Al Hamdoo Lillah!!

Well, after many, many months of waiting, we finally had the money to repay our contractor for all the work he's done on the schools. We just got back from going to his hotel and giving him the last of what we owe him. It's been months since he finished the work and he's had to take out a personal loan in the meantime because we couldn't pay our debts, but we've finally squared everything with him. Al Hamdoo Lillah! I wasn't happy with the decision to hire him at the first because I was hoping that we could have volunteers do all or most of the work, but I am _sooo_ glad now that we hired this particular believer who walks the walk and was so patient with and gracious to us, even when we treated him poorly. He has become my "Arab father" and I'm thankful for him.

In other news, as I was riding through town this morning, I noticed something which made me laugh. I'd seen SUVs and such around town before with "My child is an honor student at...." stickers on them, I'd even seen one or two with US license plates....but this morning made me laugh out loud in the car, then have to explain to the driver. I saw a relatively late-model blue Oldsmobile Silhouette Mini Van with the following dealership label on it: Ed Groves, Clarksville, TN. So if any of my TN readers know Ed, and if he knows of any of his Silhouettes that have been stolen recently, you can tell him that I saw one here. :)

Actually...there's a website called www.talktoyourdealer.com that's letting me write to him directly. Here's the letter I'm sending him. I'll let you know if I get a reply.

Hi!
I currently live in Baghdad while working with a humanitarian organization and was surprised today to see a relatively late model blue Oldsmobile Silhouette with your dealership's label on it. I'm not sure that there's any way to return it to its original owner, but if you know who they are, they might be interested to know that their loss is Iraq's gain. If nothing else, it makes for a great story for your dealership. :) You advertise internationally now! :)