The following is a short article that I sent to my old job to be included in their next newsletter ... The Octopress (Ok, it's a strange name but it's a Marine and Natural Science Museum and they have an Octopus as their mascot!).

Marhaba (Hello) from Baghdad! Sophia here. Remember me! I know that the Spring Season at the Center is in full swing now and the volunteers and staff are probably busy with school programs and running the exhibits. I've heard that you are having a warm and dry spring. Well, I'm having a very hot spring here in Baghdad (it's already hotter than the hottest day of summer in the Northwest and I'm told that the heat is only beginning). I hope you have been able to follow my activities on my weblog (peacework.blogspot.com) via the Internet. I've certainly been keeping busy! I've been teaching English Conversation at the University of Baghdad; helping a young man with MS get medical attention; helping to support aid workers that traveled into Fallujah during the worst of the fighting; researching and reporting on issues such as depleted uranium, pollution and homelessness in Iraq. My latest plan is to start a Tigres River project, which includes boating down the river through the city of Baghdad to look at all the pollution problems along the river and to allow Iraqis, who for many years could not even access large sections of the river, an opportunity to see that the river belongs to them. Let's hope the Americans and the Mujaheddin don't shoot at me!