Aaron and Anne-Sophie

We posted some new photos from DC. One of the benefits of living in DC and Anne-Sophie attending George Washington University is the connection to the institutions of power in the world. Just blocks from her school are the White House, the World Bank, and the IMF. The United Methodist Building that I frequented doing Palestinian Rights advocacy is between the Supreme Court and Senate offices. DC also has plenty of beautiful historic places, but it’s not the most romantic city in my view because of this spirit of power that it exudes. On one level it’s these powers that are screwing up the world with greed, corruption, and violence. Yet that much power is attractive (hence the ease with which one can be corrupted by it), and also a source of hope as a place where honest changes can be made. Anyway, it’s certainly an interesting place with all sorts of people. It has conservative Southerners and more liberal Northerners being right inbetween. It has the richest most powerful people and some of the poorest Americans and immigrants from all over the world. You’ll see soldiers and peace activists (sometimes they’re actually one in the same) mingling in the metro. Plus it’s the host to very famous guests and foreign diplomats. Our favorite political comedian Jon Stewart was here, but we missed him. And last week Anne-Sophie and I got to see the President of Pakistan Musharraf speak at GWU just after he made a statement about the US threatening to bomb them. However he didn’t say anything new about that and just promoted his book. Musharraf is actually on Jon Stewart’s show tonight probably to promote his book. The first lady of Iraq is visiting the office where Anne-Sophie interns at. I’m interviewing to work at a church that George Washington himself attended. So DC is an exciting place. Despite all this, we both sort of miss Yemen. It’s Ramadan again just like our first month in Yemen one year ago. Ramadan Karim! And life was just simpler there.

Below is a link to a very extensive and fair analysis of the political events this past summer in Lebanon and its relation to many of the other countries we visited in the Middle East and the US. It’s from Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish American organization working for peace in the region. The analysis certainly corresponds to what we were learning on the ground, so I hope it helps you paint a fuller picture of the situation.

After Lebanon

We’re getting settled here in our condo in Alexandria, which is just south of Washington DC. Expect some photos when it’s completely furnished. Anne-Sophie has started her classes at George Washington and I’m looking for work. We’re also looking for a renter, so if you know anyone who needs a place here, let us know. Although we thought DC would be vastly different from the places we traveled in over the past year, it’s full of people from all over the world. So we’ll feel at home here. There are a lot of Ethiopians, Somalis, other Africans, Arabs, Asians, and Hispanics. Anne-Sophie has seen a hand full of women dressed like Yemenis covered in black around here. Just based on my metro ride yesterday, it seems like whites are the minority here. We’ll be sending you all e-mails with our new contact information soon. Below is our last installment of last summer’s travel reflections.

Best of and Worst of . . . (more…)