Well, I find myself back in the field camp in Southern Iraq...I have been negligent of late in posting, so I will make a real attempt to be better during this hitch. I guess I should get everyone caught up with what I have been up too the last few months so that we may begin again with a clean slate.
I had a full, very busy hitch in March/April, and then returned home for a short 11 days. It was wonderful to visit with my loved ones there, but there is never any rest for the weary, so I was quickly headed back to the Middle East to attend a training course for an upcoming work posting and then to teach a Start School course for a couple of weeks in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
I don't know if you have ever been to Abu Dhabi, but I find that it is an interesting place. Much like Dubai it is very international in character with just enough tradition to seem authentic. It is quite a sight to walk through the malls and see women fully covered and men in their thobes discussing international business over cups of coffee at Starbucks. The Versace store sitting next to the store selling Yas Arabic perfumes and colognes. Needless to say, I find that I like the place. As a Westerner I can enjoy a certain secularity at any of the international hotels...it actually almost enhances the experience of leisure when there are restrictions to it - you find that the more a thing is nearing the point of taboo the more thrilling and powerful the experience becomes.
I did a lot more this time that I was in Abu Dhabi than I did the last time...I took a desert safari and went "dune bashing" which was tremendous fun. I rode a camel and watched a belly dancer while enjoying meats cooked over open coals in a "traditional" Beduin camp. We went sand boarding down the dunes surrounding camp (much more difficult than it seems it should be). We smoked shisha by moonlight while drinking 18 year old scotch...not a bad way to pass a night at all. Finally, after talking and getting to know each other until the wee hours of morning we went to sleep on mattresses under the open sky - it was one of the most refreshing nights of sleep of my life. I woke up with some of my friends to watch the sun rise over the dunes...the peace in the desert with the cool sand between your toes is magical in the pre-dawn light...you almost feel like the sun is rising just for you.
I spent two weeks acting as a Visiting Instructor at our base for Start School, which I really enjoyed. The students were keen and capable, and I appreciate seeing the enthusiasm that people bring to the start of their careers. Teaching is a tough job, but I really like doing it. It makes you feel very proud when the students do well, but very disappointed when they don't; I definitely felt like I had let them down on those assessments where there seemed to be low scores across the board. It hurts when you feel like you have failed your students.
Well, other than nearly dying during a rough landing in a sandstorm that is what I have for now from Basra. I will try to write more over the next three and a half weeks that I will be here on this hitch. Hopefully something exciting will happen so that I am not just writing a diary of my day.
I had a full, very busy hitch in March/April, and then returned home for a short 11 days. It was wonderful to visit with my loved ones there, but there is never any rest for the weary, so I was quickly headed back to the Middle East to attend a training course for an upcoming work posting and then to teach a Start School course for a couple of weeks in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
I don't know if you have ever been to Abu Dhabi, but I find that it is an interesting place. Much like Dubai it is very international in character with just enough tradition to seem authentic. It is quite a sight to walk through the malls and see women fully covered and men in their thobes discussing international business over cups of coffee at Starbucks. The Versace store sitting next to the store selling Yas Arabic perfumes and colognes. Needless to say, I find that I like the place. As a Westerner I can enjoy a certain secularity at any of the international hotels...it actually almost enhances the experience of leisure when there are restrictions to it - you find that the more a thing is nearing the point of taboo the more thrilling and powerful the experience becomes.
I did a lot more this time that I was in Abu Dhabi than I did the last time...I took a desert safari and went "dune bashing" which was tremendous fun. I rode a camel and watched a belly dancer while enjoying meats cooked over open coals in a "traditional" Beduin camp. We went sand boarding down the dunes surrounding camp (much more difficult than it seems it should be). We smoked shisha by moonlight while drinking 18 year old scotch...not a bad way to pass a night at all. Finally, after talking and getting to know each other until the wee hours of morning we went to sleep on mattresses under the open sky - it was one of the most refreshing nights of sleep of my life. I woke up with some of my friends to watch the sun rise over the dunes...the peace in the desert with the cool sand between your toes is magical in the pre-dawn light...you almost feel like the sun is rising just for you.
I spent two weeks acting as a Visiting Instructor at our base for Start School, which I really enjoyed. The students were keen and capable, and I appreciate seeing the enthusiasm that people bring to the start of their careers. Teaching is a tough job, but I really like doing it. It makes you feel very proud when the students do well, but very disappointed when they don't; I definitely felt like I had let them down on those assessments where there seemed to be low scores across the board. It hurts when you feel like you have failed your students.
Well, other than nearly dying during a rough landing in a sandstorm that is what I have for now from Basra. I will try to write more over the next three and a half weeks that I will be here on this hitch. Hopefully something exciting will happen so that I am not just writing a diary of my day.
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