"I am so terribly grateful to so many of you for the wonderful letters, packages, and emails. But, as great as these things are (and make no mistake, they are an essential boost to my morale) they pale in comparison to the prayers. Your prayers have sustained me throughout this trip, and continue to do so. My wife has repeatedly chastised me for not relating enough aspects of my experience out here. One of the issues I have struggled with is how open and forthcoming I should be with her (and then everyone else) regarding the more negative aspects of life out here. I mean, sure, the heat is oppressive, the sandstorms blot out the sun rather apocalyptically, and the hours would make Roman Galley Captain blanch. ("Row well and you may live.")He also asked me to clarify that his note should not be read as critical of the war. I didn't read it that way, but want to honor his wishes to make that clear. He believes in what they are doing there, but in the end, war is still war. I think he did a good job of communicating to his friends and family.
"The real issue, however, is the danger factor. It is easy to read or watch mainstream news and believe that, at times, all of Baghdad must be on fire, at war, overrun with medieval pestilence, what have you. The truth is quite different, but the danger is all too real. My base does take rocket and mortar fire on a somewhat frequent basis. It is an unnerving experience that may be beyond accurate description. We have alarms that sound when our radar/anti-rocket systems, and when one goes off you need to hit the ground fast.
"Most of the time I am in my office when this happens. The explosions can be heard from some distance; they also shake the walls. There are occasions, late at night, where explosions will wake you up. Your trailer rattles from the concussion. As quickly as you can, you roll out of your bed onto the floor; most people get under the bed until the "all clear" signal is sounded.
"My wife encouraged me to let those close to me know about my life here. In this fashion, she said, they would know how to pray for me and, also, that their prayers were effective.
"One evening (exact time and date withheld for security reasons), I was walking to dinner from just getting my haircut. We get some time to workout and run errands almost every afternoon. As I was headed to eat, the warning sirens began to blare. They sound "Incoming, Incoming, Incoming," whenever the radar picks up an incoming rocket or mortar. When you hear that siren, you need to haul butt to a mortar shelter (concrete bunker). These are placed all around the base. I looked ahead and saw one about 50 yards off. Something told me, very clearly, that it was too far to run to. At that moment, one of our defensive weapons systems fired in an attempt to intercept an incoming a rocket. Almost as soon as it fired, there was an explosion about 150 yards to the north of me, on the other side of a building. I glanced around and saw a concrete barrier about 3 ft to my right. I literally
dove behind the barrier and tried to hug it as close as I could. As soon as I landed, the weapons system closest to my location fired. At that moment I knew that one was going to hit near me. Similar to the first impact, as soon as the system fired, another rocket impacted about 25 yards away. The explosion was deafening. The ground and concrete wall shook. I was showered with rocks and dirt from the impact. After not hearing anything else for about 30 secs I moved out from the barrier. One guy near me had been hit; his leg was all torn up, but the medics responded incredibly quickly. I then stumbled back to work in a bit of a daze. It did not register until later that had I chosen to run for the shelter I would have run right through the impact zone.
"The time between the first warning and the rocket landing near me may have been like 5 secs, but the sheer intensity of the fear I felt from the moment the rocket hit to when the debris stopped raining down was unbearable. It was pure primal terror felt on a level that I have never experienced and never hope to again. I just don't know how to describe it in any other way.
"The next day I sent an email to my good friend. I did not know how to tell my wife (or other members of my family) or even if I should. There are about a hundred different schools of thought out here related to this topic. My good friend defined being a true friend in the midst of a storm in his reassuring responses.
"So, as I look back at the days I have spent here, and the days I have left (114 down, 85 to go!!), I see the effects of prayer, I feel the effects of prayer, and I am now living because the effects of prayer. Thank you so much, every one of you! Please please keep them coming. I just wanted you to know that prayer matters. Thank you again! I cannot wait to see each and everyone one of you!"
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Dodging Danger in Iraq
I received an e-mail from a college friend who is serving with the military in Baghdad. When he has time to send e-mail updates to his friends I always find them impactful. I thought it would be good to share his latest one (with his permission). He lives and works in the green zone - so he's not even in the 'proverbial' front lines - none the less, his e-mail paints a picture of the danger to everyone who is serving over there. In posting this I hope you are reminded to pray for anyone you know serving in Iraq, and everyone there in general. And I hope you can get a snapshot of daily life there through his words, and the sacrifice that the men and women serving there are making.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Quote of the Day
"You can continue to smoke the cigar as long as the flavour is agreeable. Every cigar has a turning point, after which the cigar loses its mild nature, and becomes somewhat obstinate. Then it is time to say farewell. Put it in an ashtray and allow it to extinguish of its own accord. Stubbing a cigar out is an ungrateful response to the pleasure you obtained from smoking it."
This is from the website of my favorite cigar store in the world - PGC Hajenius. Faith and I found this quote hilarious and share-worthy.
