Dear friends:

Just to let you know that I had another phone contact with Mary Foster.

I passed on to them all the messages of best wishes and encouragement that I have received so far.

They are doing well, although they are very tired. They have not had a lot of time to sleep. Tomorrow they will be visiting a writers' gathering, and in the afternoon will visit a farm. There is another event scheduled for the evening. Hopefully their first written report will be sent by tomorrow morning our time.

Mary describes the mood as tense and weighty. One cannot escape the tension. She says they have been received well by the project and by the people of Baghdad. She finds it strange to be so well received. People are incredibly nice, she said, even before they hear that they are with the Peace Team project. In Amman, she said, people were crazy with gratitude when they heard they were with the Peace Team project. In Baghdad, one woman told her that she knew it was the US/UK/Canadian government, and not its people, that was threatening her country, her family and herself

The IPT project is dealing with a fair amount of turnover of participants, as well as changes in world events, and there is a need to re-organize and re-structure the program to continue functioning at its best and yet remain flexible to respond to changing circumstances.

M, M & L are attending some meetings to help facilitate this process. All in all they have a lot on their plate! I look forward to hearing more news from them.

Gretchen from CKUT will be doing another phone interview tomorrow afternoon our time, so stay tuned for that! More later

Vallie Stearns vallie@magma.ca on behalf of the Ottaw-Montreal Peace Team Support Groups 613-729-6392