be such a big deal if there weren't anywhere from 5-6 interviews that need to take place before one can be referred for resettlement.

Add to this the fact that this is an urban refugee crisis, meaning people are not living in clearly defined and densely populated camps. They are scattered throughout the city. If there phone number or address changes during the 6-9 months it takes to get that first interview, the IOM is burdened with the responsibility of trying to track them down which is time consuming and staff demanding.

Suffice it to say that I am trying to figure out what to think and what to do about this reality and a crisis that, by all accounts [NGO's, the State Department and the people working on the front-lines] is in the process of getting a whole lot worse before it gets any better.

In the Wake of the...Middle East!

OK...so the title is my obscure reference to Bud Geracie who writes a sports column for the SJ Mercury News [I was going to call it 3 Dot Damascus but am not confidant that "Jessie Boy" is reading this bog :-)]

Before I get too far into things I want to let you all know that I have not been able to upload any pictures since I have been in Syria. I am not sure why this is the case but can assure you that as soon as I can add new pictures, I will!

Some quick hits regarding the lighter side of our travels, and then some deep thoughts:

• Evidently cars in Syria and Jordan can only be driven if you have a working horn! 
• The Syrian people are very patient and courteous. Today during our travels we cut off 1,237 cars and none of them yelled at us...though someone [either our driver or a driver nearby] used the horn 12,453 times.
• This might be the first year I can remember where I am not sick of the Super Bowl hype! I feel a little like Steve Harrington...not quite sure when the game is and I've almost forgotten whose playing :-)
• Will be surfing the Syrian dial tomorrow at 1:00a.m. to see who is showing the big game. Oe of the guys I am traveling with had a dream [very detailed] that had New England winning 24-21 so I am going with that as the final score. (by the way...game ends with an incomplete pass thrown by Eli Manning in the end zone as the Giants go for the win...according to the dream!)
• Most people here have never heard of Stanford University.
• I used to like the hummus they sold at Trader Joe's..then I came here!
• I had dinner the other night in one of the newer buildings of the Old City...built in 1717.
• I thought they had put an extra bed spread in the bathroom but then realized it was actually the largest towel in the history of the world.
• I have yet to meet with someone who has not served me tea or coffee. Makes me think I should clear of the table in my office and be a bit more hospitable.
  

I am really looking forward to sharing with you all stories, thoughts, reflections and observations when I get home but questions are making there way to me while I have been here and I thought I would briefly write on them as I have the chance.

The first is: Why take care of refugees when we can't/aren't even taking care of everyone in our own country?

Great question. My first thought is that I am not sure I totally agree that we are not taking care of people in our own country. Are there people in need? Absolutely. But there are also a lot of organizations and people (many of whom are a part of our church) who devote a tremendous amount of time and resources to caring for people in our community. Besides, we are always going to be a community that addresses multiple needs...you don't stop funding schools because people are homeless. It isn't a question of either/or, but both/and.

My second thought is that I believe we have a moral and humanitarian responsibility to respond to refugees. I think this responsibility is even greater with these (Iraqi) refugees because they are refugees because of a war that we started. [I will say this over and over again: regardless of whether or not you agree with the war, the fact is that these Iraqi's have become refugees because of it.] And let's not forget that we, the United States of America, are a country that was formed be refugees fleeing Great Britain because of religious persecution. This is who we are.

The plaque at the Statue of Liberty has a poem written by Emma Lazarus, the last five lines of which read:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free!

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, your homeless, tempest tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

We are a country of refugees that has always opened its arms to refugees. I am not suggesting that every Iraqi refugee (all 2 million of them) show up tomorrow morning for breakfast. But I am suggesting that woven into the fabric of America is concern for the refugee. Not to mention the fact that central to our biblical narrative as Christians is God's deliverance of and concern for the refugee. 

Coffee, Chaos & Courage

Yesterday was a day in which it was a true privilege for me to be a part of this delegation. We met with seven (7) Iraqi refugee families yesterday who have relatives that have already resettled in the US. We brought hugs from their families members in the Silicon Valley, listened to their stories and received their kindness and hospitality (in the form of inviting us to share a cup of turkish coffee or tea with them and a snack). While there are hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Damascus, there are definitely concentrated neighborhoods and areas where pockets of them are living. Our 7 appointments were in two areas outside Damascus, close to the airport.

I must tell you that I am not really sure how to "blog" about these stories [so my early disclaimer is I will look forward to sharing the stories with you in greater detail when I return :-)]. How can I possibly capture the intense emotion of the stories people were sharing. The representative from the State Department had made the comment three nights ago when talking about the people from the State Department who have to interview refugees, "I can't even imagine having to listen to their stories all day." To which I wonder how much harder it is to have to have lived those stories. 

We met:

• Houssein's wife and his brother Abbas who were living in an apartment in a worn out neighborhood. They were our first appointment and revealed to me what the day would be like when upon being shown a picture of their husband/brother who was living back in the US, their eyes swelled with tears and they began to sob as the pain of being separated came out and the grief that families feel as they struggle to be reunited became so clear.
  

