So it’s been about a month since we’ve flown Mi-17s here. Which means that we’ve done, well, very little. Lots of paperwork, some chai-time, and not too much else. So trips to the gym, some Xbox, lots of reading, and Air Command and Staff College have become the way to make it through the day. (ACSC is professional education for new majors. Lessons on leadership, Joint Operations, and a whole bunch of other stuff that may be important if you’re the head of the Air Force, but most of it doesn’t apply to me, and what does is usually wrong.)

But we’re hearing rumors we’ll be flying again. While I’ll believe it when I see it, I’m very excited to get back in the air.

As far as the rest of what’s going on…it’s Ramadan. For those of you who don’t know what is, think Lent on steroids. The gist of Ramadan is this: from sunup to sundown, you live a life of fasting. No food. No water. No smoking. (This is a hard one for most Iraqis.) No public displays of affection. It commemorates the month that Allah revealed the Koran to Muhammad, and it is based on a lunar cycle, so it takes about 29 days. For the average Iraqi, it means that life is a little slower, you take a longer kailula (think Iraqi siesta) in the afternoon, and then after sundown you have a massive dinner to make up for not eating all day. Then you have a midnight meal as well.

Here, it means that almost nothing happens during the day. Combined with the Mi-17s not flying, and, well, you get the picture.

A quick aside on Ramadan. While I understand the reasoning for a month of metaphorical and physical clearing yourself out and rededicating your life to your God, the idea of a month of no food and water, in the desert, strikes me as a bad idea. While there are exemptions from the fasting (pregnant women, children, the elderly-and, depending on who you ask or where you look, the military, doctors, police, etc) they are rarely used. So currently, the police guarding Baghdad are dehydrated, and the doctors who treat you after you get blown up by a terrorist (who believes that death during Ramadan gets you automatically into heaven) who was missed by the dehydrated cop…well, you get the idea. There are studies discussing the prevalence of birth defects on children born 4-8 months after Ramadan. They don’t get enough early nutrition because their mothers are either unaware of the pregnancy so they fast, or they are aware and fast anyway.

And don’t get me started on the Hajj, the visitation of Mecca. It’s also a month long event, on a lunar cycle, so every 10-15 years, millions from around the world flock to Mecca to walk miles among the other millions in the 120 degree heat.

And I have yet to get an answer on what happens if you live in Alaska and Ramadan is during the summer…what happens if there is no sunrise or sunset? Do you just move somewhere else for the month? Do you go off of Mecca time?

Ok, so far I’ve written a full page and have yet to talk about anything of real substance. So to continue that, I give you PICTURES! First up, we have a celebration for new aircraft arriving. We’ve received new Mi-17s (think what I did in May, except they actually flew them all the way here.) When the Iraqi military gets new helicopters, they have a nice welcoming ceremony, where the generals get together, take some pictures, and slaughter a sheep in commemoration of the new helo. They “bless” the helo with the blood of the new sheep. Then that night, they get together and eat said sheep in a celebratory dinner.

I had pictures that were much bloodier that these, but my mom reads this blog occasionally.

 

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