Iraq: T-Minus 1

Leonard Cohen who wrote Bird on a Wire, also wrote Love Leaves No Trace. I looked up the Bird... lyrics first, but they didn't really fit. I kept looking at Cohen's lyrics, and forgot that I was in the middle of a blog post, for half an hour. Then these words reminded me of the picture.

True Love Leaves No Trace - Leonard Cohen

As the mist leaves no scar
On the dark green hill
So my body leaves no scar
On you and never will
Through windows in the dark
The children come, the children go
Like arrows with no targets
Like shackles made of snow

True love leaves no traces
If you and I are one
It's lost in our embraces
Like stars against the sun

As a falling leaf may rest
A moment on the air
So your head upon my breast
So my hand upon your hair

And many nights endure
Without a moon or star
So we will endure
When one is gone and far

True love leaves no traces
If you and I are one
It's lost in our embraces
Like stars against the sun

Iraq: T-Minus 2

Another mix of weather, people, sights, and sounds (use your imagination) today in the small towns and rural areas of South East Central Iraq. Bikes and riders (spot the AK-47), roadside and drivers, reeds and swimmers, kids and camels, cars and a helmet. The dust storms returned after a few days of clear skies.

Iraq: T-Minus 3

Dressed and off to work.

The rarity of passing a lawnscape.

The Arabic word for camel is jamal.


It appears our passing trucks remain the highlight of the day for the young shepherds bored with sheepish company. Sooner than later they will have to make due without the show of our heavy khaki war trucks on the over-cooked horizon.


Setting up shop, roadside, watermelon season.


Bricks, before, during, and after.

Iraq: T-Minus 4

T stands for toy today. Toy guns. Little kids walking around with fairly real looking handguns, from a distance. The oldest of the bunch, in the orange shirt, walked around in a more casual way, but the little ones even had the celebratory dance down. They must have seen and learned this from gatherings such as weddings, or sporting events, where celebratory firing of weapons into the air is common. This is what I like to think. Still could give one a chill to see Iraqi kids going through these motions with toys.

Iraq: T-Minus 5

In Iraq on Wednesday:

My little brochure on cultural do's and don'ts while deployed in Iraq (printed in 2003) says to never point with a finger, and a thumbs up is considered particularly vulgar. I've found this incorrect along with bits of suggested language in the pamphlet. For instance, Yes = "ee" not nah'ahm, stop = "awgaf" not mao-kiff.

Most two wheeled vehicles have multiple rear-view mirrors, but they usually face the sky more than the rear.

Ali and his sister in the distance. Introduced in Versa Vice months ago.

Riders.

A family of mothers, past present and future.

Trucks.

Truck.

T-minus 8 and Counting

In this case T = Turnover

Startled by this peaceful visitor. Only because I was about to piss in a bottle, looked over and he was there.

Cool and cooler in the shade.

Double take. A Pepsi truck. Very few sights like this of purely western commercialization. Never see Coke though, and I've been told that since the Coke products that service this area are "bottled" in Israel, Pepsi is the cola of choice

The Real Thing.

More common sights, donkey cart and a white/orange taxi, only together and up close.

"Ambulance." Got a shot of this truck months ago, but this is a better photo.

Adults usually don't look at us but for a glance. Children usually stare openly and uncorrected.

Kids with a box for a toy gun, no gun.

I almost didn't post this. Not sure why I'm doing it anyway, but this is a donkey just outside town and near the road. He was standing in the same spot alone, hours later, as we headed back to camp. Abandoned and dying. I prefer pictures of kids smiling but that's not reality. All I could do for him, zooming by, was take his picture.

Ok, this one I can't explain. Trucks moving huge chunks of boy and girl colored foam...I could only guess but I'm clueless.

Melons in season, a roadside market.