With time winding down... 29 more days.
If ever one could want to escape to a place where one might sit in silence, away from even the faintest reminder of life in the domestic continent.... this could well be it. I don't see much of the world that lies "outside the wire," but a few times, I've seen local children play while tending to a flock of sheep or goats.
The girls mostly wear brightly colored coverings which expose very little skin to the sunlight. To some, this is an image full of cultural turmoil. For now, I set aside those considerations and just appreciate the fact that despite how "terrible" one might speculate life might be in this part of the world, one has to appreciate the slow-paced sense of peace that seems to pervade.
If only it could be enjoyed uninterrupted by thoughts of safety from possible gun fire. For better or for worse, the sounds weapons discharge have all but receded into the regular background noise of "business as usual." Each Friday night, our squadron selects a movie to watch on the rooftop, where our deployed predecessors built a covered wooden deck and movie screen. Few of us choose to remain (especially just after completing our 12-hour shifts), but I decided to stay just for the uniqueness of being able to watch Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers beneath the open Iraqi sky. By the end of the film, I couldn't have been more proud to serve alongside the men who sat through the end of the movie... who were mostly the top ranking members in our unit anyway. But there were moments when we could hear the real-world gunfire sounding alongside the movie sound effects, which I guess would make for the ultimate in surround sound experience... ;)
Speaking of night skies, I was recently treated to a light show as I was walking "home" after work one evening. That evening, my attention was drawn up toward a warm bright-tan glow ever-so-slowly making its descent from an aircraft--which had just released an illumination flare. The sight of the thing was pretty ghostly... for one, it lasted for nearly a minute, and one normally expects to hear and feel the booming sensation which usually follows a fireworks display.
I can't say I'll "miss" this place. And it is not by any stretch somewhere I'd like to return (at least, not under the present working conditions). But there are moments--prizes of intangible memory--which I hope to preserve in some form... which for now will have to be through my writing. I've forgotten to burn a CD with my latest pictures again. :P
The girls mostly wear brightly colored coverings which expose very little skin to the sunlight. To some, this is an image full of cultural turmoil. For now, I set aside those considerations and just appreciate the fact that despite how "terrible" one might speculate life might be in this part of the world, one has to appreciate the slow-paced sense of peace that seems to pervade.
If only it could be enjoyed uninterrupted by thoughts of safety from possible gun fire. For better or for worse, the sounds weapons discharge have all but receded into the regular background noise of "business as usual." Each Friday night, our squadron selects a movie to watch on the rooftop, where our deployed predecessors built a covered wooden deck and movie screen. Few of us choose to remain (especially just after completing our 12-hour shifts), but I decided to stay just for the uniqueness of being able to watch Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers beneath the open Iraqi sky. By the end of the film, I couldn't have been more proud to serve alongside the men who sat through the end of the movie... who were mostly the top ranking members in our unit anyway. But there were moments when we could hear the real-world gunfire sounding alongside the movie sound effects, which I guess would make for the ultimate in surround sound experience... ;)
Speaking of night skies, I was recently treated to a light show as I was walking "home" after work one evening. That evening, my attention was drawn up toward a warm bright-tan glow ever-so-slowly making its descent from an aircraft--which had just released an illumination flare. The sight of the thing was pretty ghostly... for one, it lasted for nearly a minute, and one normally expects to hear and feel the booming sensation which usually follows a fireworks display.
I can't say I'll "miss" this place. And it is not by any stretch somewhere I'd like to return (at least, not under the present working conditions). But there are moments--prizes of intangible memory--which I hope to preserve in some form... which for now will have to be through my writing. I've forgotten to burn a CD with my latest pictures again. :P