Haiku Iraq

A friend commented recently that he could hardly think of any people he knew who were completely untouched by the war in Iraq. Nearly everyone knows someone directly who is serving/stationed there, or is just one step removed (a friend or coworker has a loved one serving). You may be surprised to learn that even a liberal, eco-green school like BGI is directly affected: One of our students is with the U.S. Embassy, Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, and is currently stationed in Baghdad.

We just had our classes up at Bainbridge Island this weekend, and one thing we do each day is begin with a circle where the whole school is together to start the day off. Our missing colleague drew a circle in the sand in Iraq so that he could stand with us. And in turn, we used a small camcorder to capture our circle digitally (a guy walked around the inside, filming the row of people as we waved). We sent him the film, which touched his heart. And he posted his picture of the sand circle on his blog, along with a poem.

It's a great blog, by the way: http://haikuiraq.blogspot.com/. The poems are incredibly beautiful. We are all touched by this war.