After several months of worrying and so many of us missing Mustafa and Ahmed so so badly, and many friends/interpreters trying various #s to reach them, we were finally able to talk with Ahmed last Friday night. The phone situation and security in Iraq is terrible. The phone connection was horrible and it took several tries to get the line to go through. So, the conversation was limited–on both ends it was extremely hard to hear clearly and at one point, we got disconnected and had to call a second time. The speaker phone didn’t work as the connection was so distorted, so we kept asking our questions to Waddah and Saed as one or the other interpreted into the phone.

At the beginning of the call, for the first minutes when we could hear on the speaker phone, we all broke into smiles and tears as Ahmed said, “I love you, Portland!” It was his wonderful lovely voice!

The important thing we heard is that Mustafa is doing okay. Ahmed said Mustafa had recently gone through some tests and that all is okay with his renal status. (For those of you on the medical team, we did ask Ahmed and the doctor in Fallujah to send the medical reports to Jordan to be sent to us for review by the nephrologist here). More on that soon.

Mustafa apparently is using his prosthesis–although, it is not so comfortable. His colostomy is working fine and he is not in pain.

Ahmed reassured us that Mustafa is playing lots of floor soccer. He will be able to start going to school when the next term starts.

Their entire family is safe and well–that’s what is important.

Due to the poor connection, we really couldn’t have much more of a conversation. Hopefully, we will now be able to reach them easier. Even though it is uncertain when a connection will go through, let us
know if you’d like to be together when we try next time.

We will keep you posted as we hear more.

Several of us were at the Amy Goodman event yesterday. She was, as always, excellent. One thing she said that rings so true to me: It is, of course, a historic and monumental time that Obama is
president. Pres. Obama has the possibility to listen to two groups. One is the group of powerful insiders who know the ways of access very well. They are already at his side and are well organized. The other is US, the people–those in the streets and those of us contacting our congresspeople demanding that he (they)
take the course of PEACE. We cannot sit back and hope it will be better, we are losing precious time. For Mustafa’s sake and for all the children of Iraq and Afghanistan, we have to demand another way–
BRING THE TROOPS HOME/NO MORE $ FOR WAR.

Salaam/shalom/peace,
Ned and Maxine