With President Obama promising to speak in public within an Islamic capital in his first 100 days I decided to write him a letter of encouragement. Having lived two years in the Middle East I wanted to share a little of my experience in the region:

Dear President Obama,

I wanted to share with you a story as you prepare to travel to an Islamic capital. It is a story of friendship and moderation at a time when those things seem to be in short supply in our relations with the Islamic World.

In 1988 I joined the Peace Corps and was selected to go to Yemen. Being from Kansas City and never having traveled abroad you can only imagine how this experience transformed my world view. I was chosen to take part in a pilot project that put Peace Corps English teachers in rural villages. I was the first Westerner that most of the people in my village had ever seen. I was blessed though. The teachers that taught in my school were from all over the Arab World. Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Tunisians, Sudanese, Somalis, and Palestinians were all represented there. And there was me, the American or Amreeki as they called me. For them I was the only image of America that they had ever seen. I am tall, with blond hair and blue eyes and I was teaching in Yemen…for free. With electricity for only six hours a day we would often talk into the night, long past the time when the generator switched off, and the candles provided the only light. Some in English, most in Arabic we would talk about our homes, our beliefs, our country and our politics. I was sent to teach the Yemeni kids English but I learned way more from living in that small mountain village than I could ever teach them.

After a year in my village I met Naji Kilani. Naji was a Jordanian who taught English at the local elementary school. He, his wife and his two children all lived in a small apartment-like dwelling in the village. We became quick friends. He helped me with my Arabic and I helped him with his English. We played chess and his wife would make Jordanian food and serve super sweet tea. I would invite Naji over to my two room hovel and I would make him tacos. When my two years were up we exchanged addresses and each went our own way. At first the letters between us were sporadic.  Then in the early 2000s there were e-mails. And now with the advent of instant message we have been chatting and even calling each other over the internet. It is like the 20 years that have transpired since we last saw each other had not passed at all. Despite the first Gulf War, 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan, the Iraq War and all the tensions surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict we are as close of friends as we were in 1988. We talk about the lunacy of those amongst us who stray to the fringes of fanaticism and we maintain the notion that an American from Missouri and a Jordanian from Irbid can talk with one another over thousands of miles and find many more things in common that differences.  

So Mr. President take heart. Those in the Islamic World are looking for a path to moderation. Sure, there are those whose blind faith has led them down a destructive path but as you know from living in Indonesia, most of the people are willing, and even eager, to embrace America again. All the best on your journey. I am pleased the road you have chosen is a much different one than your predecessor.