It's already 90 degrees at 9:30am this morning on the way into work.
Last night on our way to dinner at 6:30pm, it was 100 degrees in the shade of our front awning to the building. Yesterday's high was 112, no clouds, and the wind felt like a hair dryer blowing in your face. Spring has sprung and left us high and dry for the heat of summer. I am convinced the persistent problems of the Middle East are exacerbated by the heat slow cooking the brains of everyone out here until they can't think straight. Just an opinion.
There was a USO concert here on Sunday by the all female rock group named Bandshe. The flier that was distributed around base looked kind of 80's ish and so we checked them out on Google Images. Frightened by what we saw, we checked out the concert after dinner out of pure morbid curiosity... and long enough for a couple of pictures.
Google image:
the actual band who performed:
Objectively, they were a talented group who sang everything from the Allman Brothers to Christine Aguilera. They chatted up a couple guys from the audience in between songs. The keyboardist on the right is a 40 something school teacher from California...said she hoped her students would take some pride in their country and serve like we are doing now. Nice touch...she is leading her students by example.
The following photo was posted on the Multi-National Corps-Iraq website. We have a few organizations on base (not sure which ones) who make their way out to the community orphanages and local communities. Yet another example of Americans opening their hearts to the locals, making a difference, and you'll never see this on CNN or the liberal news media who only want to sabotage what we do.
Enjoy the heartfelt smile of joy on this child's face.
4 comments:
You are hotter than Florida. Believe it or not we are still enjoying nice weather. Wild fires are a big problem. We are having heavy smoke from a fire in Georgia and northern Fl. The winds are carrying it down here and it looks like fog. I guess that's what they call smoke fog. They even cancelled a Yankee baseball game in Clearwater because it is an open field. Take care of yourself and try to stay cool
Sorry to hear you have such uncomfortable weather. It has been beautiful here. Thanks for the picture of the rice krispies treats and Kacee's card. The students are excited to hear from you and they enjoy keeping track of your journey. Stay safe.
It's Memorial Day..Thanks Mark for your service to the US! I know you must be surprized to hear from me. Now I know how to google and blog. I will spend most of the day today reading ALL of your blogs. What an appropriate way to celebrate Memorial Day. Bill is home from St. Louis and Danielle is spending the day with her parents. Your blog is soooo well written and Round 2 just finished printing. We love you Mark!
Mark,
Thanks for all you do and thank you also for writing about the work soldiers are doing with the local population. I have been trying to "unplug" from the mass media (e.g., Rupert Murdoch and friends) and find more real news. I watch BBC in a pinch, but just so you know, PBS and NPR have been doing a phenomenal job of covering the humanitarian side of the mission in both Afghanistan and Iraq lately; also, reading Al Jazeera (English) online has the weird side effect of making me feel more connected with what life is like over there, although obviously slanted in the other direction...kind of like sliding down the rabbit hole without the good drugs ;-) oh, well...
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