An Iraqi's Journey to Provo

A student met an Iraqi high school principal, Hana’a Al Fadhli, in Washington DC as part of her HOBY (Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership) scholarship conference. She decided to hold a benefit concert at Provo High to raise funds for Mrs. Fadhli’s school arts programs.

Next friday, March 26, the evening of our Arabic Camp Day, we are putting on a concert with performers and businesses who will match contributions. Miss Bastian is the faculty advisor for her project and she is working with Lani Quisenberry, the assistant principal, as well.

Miss Bastian's main responsibility has been to manage the international logistics for the event. I’ll explain. When Mrs. Fadhli heard what we were doing, her friends in Iraq and in the HOBY organization encouraged her to come to the US especially for the concert. Her goal was to attend the benefit concert in her honor. She was coming to get training at Provo High on how to begin arts programs in her own school. She then was to return to Iraq to implement these programs and create an Iraqi model for the rest of the country to adopt.

So…Miss Bastian has been on Skype stretching my Arabic skills, handling the visa letters we need to write to get her here. Due to elections in Iraq, we had to change our letter to allow her to apply for the visa at the US embassy in Ankara, Turkey. Her appointment was Thursday.

What Happened

Miss Bastian received a two page letter this morning from her in Arabic. It’s a play by play of what happened. How she was late for her flight; how she left her laptop in the rush somewhere. How she couldn’t get to the embassy fast enough by bus and couldn’t afford a taxi so someone took her in a private car. After all this, she made it to the embassy without the critical papers she needed.

She returned to Iraq; her students gathered around her. In her letter she wrote about looking into their expectant eyes to tell them she wouldn’t be able to make it to Provo, UT for the concert. She said she is till optimistic about the future and tried to aleviate the sadness and the frustrated hopes of her students.

So, We’ve got…

a plan B. We're not going to post it here yet because we need to work out the behind the scenes stuff before it goes public but we're not giving up that easy. We’ll see. One way or the other, though. We are putting on the concert and will still focus our efforts on making those kids’ hopes in Iraq become a reality. Keep reading for more details as I confirm them.