Jo Wilding in Baghdad

Felt so "home-sick" reading Jo's eloquent first post back in Baghdad. Anyone who's read my blog in October may recognise some of the people she talks about - Salam and Muthana who were my translators (who are going to Geneva for Indymedia training - wow congratulations guys!!); the Al-Fanar hotel, which has now opened the outdoor cafe in the space between the concrete blocks and razorwire defending the Palastine hotel; Michael and Eva who are busy defending the Palastinian refugees (who's position is particularly precarious)...

I'm stuck in my room in London processing hundreds of unread Jubilee Iraq emails and planning how to use Bush's visit to Britain next week to advance the campaign. Going to an Anglo-Iraqi "iftar" in at sunset - the meal which breaks the fast during Ramadan (have any budding etmologists out there noticed the root of the english work "breakfast"). I hope there'll be some of the Iraqi dishes which Riverbend mouthwateringly describes.