My name is Marie Keefe. It is likely that I will be crying before I get through five more words, because as I look at you; you are just wonderful people, and it is you who have modulated the trip. I am here largely because of someone who I admire, but secondarily because I find the whole notion of peace and social justice more elusive than I would like it to be, and that’s a catalyst for me to come to a place where I thought we would talk about interfaith and intercultural stuff, which we haven’t done, because what we’ve done is far more important!

 I am Susan Mapchail from North Carolina. If I still have the right phrase this time, “doydum”, and (laughs). This has been a very full week, very intense. It has been a transformative experience for me in many ways. I agree that it was exhausting but I think that’s part of the process that I got so exhausted that parts of my natural defenses kind of were melted away (laughs)… I learned a lot about all the religions, even my own religion. I felt I came to a deeper understanding.

 I am Judith Sayed from Charlottesville, Virginia. I found the week here with Rumiforum very affirming. I can echo all that has been said thus far. I found it particularly affirming the fact that, being married to a Muslim and being a Roman Catholic, is very possible. It is probably a very special relationship, probably even more so than between a couple… I found this affirming too in the beauty and warmth of the people in this part of the world. I always love to go to Cairo, and view the warmth and the affirmation from my husband’s family, and I felt the same thing here.

 My name is Fatina Abdrabboh. I am from Cambridge, Massachusetts and I would like to just thank the RumiForum of course for this opportunity. It has been spectacular you know to say the least. I certainly echo everybody else’s sentiments.   It is so funny that all of us have given lengthy concluding remarks, you know this elevated nature, inspiration and enthusiasm, yet we all are somehow able to add to that already kind of gigantic level of things and energy. I think that is kind of telling that we all had kind of unique experience equally, you know uniquely grateful.

 I am Jeanne Clarkson. I am from Vienna, Virginia. This whole trip to me is somewhat of a surprise. I came to it by way of the baptism of my first grandchild. The priest who baptized her from Georgetown Father John Huoy was the individual who told me about RumiForum and who said that there is this upcoming trip and asked me to contact Ali which I did. So this is one of the, if not the happiest surprise of my life. That being said everything that has happened back in this past week has been extremely unique and extremely special.

 My name is Debbie Reichmann and I am from, I currently live in Potomac, Maryland and I am from Georgetown University. As everyone has been speaking, I have become more and more nervous as to how I can add to this with any relevance not because just of ego or not because we all managed to speak a fair amount of such wonderful things and truly moving things. When you started this, saying that we were gonna speak and we will get the DVD and we will listen to it again, you know I said yeah sure, whatever, sounds nice; but no! Ali, you are absolutely right: I will take this and I will listen to every single one of these statements again probably more than once because the kernels of truth I mean the golden nuggets that have been put forward to this table already this evening have been tremendous. So is now my contribution, as best as I can:

 My name is father Conrad Pecevich. I want to say, first of all that, this has been for me a very spiritual experience and cultural and many other things. I first of all want to say spiritual; because I have appreciated so much the faith of the Turkish people and people here in Turkey of various religious traditions especially the places of worship that we have visited during the week. This is a trip that I would never be able to have taken in my lifetime or afford it. Every day I made a point to get to a mosque or two, to thank God, thank Allah for the people who have made this trip possible, because it hasn’t been a simple trip. It is a very complex and wonderful and beautiful trip with every little detail has been taken care of.

 I am thoroughly impressed. If Turkey wants another citizen I may be applying so that could possibly happen. I found the whole organization of the trip the way that it was put together in such a thoughtful way that I think it really exceeded my expectations way beyond I could have ever imagined.  I have really enjoyed the culture immensely. I find the experience that we have that we were talking earlier today on the bus trying to figure out what was the best highlight of the trip, and I can’t think of the best highlight because each one of them was the best. I am forever appreciative for this opportunity. I could have come to Turkey on my own but I don’t think I could have seen it the way that you showed it to us Ali. I am looking forward to coming back to Turkey with my own family. Then I will be their tour guide at that point and show them around because I am really excited about the opportunity to do that. I want to be able to go to Konya and other parts that we didn’t see this time.