Give up? My day in the desert. We headed out to an undisclosed area and upon arrival I threw a handful of sunflower seeds in my mouth not expecting we would be invited into the village leader's home. So by the time I was ready to get rid of my bird feed, everyone came over to us. So as not to violate some cultural protocol I didn't want to spit, and I just kept them in my mouth. We entered into the leader's home and there were no chairs only pillows along the wall. If you have been reading the blog from day one when I gave an account of my training experience practicing meeting with village leaders and sitting with them for an hour or more, my worst nightmare came true, hence the pretzel. Yeah that's right, on the floor I went with 65 lbs. of gear, sitting in the most uncomfortable position one could imagine, for an hour, with a mouth full of seeds, that turned to mush, trying to sip Chi Tea and hold a conversation.
The village folks were gracious enough. Most of the Iraqi people are wonderful hosts, very gentle family oriented people. They really are cool to hang with as long as you don't do something stupid. Understanding the culture and learning the language definitely helps. Then it came time to get off the floor. I was able to do it, but my knees now hate me.
We went outside and there they were, two pet camels tied up in the yard. My CC and I decided to have pictures taken with the camels, like tourists at the zoo. They weren't very big camels but they stank just the same. Each had hundreds of flies on them. And the one I am pictured with kept eyeing me and moving closer, staring at me. I don't know what it was thinking, I don't want to know what it was thinking, but I got the feeling it was looking for a date. When it turned away, I snuck up closer and told the guy to hurry and snap the picture before it turned around. Oh yeah, notice the old man beard? Nice huh? Also if you take a closer look at the camel you can see a lot of black dots? They are the flies that landed. Imagine the number flying around waiting for a turn?
