Category archives: Nonfiction
She’s Always Smiling
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet Honya Mahdi, a 15 month-old who had surgery last November. I remember reading about her on the PLC blog months ago, when I was first learning about Preemptive Love Coalition.… continue reading »
Mohammad Star’s Follow-Up
If you all haven’t had a chance to read my post about Mohammad Star on the Preemptive Love blog, check it out now: click!
Baghdad
Last Friday I met an girl named Shahoda who’s a university student in our city. She’s one of the first Arabs I’ve met since being here, which immediately piqued my curiosity. I got lunch with her, Claire, Elise and Sarah… continue reading »
Hi, I’m a narcissist
I am a narcissist. After my Media and Society paper about narcissism on Facebook, I realized that I have all the tell-tale signs of a narcissist. I talk about myself. I am frustrated when people don’t honor me the way… continue reading »
Life in Iraq: education
Yesterday afternoon, Claire and I visited Zeba and Amir in their office, two floors below the Preemptive Love office. One of Zeba’s friends was at their shop and we conversed with him about womanhood in Iraq, life in Texas, PLC,… continue reading »
Meeting Honya and Mohammad
After Preemptive Love sends kids into heart surgery, they continue to check up on them through a program called FollowThrough. This program allows PLC to make sure the kids are adjusting to life, are healthy, and so on. Thursday Claire,… continue reading »
Life in Iraq: careers
I’ve been sitting in on Preston and Claire’s English class on Monday and Wednesday evenings, just to listen to English-speaking Kurds talk about life. It’s an advanced class; everyone can converse in English quite well. (Every once in a while… continue reading »
To be human
people are just peoplethey shouldn’t make you nervousthe world is everlasting, it’s coming and it’s going — People are just people. I read in George Orwell’s “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius” that people are not… continue reading »
Goforth
Hi, friends, from Sulaymaniyah. As you know from my last two posts, I started my Preemptive Love Coalition internship a few days late. (Thanks, Delta.) Tuesday was my first day; Wednesday was my first day in the office. I love… continue reading »
Turkish Delight
I’m writing this in Sulaymaniyah, but I’m going to pretend I’m writing this from Istanbul. I’ll post my first-day-in-Iraq blog when I get to it. Perhaps when the Internet consistently works. (Come on, Lappy.) — The flight to Greece was,… continue reading »