I discovered this store when I lived in Amsterdam more than 10 years ago, and their store brands are my favorite cigars. (self-disclosure: I have neither been to that many cigar stores around the world, nor tried that many brands. I did however decide I enjoyed their cigars more than the cuban cigars they sold.)
Our friend Sarah is visiting Amsterdam, and I am so excited for her to bring some back for me that I can almost taste them right now.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Quick Visa Update
With the help of a neighbor Faith visited several offices to sift through what was needed to complete her Dad's visa. The process so far has been so typically 'Spanish' that I thought it would be good blog fodder.
Everything here requires a mountain of paperwork, and it's often not very clear why exactly any of it is necessary. You can guess, but are never sure. In this case, Faith and her friend visited the police office that the visa requirements specified, only to find out that that office was for Spaniards only. The office for foreigners (extranjeros) was the one that could help her with this particular letter. After arriving at the correct office, they discovered that in order to receive one simple letter of invitation from the government for her Dad to visit for 3 weeks she needed to provide the following:
1) photocopy of Faith's Spanish ID card
2) photocopy of her passport
3) photocopy of our rental contract
4) Certified copy of our registration with the local government
5) photocopy of Faith's birth certificate
6) photocopy of her dad's passport (since he is the one we are inviting)
7) 101 euros.
And the reward for jumping through all of these hoops? We would be awarded said requested letter of invitation from the police for Faith's dad in 1 month!! ("more or less")
Obviously Faith and our friend were sent into a panic at this. Which led to something else very Spanish - a way around all of this rediculousness...
In the original visa application, if you are visiting Spain as a tourist and staying at a hotel, all you need is a hotel reservation - no letter of invitation needed. It's only people who are visiting someone they know in Spain that need all the other stuff. So - instead of going through all that hassle for something that couldn't possibly be done in 8 days, we are just reserving a hotel, and that should be approved by the consulate, no problem.
Stay tuned :- ) And I know I said this would be short in the title - but like seemingly most everything else here in Spain, things just take longer to get done than you think they will :- )
Hasta Luego
Everything here requires a mountain of paperwork, and it's often not very clear why exactly any of it is necessary. You can guess, but are never sure. In this case, Faith and her friend visited the police office that the visa requirements specified, only to find out that that office was for Spaniards only. The office for foreigners (extranjeros) was the one that could help her with this particular letter. After arriving at the correct office, they discovered that in order to receive one simple letter of invitation from the government for her Dad to visit for 3 weeks she needed to provide the following:
1) photocopy of Faith's Spanish ID card
2) photocopy of her passport
3) photocopy of our rental contract
4) Certified copy of our registration with the local government
5) photocopy of Faith's birth certificate
6) photocopy of her dad's passport (since he is the one we are inviting)
7) 101 euros.
And the reward for jumping through all of these hoops? We would be awarded said requested letter of invitation from the police for Faith's dad in 1 month!! ("more or less")
Obviously Faith and our friend were sent into a panic at this. Which led to something else very Spanish - a way around all of this rediculousness...
In the original visa application, if you are visiting Spain as a tourist and staying at a hotel, all you need is a hotel reservation - no letter of invitation needed. It's only people who are visiting someone they know in Spain that need all the other stuff. So - instead of going through all that hassle for something that couldn't possibly be done in 8 days, we are just reserving a hotel, and that should be approved by the consulate, no problem.
Stay tuned :- ) And I know I said this would be short in the title - but like seemingly most everything else here in Spain, things just take longer to get done than you think they will :- )
Hasta Luego
Más barcos (more boats)
Still havn't outgrown my fascination with the little boats here. I walked Ryan to school today, and as Kathryn and I moseyed home I took a plethora of pictures along the way.
If you'd like to see larger images just click anywhere on the slideshow and you will be taken to our Picasa album(s).
If you'd like to see larger images just click anywhere on the slideshow and you will be taken to our Picasa album(s).
So this is progress?
(this post was written late Tuesday nite, April 15 - HA! Tax day!!)
So, imagine that you went to the mechanic today because your only car died last Friday. Now - this mechanic doesn't speak your language, and you barely speak his. Yet, he shows you how totally jacked up your engine got when both of your belts broke. You understand the seriousness of the car's injury, and you understand his estimate that it will cost more than 1,000 euros to fix. Where would that fit into a ranking of things that happened to you today?
If your answer was "one of the best things," you might be living in a new culture. (or perhaps you really had an awfully crummy day.) For me, as I thought about this tonight, I think it is a sign of some progress that something like this would have been somewhat of a crisis several months ago, but was not the dominant issue of my day today.
My day started out with a complicated trip to my Spanish class. Complicated, you'll remember, because my car has all of it's important parts laid out on my mechanics workbench and was unavailable. We took a taxi to school which was far to expensive to take home. We walked part of the way home and took a bus the rest of the way - arriving home an hour and a half later than we do with the car. My reward for getting to class - a brutally difficult exam that made me feel both slow and dimwitted - despite the fact I knew exactly when the test would be, and what chapters of our textbook it covered.
