Dear Anwar,

It was very nice to talk with you and Nayla this morning.
I know that the kids were delighted to talk with you two.

I hope that your summer goes well. It certainly can't go
too badly with <habibatuki> nearby!  No matter what else goes
right or wrong, it must be very good to have hear near you!

Anwar, I want to discuss with you the car we're giving Nayla.
I already told this to her, but I want to make sure you
understand. We almost waited telling her that we were giving
her the car until she was back in the US for one reason.
We decided to tell her before she went back to Bahrain,
however, because we felt it wouldn't be fair for her not to
know. Maybe she would have worried about a car, tried to
raise money, etc. But we know how things are in the Middle East,
and the reason we considered not telling her until after she
left Bahrain was we were concerned she would feel compelled
to reciprocate the gift.  

Please do not do this, Anwar.
Look,  you two are both getting student stipends to live off
of and to (hopefully) save for your final ceremony and your household.
If this were not the case, it might be different, but if you
reciprocated now it would make it much harder for you to
save for these very important  things. God has been very
good to us; I have a computer science research assistant
salary, and of course Beth gets a good wage as a pharmacist.
And God has blessed us with many things, including very wonderful
friends like you and Nayla. So when Beth and I were making
our moving plans, we realized that this summer we would have
one more car than we needed, and Nayla had one less car than
she needed. So it was quite natural. You can't argue with
the math, Anwar!  

I have to go now and work more on my dissertation. By the
time you read this, _insha allah_, I will have turned in
my penultimate (semi-final) draft. I will certainly send you
a copy of the finished dissertation later this summer.

Please give greetings from Beth, Abby, Adam, and I to Nayla
and to both of your families.