Friday, June 27, 2008

Middle East by Ping Pong

It has indeed been a long time since I last posted and I am sorry for the long silence, but life at work has been so busy since I came back from Istanbul - Intensive cramming courses for those who didn't pass their finals (there is to be a re-sit this Thursday). Anyway, last weekend, I managed to get away... but somewhere with NO INTERNET!
In this post, I'd like to introduce you to Lina. Lina is the sister of a student who passed already. She is one of six extraordinary siblings. From a tiny village in Berwar, all the kids in the family are super-acheivers. As you can well imagine, it isn't easy for many Iraqis to travel as even the process of getting a passport is difficult (forget the visa). But Lina has travelled all over the Middle East by playing an excellent game of PING PONG!!! The photo on the left shows Lina with just a few of her medals. She is particularly proud of winning bronze in Egypt.
And the bottom photo shows Lina playing her uncle in the Assyrian Culture Center in Kani Masi, Berwari. By the way, although they live in that small village (photos in post to come), most of her relatives speak English among many other languages. Her oldest brother has completed two MAs, one in the US on a Fullbright scholarship and the other in the UK on a British scholarship. Lorene lived 9 months in the US after being selected for an Iraqi exchange program. The two eldest have good jobs and the youngest... well, we will see what she does. What a lot of pressure to live up to her siblings.

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