Susan's 366 Project: Day 925: World Cup

Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in overtime to win the World Cup in soccer. Evan is rejoicing! Steve watched most of the game while I swam, but I got to see the celebration at the end when Angela Merkel was embracing each member of the team. She was giddy! Poor Brazil took fourth place after being defeated 3-0 by the Netherlands. I'm glad to see the rise of a global sport that unites people from all over the world! I'm also glad that it wasn't a humiliating loss for Argentina. When they look back at today's game, they will see they missed opportunities to score, but they can be very proud of their performance.

At Penelope this morning, Linda shared two poems that she had revised and Carolyn shared a grant application she had written. Then Penny offered us insight into her life in the Middle East from the late 1960s to the 1980s.

A dear friend she had lived with for a while in Lebanon passed away in February of Alzheimer's. The woman's daughter discovered a pack of letters that Penny had written to her mom over the years. She packed them up and sent them to Penny along with a lovely letter of thanks and a DVD the family had made about their mother's life.

Penny wrote about her activities as a traveling artist and photographer in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman, her time in Beirut during the bombings during the civil war. She wrote of fine coffees, old friends, a special cake. Many of the cards were her original drawings. What a treasure trove! And how incredibly kind of the daughter to return all those treasures to Penny.

Then she shared a slide show of her photographs with us. Professor Kay S. had organized an event at the college where she brought in three experts in percussion instruments from the middle east. For a week in June, they taught a group of students how to play. Then, they staged a performance for the public. To start off the program and create the right scene, another colleague prepared a powerpoint of Penny's photos.

In one photo, she captured the profile of a Bedouin boy about six years old with bushy dark hair and fearful eyes. When he first saw her, he ran away into the desert and his family had to search for him. He had never seen a white woman before and she terrified him. There were several photos of her drawing scenes of village life with a cluster of men and boys surrounding her. She was commissioned by the Ford Foundation to photograph the work of the silversmiths, including jewelry, scabbards, belts and grips. Sometimes, women took off the jewelry and hung it on a textured wall for her to photograph.

Many women stopped to pose for her with their children. Their traditional garb was suited to desert life. Modest, practical, but colorful, it was much more liberal than the extreme costumes today.

She's been working on a book for several years. I'm sure it would be grabbed up by a publisher because it reveals a real insider's view of the middle east. In any case, it is such a valuable representation of her life and a treasure for her family.