• Then there was a family who looked liked they lived next door; well dressed, well educated and well aware of the months they have been waiting for their case to be processed. They spoke of life in Baghdad and the night their home was broken into by militia members, forcing them (at about 70 years of age) to flee to their roof, jump onto their neighbors roof and run away.
  

• Or the family whose son worked for the US as a contracted worker for the Department of Defense. Their son was a part of a security team who was murdered in an ambush almost a year and half ago. They asked us why they had not heard back from anyone following his death.

• 5 of the 7 families we met with were Assyrian Christians and they spoke of being the targeted minority in Iraq. They spoke of families being targeted and many with family members who have been killed, their homes burned down, people being kidnapped and the high ransoms they paid to free their loved ones. And almost each family at some point gave thanks to God for blessing of their lives...and meant it! [How differently will those words sound to me in a prayer...often that I am leading...where we thank God for the gift of our lives. It is a gift and so much more so than simply familiar words in a regular prayer.]
  

• 2 of the 7 families we met with were Muslim and they too spoke of the religious persecution they experienced as neighborhoods became identified as Sunni or Shiite. The Sunni Muslims no longer safe in a Shiite neighborhood and vice versa. Their experiences of fear and violence being very similar to their Christian countrymen.
  

Everyone we met with gave an almost identical picture of Baghdad: a city in absolute chaos as people are being kidnapped, killed and terrorized daily; people who lived together for many years as neighbors no longer know who they can trust; religious persecution taking place everywhere and against everybody.  It is a city that truly is in chaos and a city that most of the people we met with will never, nor would they want to ever, return to again.

I could go on and on with these stories about people fleeing for their lives from Baghdad and trying to maneuver through a process that is capricious at best and unjust at worst. And all of these stories come after meeting with 7 families during the course of one day...one day.  Add to these stories the stories of the 2 million+ other refugees and you get a sense for the scope of the crisis our world is facing. And to be clear, this is a reality regardless of whether or not you think our invading Iraq was a good/bad thing; a right/wrong thing. The fact of the matter is that the majority of these people are fleeing a country because of the instability created by our (as US citizens) decision to attack Iraq. The conversation that will help the millions of refugees fleeing Iraq is not whether or not we should have gone to war, but what is our responsibility given the fact that we did.

While You Were Sleeping...

My oh my! So much has happened since I was last able to access the internet. What a couple of days it has been. You might want to pour yourself a cup of coffee & settle in for what I'm sure will turn out to be a lengthy entry :-) [Speaking of coffee...yesterday I had coffee from a Starbucks in Amman and today I had about 7 cups of Turkish coffee from refugee families with whom we were meeting. Needless to say they were quite different atmospheres...but I digress!]

We left Amman yesterday and crossed the border into Syria. It was a relatively smooth process up until it came time to enter Syria itself.  One of the people in our group was unable to cross into Syria because she had previously visited Israel. To say the Arab world does not have very positive feelings towards Israel would be like saying Steve Harrington enjoys the wilderness from time to time! Israel is so disliked by Syria that the Syrian government will not let anyone enter the country who has a stamp in their passport from Israel. Liz did not have a stamp from Israel, but the border guard could tell from one of her other stamps that she had been there and would not let her enter. [our support of Israel is another topic for another blog :-) It is clear and fair to say that our support of Israel does not endear us to the overwhelming majority of the Arab world.]

At this point I should say that one of the real assets of our team is our translator, Jamal, who has been teaching me a middle eastern history/political class as well as an introduction to Islam class as we travel!

After being delayed for a couple of hours at the border we made our way to Damascus. The countryside was noticeably different than that of Jordan. There were more trees scattered throughout the landscape and the Bedouin people were tending their flocks. As we drove I couldn't help but imagine what it must have been like to travel in this region during Jesus' time. I had read in the morning [from Acts 9] about Saul traveling to Damascus to persecute more Christians when he had a transforming experience with Jesus. Other than the crucifixion and the reality of the resurrection, Saul/Paul's conversion to Christianity is arguably the most significant event in the spreading of the gospel...and I was on that road!

When we arrived into Damascus it looked just like any other big city. But later in the evening we went into the Old City of Damascus and it was surreal. Walls and roads and buildings that were so old. Again [not to sound like a broken record, but...] I began to imagine who had walked these streets; preached on these corners; purchased food in these squares. Many if you have shared with me the impact being in the Holy Land has had on your faith, and I thought I knew what that meant. As I look out my window and see the wall around the Old City of Damascus, having walked its streets, I understand in a new way what you meant!

I'll end this section with a non-sequitor: there is no country in the Arab world where Christianity is the majority religion. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any country where more than 10-15% of the population is Christian.  For whatever reason, that feels like news to me and I have been trying to figure out how I could not have realized this fact. As an American [and perhaps it is just me] I can tend to be pretty isolated in my view of the world. And by that I mean I presume my experience and values onto the world that I am seeing since, by and large, I pick and chose the ways in which I enter into it. I do not regularly cross borders; I do not walk daily past bombed out buildings reminding me of a past war; I do not watch a newscast that gives me the weather report for any place outside of the US. While on the surface none of these things are really that big a deal, I do wonder if we as Americans are more disconnected from the world than we would care to admit and how that disconnection may hinder the choices we make and policies we support.