Weather Report

February 2, 2008

I need to dispel the belief that it’s always hot in Iraq. I guess the reports we always hear about the blistering heat here makes us believe that there isn’t a winter or a rainy season. But like everything else we hear in the states about Iraq, we have to take a step back and realize we shouldn’t believe everything we read.

The coldest it’s been since I’ve been here is probably in the low 30’s. (During the day) At night it dips down colder than that but probably no more than 10 degrees or so. And the warmest I’d say it’s been is about 60. Neither of those is drastic by Idaho standards, but for a country that’s in the middle of the desert it’s certainly not what I expect.

For the most part it’s sunny. Sometimes there’s a smattering of wispy clouds that serves as a nice contrast to the light blue sky. But the haze that seems to hang hear makes them both kind of insignificant. I heard recently that 30% of the Baghdad air is made up of fecal matter. I pray that’s not true, but by all appearances it just might be so. At night though the skies are as beautiful as any I’ve seen. There are no city lights to speak of that compete with Orion’s Belt or the Big Dipper. (But the Big Dipper is upside down for some reason…) And when a full moon comes it’s bright and beautiful and serves as a nice beacon to light up the place.

And then there’s the rain. Everywhere you go here there is dirt. Not sand, like you’d expect in the desert. But just good old fashioned dirt and the dust that comes with it. The rain only serves to make a horrible, muddy mess everywhere. The dust covering that is on everything is a very fine, almost silky one. So the water makes a soupy mud that I’ve never seen before. Imagine a 10 pound bag of flour mixed with equal parts moon dust and baby powder…and you dump it out into a huge flat bowl…and then add water and mix it up just enough to make it good and soupy. And then watch it just sit there because it has no place to drain and no way to harden or evaporate. That’s the mud here…like a semi-melted chocolate shake…and it’s everywhere! 2 days after the rain has stopped and the sun has been out, the chocolate milk mud is still spread out everywhere just waiting for you to walk in it and get all over everything. There is thick mud too, and it seems to take just as long to harden. Someone said the lack of drainage has to do with the water table here and being basically right at sea level. I don’t know, or really care. All I know is that it sucks and that I have to work in it.

The tent compound where I work is all dirt. The only concrete is for the tent’s base. Everywhere else is dirt, and when it rains or even sprinkles it creates chaos. You’d think a country that’s fat with oil and tons of rock would have the good sense to lay some asphalt? But no, not these people. And then the inmates only have sandals for there feet. So when it gets good and muddy they leave their sandals in their tents because they’ll just fall off in the mud. So these poor bastards walk around in mud up to there ankles like it’s nothing. Some of them wrap plastic bags around their feet, or a piece of cloth from an old shirt. But the majority usually just goes barefoot. Crazy.

In a few months the sun will come out in earnest. I saw a picture of a buddy here that he took last summer. He was standing next to a thermometer that was hung on a tree. It read 140 degrees! So from now on when it’s a little chilly, or the rain has made a good muck of things, I will think about that picture and the months to come. I have not doubt that by July I will be screaming for some soupy, sticky mud and the rain that caused it.

-Jim Franks GO PATRIOTS!!