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The Waiting Place
The Waiting Place intrigued me from the beginning. It's tagline, "...Contemplations on those who left, by those who were left behind." The image of two women, one veiled, increased my curiosity. Reading a few entries, I learn that this is a "warblog," of sorts, but isn't easy to categorize as so. The writers aren't your average armchair pundits, in fact, much the opposite.
Trish and her daughter, Eva, have been blogging since April of 2003, mostly regarding the situation in the Middle East and their own deep connection to it. Meran, Eva's husband, is a Kurdish Iraqi who emigrated to the United States in 1992. There, he fell in love with and married Eva. Last year, he was called back to Iraq to translate for the Department of Defense. I found this to be a powerfully human and eye-opening story, and the blog is an eloquent expression of it.
The entries, though far from regular, are full of details, and easily read. This blog focuses more on the human aspect of the Middle East conflict, and this is marvelously refreshing. The authors speak of the situation facing Kurdish natives of Iraq, very personal to them. Be sure to read the poem on the left of the page, as it helps to give cotext to the rest of the blog. Eva writes about life as an American Muslim, both stateside and abroad. Despite its somewhat ethnic flavor, this blog has incredible universality.
By far the most enjoyable part of this blog is the occasionally-posted letters between Eva and her husband. These are truly touching, and give readers a portrait of a genuinely loving marriage, and what happens when two people who love eachother are torn apart by circumstances. Amid Meran's sweet missives of love to his wife, we learn of his experiences overseas and the job he does. I was most moved by Meran's dutiful assurance to his wife back in the states, "I am a man of this century and the next."
Be sure to follow the links in the right-hand column, to other blogs and complimentary sites. Beneath the picture, Meran's name is linked to a page showing the Kurdish area of Iraq and an brief bio of him by Trish. The sheer quality of the blog itself makes up for any design issues. However, the page appears somewhat off-kilter. I would move the main picture to directly beneath the title. Also, on my screen-resolution, there is a horizontal scrollbar. This isn't a big deal, and could probably be remedied by cropping the edges of the photo of Meran and Eva in the right-hand colum.
This blog is a must-read for anyone in the blogosphere wanting to be well-informed about the war in Iraq. In all honesty, however, the blog is not about the war in Iraq. It is about a woman, her mother, and the man she loves. For that reason, I recommend this site to anyone and everyone.
This site was reviewed on 2004-03-27 by darling.
They felt this site belonged in the Personal category.
darling felt that The Waiting Place deserved a rating of 5.
The Waiting Place. Who is waiting? Where are they waiting? And most importantly what are they waiting for? Questions without answers unless I read the weblog.
When the page first loads I was greeted with a huge banner atop a standard blogger template. The banner had an image of two women entitled Eva and I. Great, more questions. Who are these two women? With another question in my mind, I went on to read the blog itself.
After reading the first paragraph of the most recent post I knew that I was in for a ride unlike any other I had been on while reviewing a blog. This made me excited to read more, and learn more about what was going on, so I did.
The blog is written by two people: Eva and Trish. I can only assume that the image of the two women at the top is the two of them. Trish is Eva's mother, and Eva is the wife of a man who is currently in Iraq. This blog is their perspective on what is going on both in their own lives and in Iraq.
Trish mostly posts about what is going on with her daughter (Eva), while Eva posts mostly about what is going on with her husband. A very interesting relationship that is developed with this respect for posting on the site.
As I said, I knew I was in for a ride unlike any others. The weblog actually tells a story. One with highs, lows, and everything in between. I was amazed at how moved I became while reading this story. I particularly enjoyed reading about the trip Eva took to Iraq to see her husband. Even though there were a lot of hardships it was composed very well. Now (read more current posts) it seems as if they are just waiting on Eva's husband to return to the states. Again, the story of how Eva is still moving on with her life without her husband for the temporary time is very moving and one that should have a very happy ending.
I only have three minor problems with The Waiting Place. My first is there is no about section. It took me nearly 3 months worth of archives to figure out who was who, and what was going on. My second complaint is that there seems to be some gaps in the story not told. This could be either an intentional thing, or something caused from Blogger. Finally the lack of total posts for each month is on the low side, but given the circumstances of how this weblog is told it is expected.
Overall I enjoyed the story told at The Waiting Place. I recommend reading this blog to get a completely different perspective on how the war in Iraq effects people. As I said, this was a great ride to take and I plan on continuing to see where it goes.
This site was reviewed on 2004-03-27 by Brent.
They felt this site belonged in the Personal category.
Brent felt that The Waiting Place deserved a rating of 4.
2 reviewers gave The Waiting Place an average rating of 4.5000
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Site Category: Personal
Reader Rating: 2.3333 based on 3 votes
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