Rest and Recuperation Travel

Each of us assigned by State to the Embassy gets 3 R&Rs/year, or, 2 longer R&Rs and three shorter Regional Rest Breaks. I don't know why it is called rest and recuperation - given the effort to get it done, it should be called sleep removal and reduction. The toughest part of these R&Rs is getting out and back to Baghdad, due to security concerns. I won't go into details, that would be poor operational security, but suffice it to say that for us, it took 53 hours from leaving our residence at the Embassy compound in Baghdad to the airport in Philadelphia. the largest single leg was from our residence in Baghdad to Amman, Jordan. Of course, traveling in a sleigh pulled by only one reindeer is slow going, but the other reindeer were in training for Christmas eve service.

We arrived in the states in time to participate in the Christmas, XMAS for you non-Christians (see “Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus” in God in the Dock collected essays by C.S. Lewis) , preparations, buying, shopping, giving, receiving, eating, drinking, reveling, etc. as required/expected/desired. Midnight Mass was great - first one that i've been to in years, but I very much missed being with the small catholic community in baghdad on Christmas - a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-ritual mass was planned.

Jet lag - I've always had a harder time adjusting to the time change caused by flying west versus flying east. I find myself falling asleep at 5 in the afternoon, then rising at 1 am. gradually, i stay up later and rise at the normal hour of 6 am. but, it takes several days. going east, it takes about a day, maybe two, to re-set my personal/bio clock.

Two weeks to our return to baghdad, and I'm already dreading the travel. Time to get ebooks to read along the way!

Visitors, visitors, visitors

"Tis the season for the visits
fah la la la la, la la la la"

We had the deputy secretary of state with a small entourage. well, entourage is a stretch - he had a few staff people. of course, lots of security. but, still , with only a few staff people, it was not an entourage.

he traveled all over the country and made a great impression on everyone. i made a point of shaking his hand and tanking him for his work - and for awarding me a degree at the JMIC a few years ago.
he is a quite impressive career public servant - one i hope to emulate in many ways.

next. on the 18th of December, the day Nancy and i were going on our first r&r, the secretary herself arrived. a short visit, but she took the time to say hello to the "troops". well, really it was the troops, since most of the State dpt. types could not find a place in the hall for her meet-and-greet, so we moved on to other things so CR could have her photos with the ethnically, racially, sex, and age balanced group of soldiers, sailors, airmen/women and marines. hmm, maybe we should call them airers to avoid the execrable airmen/women?

of course, there are always a lot of visitors to Baghdad at the Christmas season. all the political leaders come to show their support for the troops. some, let's be honest, not everyone is kind and other-centered, come to win votes back in the states. both are disruptive. yes, it is important to show support for the troops, and i think those fighting outside the wire, facing death regularly, appreciate the gesture. still, maybe a real day off with no visitors at all, but just a day, be it thanksgiving day or be it Christmas, when all one has to do is give thanks or contemplate the birth of the God the Son as a baby would be better than visitors.

Merry Christmas!

Baghdad Winds

the wind was whipping the tarpaulins in the international zone today. gusts of upt to 15 mph. marvelous. i've always loved weather. any weather - i'm eclectic in my taste for climate-expressions. rain, fog, sun, wind - all can be enjoyed.

last night, the wind was making the trailer we call home rock a little bit. yes, it was rocking because of the wind.

this morning, a few sprinkles of light rain mixed with the ongoing wind. then, by about noon time, the wind picked up and was tossing around the tarpaulins that cover the stacks of sandbags. at one point, walking to my trailer, had the other trailers on my right, stacks of sandbags on my left, and the tarpaulin over me, whipping in the wind. reminded me of the fabric covers over the narrow streets in Toledo, Spain used for the Corpus Christi processions with the consecrated host in the monstrance.

it gets scarier though: an old hand, someone who had been here in 2005, regaled me and one of the sr. embassy officers with a story of the windstorms/sandstorms he had experienced. at times, he said, the sandstorm and wind was so intense, the horizon was obscured and that sand and dust swirled inside the tightly sealed buildings. now, the dust here is so bad, you need to use a Swiffer (R) every few hours if you are serious about keeping things clean. but the thought of all that dust and sand blowing around at gale force, getting inside the tightly sealed boxes we call home - well yuck! of course, the best is that at times the rain joins with the sandstorms, rarely, to rain mud. sounds great, eh. "I'm singin' in the mudrain, just singin' in the mud..." catchy.

remember - comments welcome; questions too.

Rainy night in Baghdad

It's a raingy night in Baghdad,
Rainy night in Baghdad,
some times, I feel like it's rainin'
all ovah the world.

We now move from the season of dust, to the season of mud.

I'll need new shoes when I leave here, in fact, i'll need new everything just about.
Laundry is hard on the clothes, dry-cleaning is harder on the suits, and the shoe leather cracks from the dryness, or gets filled with dust and then disintegrates.

minor inconveniences in a relative sense.