From Sand Storms to Rain

27 October 2008

Iraq has changed a lot in the past couple days. At least the weather has. Last week I got completely covered in dust during a couple days of high winds which blew the dust everywhere. It was pretty strong winds too so we were pelted with dust and probably ate far more dirt that we're really supposed to in a year. The skies were the color of dust, visibility was low, when the wind was blowing you couldn't actually see in front of you, it was like a sand out...I guess they call those brown outs. It was a little ridiculous. I took several pictures and then low and behold the next day it started raining. What I was told was that the rain storms bring in the cold front which picks up all the dust. So this rain Storm that blew in dumped on us for a good day and a half. I heard overall we got 1 inch of rain, but 1 inch of rain dropped on an impermeable surface pools, so now we have minor lakes around the FOB, or large puddles, which ever floats your boat...or armored Army vehicle.

The dust has turned from one form of annoying to another. First it was covering everything in a thin film, stuck in your lungs, covering you from head to toe, now it covers everything in a gooey muddy mess, gets globed onto your clothes, and is impossible to clean up because the second you clean is the second more mud comes.

Right after the rain though it was very pretty because the dust had been washed off everything. All the trees were washed free from their dust, the clouds went away and the sky is bright and amazing now. So there are some benefits. And speaking of the sky, you know those posters that show the rays of heaven shinning down from the sky, back lighting the clouds as God sends is message or whatever to us, well I understand why now because that is exactly what the sky looks like here sometimes. And I think it's only fitting as the birthplace of all humanity and the place where Adam and Eve apparently ate the apple that the sky should look like God is watching down. Now what he's doing about the bombs and bullets is another story, but at least the sky is amazing.

I have taken a lot of pictures, and I was fully prepared to load them today, but unfortunately this computer will not let me. So I will develop another plan and hopefully have these pictures up soon. I have some good ones of me from the dust storm, I put out a fire today with the help of our volunteer fire fighters who were teaching us about fire safety. They lit a big pan of fuel on fire and had us march up there, armed with our fire extinguishers, and put out the flames. It was pretty exciting, the first time I've actually used a fire extinguisher. And as an added bonus the chemicals in my fire extinguisher were blue so I made a blue pan of ash!

Other than the weather nothing exciting to report. Work is on and off, depending on how well I understand what I'm doing. I haven't gotten too bored or overwhelmed yet so I guess that's good. We're all settling in pretty well and I successfully plugged the leeks in our CHU (containerized housing unit), so now when it rains we wont get muddy inside. I hear the weather in the states is very fall like, here it is I guess Iraqi-fall like so that's good.

Miss you all and I'll try to get this updated more often.