Last night I wanted to celebrate Iftar. It was the first night of Ramadan in Washington, D.C. (though the second in Virginia, where I sleep), and I’d never had the privilege of being in a Muslim-majority nation during that holy month of food and family, daytime fasting and nighttime feasting. With a number of Muslim coworkers and […]
Continue reading →A friend from Qatar asked for my help with an assignment she got: enable a 16-year-old girl who’s moving to Doha, Qatar with her family to gain some cultural competency. She reached out to me because while she knew what it was like to grow up in Qatar, I had experience coming there as an adult […]
Continue reading →A friend posted this on Facebook. It’s a blog of images of Americans saying something which we should not have to say, but which today‘s ignorant coverage reminded me more than ever we must say: We are America and we do not hate Muslims. I joined in evincing solidarity by posting making this image my profile […]
Continue reading →I got interviewed last summer by a reporter working on an article for Newsweek and the article just came out. I’m not ok with everything in the article (and I did not say anything ominously) but it’s nice to be considered a valuable source of information on living in the Middle East. Enjoy! Inspirational Quote: “If you […]
Continue reading →While I was in Lebanon, I had dinner in Saida with two impressive women. Over snacks and crepes, we talked about a whole wide range of topics, but I finally brought up a question I’d been struggling with in nearly a week of speaking Arabic every day. How can I be polite in Arabic? At […]
Continue reading →On my trip to Lebanon I was privileged to hear the Ambassador from the Vatican–who my excellent book on the American Foreign Service calls the “nuncio of the Holy See”–speak to a group of high school students from schools run by the Al-Mukasad foundation. The Pope was encouraging people to live in peace; nowhere that […]
Continue reading →All around Beirut, pock-marking stunning French facades and cutting through the bodies of statues alike, are bullet holes. Bullet holes. Nothing else; just bullet holes. Scars of the 15 year civil war which raged across the city and the country. People interested in the region describe the conflict as Christian against Muslim, rich against poor, […]
Continue reading →I was on the TechWomen trip to Jordan, but why was I in Beirut? Last fall, my Mom mentored and worked with Adla Chantila, who is the Director of Finance and Information Technology at the Al-Mukasad Foundation. The Al-Mukasad foundation is an Islamic charity based in Beirut that runs schools, hospitals, a publishing company and many other positive […]
Continue reading →In my bio I mention that I speak enough Arabic to have a good conversation with a six-year-old. After my first full-day in Jordan, I decided to revise that upwards. I can have a solid, small-talk-y conversation with adult strangers. I can talk about the weather and family and traveling, about my work and my […]
Continue reading →While I was in Jordan on the TechWomen trip I heard from a number of organizations working to widen different sections of the Jordanian economic pipeline. Injaz, which helps school children and college students learn entrepreneurial and office skills, Oasis500 which helps entrepreneurs get their start-ups off the ground, TechWomen itself, helping professional women in […]
Continue reading →