Iftar with the Ambassador

U.S. Ambassador to the The Hague, James Culbertson, talks with former Dutch parliamentarian, Fadime Örgü. (Photo by Rita J. King)

Thanks to Dr. Brown I just found a link to a Helsinki-based blog with the entry, "Iftar with the Ambassador." Coincidentally, we attended Iftar dinner with the Ambassador last night at the residence of U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, James Culbertson in The Hague.

It's a small world, indeed.

Cynthia Schneider told us before we left that we had to meet with Tilly de Groot at the U.S. Embassay in The Hague. Later at a meeting with Mohamed Baba of Mexit, Mohamed told us that we absolutely had to meet Tilly de Groot. So it was not without some irony and much happiness on our part that it was Tilly de Groot who would invite us to the Iftar dinner.

Of the embassies I've either worked in or visited, there has always been one local employee at the embassy (a "foreign service national" as they are affectionately called in state department lingo) who really seems to run the place. They know everyone in the city (and country). Very much the Malcolm Gladwell "Connector" types.

We'll be writing more about the Iftar dinner in our upcoming report on the Understanding Islam project.

"Nests are nests." (Photo by Rita J. King)

"I can't wait for dessert," I confessed to our neighbor, Fadime Örgü, at the dinner table. "I love those desserts that look like nests. What do you call them?"

"We call them nests," replied Fadime politely.

I leaned over to Eureka and whispered, "I guess that's kind of like calling bread bread."