Although we've been having some trouble uploading pictures here, we've managed to post these two from a few weeks ago.
Joel and Dana together with friends.

Hi all,

Sorry we've been silent for a month now, but we've been keeping busy. Dana has got a job this past month at the British School of Bucharest as a secretary. It's very good for us as the cost of living here is significantly higher than in India. Joel is now also helping out with the construction of our church's new building here in Bucharest in addition to getting ready to take some classes through the Internet this coming September.

Of course, our friends in the States will want to know how things are going with Dana's visa situation. These things take time though and so we really have no good idea of how long the process will run. We will update you as we know.

Mostly our lives are pretty uncomplicated beyond that. Just tired. Dana's job is pretty demanding and the travel there and back each day takes somewhere around 3 to 4 hours total. This weekend is therefore all the more of a much needed break.

In addition to her new job, Dana has also been working the past weekends and evenings translating and subtitling a film made by some friends who are associated with the School of Hindu Studies. We were finally able to show the film in Romanian last Sunday evening to all our friends at the River of Life fellowship. Pictures, as they say, speak a thousand words. Everyone seemed to enjoy the film and were able to understand more clearly what life in India looks like than by us simply relating our experiences. It's been well worth it as the hard work is now finished. The next translation into English (subtitles) will be much easier as everything is already set up and timed.

Tomorrow we will hopefully be able to see Pirates of the Caribbean. These cliffhanger endings so popular since Lord of the Rings are a bit annoying, but as they say in India, 'What to do Yaar?!'
Ok, that's it on this side. Peace out.

shanti, shanti, shanti...
J&D

Foreign Affairs

Further evidence for the necessity for the US to pull out of Iraq comes in an article in the latest eddition of Foreign Affairs, the most prestigious periodical in the USA on international relations. The author Bruce Riedel clearly states that "Al Qaeda is a more dangerous enemy today than it has ever been before ... thanks largely to Washington's eagerness to go into Iraq" and further recomends that "Rather than reinforce its failures, the United States should disengage from the civil war in Iraq, with a complete, orderly, and phased troop withdrawal".