Rosenmontag!

Okay, I'm a bit behind on my posts. I've been having fun reacclimating to Germany!

Just to confuse you, I'm going to post in reverse order (starting w/ most recent events and then moving backwards).

Rosenmontag is a festival that is celebrated on the Monday prior to Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. It's the highlight of the German karnavel and occurs the day prior to Marti Gras.

People celebrate by dressing up in costumes, having parades, and, of course, drinking heavily! We took the train to join the festival in Mainz.

While waiting for the train, Peter, Meredith and Courtney had to practice their cat faces.




On the train, Courtney tried to trade a couple of German guys some bacon (don't ask!) for a beer. She got the beer, but they declined the bacon!




The parade had an impressive display of floats!








They also flew many of these flags right over our heads. It reminded me of the old elementary school parachute game where you run under the parachute!








There were also several clowns and bands, including one featuring some scary goblin looking creatures.

There was also a float displaying a traditional Mardi Gras party.

One of the main attractions was dashing to get the free gifts that the parade participants threw out. While a lot of it was candy, we also go a thumb drive, hat, rubber balls, and a package of tissues! Sadly, we didn't catch the video game!

Finally, many of the costumes the crowd wore were quite elaborate. Here was an entire family that was dressed like Avatars!

We left after 4 hours, and the parade was still going strong!

All in all, it was a great day (and thankfully, coincided w/ President's Day, so I had the day off)! Germans certainly know how to party!

Lamby's Saga

You may remember Lamby from my previous posts. Sadly, she has had a rough time in Iraq.

Her suicide was staged;

she was held hostage (and a random picture was placed on my camera!);

and she was forced to wear an ugly makeshift dress.

As you can imagine, she was very alarmed!

Thankfully, she has since been rescued and gone thru therapy and is back to her old self.

(My co-workers are still awaiting trial.)

The Swimming Pool!

Lamby returns

Lamby (see June 27, 2009 post) is alive and well here!




And she's made new friends!

Unique Deployment Signs

Signs you would not see in the States (or in many other countries for that matter!)

September 11th Remembrance

Almost all of our parents can remember exactly where they were when they were told that JFK had been assassinated. A similar moment for our generation is September 11th, 2001.




On base in Iraq, we took a few hours to remember the physical struggles of people on 9/11, especially the people who were killed that day and those who worked to save others, and the continued struggles of our country.




We marched in battle gear for 10 kilometers in the middle of the day and ended with words from our commander about the continued efforts to promote freedom.







It was a very tiring, but very moving day.

Adventure at the Iraqi Army Base!

I recently had my first trip off the Air Force base in Iraq. Lots of permission was required for this!

There are several US military teams that assist the local Iraqi military in various tasks such as healthcare, water purification, military training, etc. Our medical clinic staff was allowed to go with one of these teams to the nearby Iraqi Army Base to see their base and clinic.

We rode in our battle gear in an armored truck off base. The trip wasn't that far, but it was a little scary to realize that we had passed outside the security of the American base. Our gunner had several plastic bags filled with candy and threw them to children on the route.

At the Iraqi base, we met with the translators and then actually met the general of the base. We were told that typically they would share chai or a meal w/ us, but could not becuase of Ramadan. During Ramadan (which lasts about a month), those who are Muslim cannot eat, drink, smoke (and some don't even receive vaccines) between sunrise and sunset. When it is 120 degrees outside, this makes for a very dehydrating condition. We did not eat or drink when we were on the base either, out of respect for their religion.

After being greeted by the general, we headed off to see the water purification area. One of the problems is the lack of electricity in Iraq. Despite the hot temperatures, the air conditioning is not turned on until about 1000 to conserve power. At times, they have to decide between having electricity in buildings (to power lights, a/c) and purifying the water.

The highlight of the trip to the water purification area for me was getting to climb to the top of ther water tower. Haven't you ever watched those movies were kids or adults climb up there? I've always wanted to do that. Well I did. It was a long climb but had a wonderful view from the top. Apparently, my climb (or ability to climb, not sure which) surprised a lot of the Iraqi soilders. When I got towards the bottom on my climb down, the Iraqis were standing by the ladder taking pictures of me.

We then trekked off to the clinic. All in all, the clinic is very nicely set up. It has an emergency area, several exam rooms, a dental area (you'd swear you were in an American dental clinic), an xray machine. The unfortunate thing is that several of the areas don't have working equipment. The xray machine and dental xray machine appear state of the art, but have been broken for about 2 years.




Another interesting thing is the number of people who have been seen for a chronic condition by doctors for several years, but want an American doctor's opinion or what an American doctor to fix them. People will bring many sheets of lab and imaging results and want a second opinion. For the most part, the Iraqi doctors are very accurate in their diagnoses and treatments. But it seems that people think the Americans can fix any health problem.

More to come later!