Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Raining Mud

In my previous trips I have come to know Iraq as a desert country. I've been here in the summer, when the heat is brutal and relentless, the major grain crops have been harvested, and everything is dry, dusty, and brown. Since coming here about two weeks ago, the weather has been unsettled, with many cloudy days and a fair amount of blessed rain.

Yesterday was warm and sticky. Around 4:30 in the afternoon, the sky turned red-orange and became very dark. It looked like a dust storm was moving in. Lightning was flashing horizontally in the dust clouds. I was rushing to meet some people in the PRT but got caught out as it started to rain. When the rain dried on my clothes each drop was marked by a brown speck of dust.

It rained on and off for several hours, turning the army base into a muddy mess. The mud sticks to your shoes like any good southern gumbo clay, forming a heavy plate on the soles that gets bigger with every step. I'm going to resist the temptation to make a metaphor of the mud with the last seven years of US involvement here, but it's easy to do.

After seeing the effects of drought over the last couple of years, seeing beautiful fields of green wheat and abundant vegetable crops throughout Babil, I now understand the good mood of the people here. Despite the troubling bombings in the capital and the ongoing uncertainty about forming a new government, life goes on and good work is being done to improve security and people's livlihoods every day. Sadly, as is always the case, only the bad news is reported and the tiny daily incremental changes that improve people's lives here remain unseen and unknown to the wider world.

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