After gathering the boys from their respective schools, making it through feeding time, and finally putting them down for their naps, I was looking forward to sitting on our couch, listening to some new CD's, and folding laundry. This moment of peace was interrupted by a call from my mechanic (who, to give him credit, did get out the english words "You... Come.... Now..." followed by whistling the our national anthem). So, after a confidence shattering encounter with the morning's exam, I boldly set forth to find out what exactly was wrong with my car, and how much it would cost to fix it. And as difficult as it was to communicate, I felt good in the end to discover I really had understood almost everything he was trying to communicate. Now, I did not understand even close to every word, nor could I even translate for you what he said - but I got all of the important parts non-the-less. Now, it was much harder for me to find words to communicate back to him - but I was able to call in the help of a friend to make sure we were all clear on the details.
The rest of my day included a cafe, a store named 'Bizaar Chino,' and a party for a newly minted 5-year old. On the whole these were also good things. We especially enjoy going to birthday parties - I may blog separately about that. By the time we returned home from an extremely full day, we were hungry, tired, and ready to make and eat dinner. This is when we learned that Faith's father had discovered that the Spanish Consulate in D.C. was asking for another letter before they would approve his visa.
This was a stress-raising problem for several reasons. First of all, we thought we had resolved all of the necessary details for the visa 5 weeks prior by taking the time, effort, and euros to create a notarized letter of invitation. Secondly, this new request from the consulate came 8 days before Faith's parents are scheduled to come visit. Additional pressure is added because one of the reason they are coming to visit is to watch the kids while Faith and I attend an International Teams leadership conference in Manila. So there are 4 round-trip international airline tickets hanging on this visa approval.
This would be an example of some of the frustrations of making this cross-cultural life change. Paperwork is a way of life here - we've experienced it from the beginning. On the whole, nothing is truly urgent, because there seems to always be time to get something fixed. This is our first experience with something that has a concrete deadline and significant negative impact if it is not completed. It will be interesting to see how the system works from here.
So, imagine that you went to the mechanic today because your only car died last Friday. Now - this mechanic doesn't speak your language, and you barely speak his. Yet, he shows you how totally jacked up your engine got when both of your belts broke. You understand the seriousness of the car's injury, and you understand his estimate that it will cost more than 1,000 euros to fix. Where would that fit into a ranking of things that happened to you today?
If your answer was "one of the best things," you might be living in a new culture. (or perhaps you really had an awfully crummy day.) For me, as I thought about this tonight, I think it is a sign of some progress that something like this would have been somewhat of a crisis several months ago, but was not the dominant issue of my day today.
My day started out with a complicated trip to my Spanish class. Complicated, you'll remember, because my car has all of it's important parts laid out on my mechanics workbench and was unavailable. We took a taxi to school which was far to expensive to take home. We walked part of the way home and took a bus the rest of the way - arriving home an hour and a half later than we do with the car. My reward for getting to class - a brutally difficult exam that made me feel both slow and dimwitted - despite the fact I knew exactly when the test would be, and what chapters of our textbook it covered.
After gathering the boys from their respective schools, making it through feeding time, and finally putting them down for their naps, I was looking forward to sitting on our couch, listening to some new CD's, and folding laundry. This moment of peace was interrupted by a call from my mechanic (who, to give him credit, did get out the english words "You... Come.... Now..." followed by whistling the our national anthem). So, after a confidence shattering encounter with the morning's exam, I boldly set forth to find out what exactly was wrong with my car, and how much it would cost to fix it. And as difficult as it was to communicate, I felt good in the end to discover I really had understood almost everything he was trying to communicate. Now, I did not understand even close to every word, nor could I even translate for you what he said - but I got all of the important parts non-the-less. Now, it was much harder for me to find words to communicate back to him - but I was able to call in the help of a friend to make sure we were all clear on the details.
The rest of my day included a cafe, a store named 'Bizaar Chino,' and a party for a newly minted 5-year old. On the whole these were also good things. We especially enjoy going to birthday parties - I may blog separately about that. By the time we returned home from an extremely full day, we were hungry, tired, and ready to make and eat dinner. This is when we learned that Faith's father had discovered that the Spanish Consulate in D.C. was asking for another letter before they would approve his visa.
This was a stress-raising problem for several reasons. First of all, we thought we had resolved all of the necessary details for the visa 5 weeks prior by taking the time, effort, and euros to create a notarized letter of invitation. Secondly, this new request from the consulate came 8 days before Faith's parents are scheduled to come visit. Additional pressure is added because one of the reason they are coming to visit is to watch the kids while Faith and I attend an International Teams leadership conference in Manila. So there are 4 round-trip international airline tickets hanging on this visa approval.
This would be an example of some of the frustrations of making this cross-cultural life change. Paperwork is a way of life here - we've experienced it from the beginning. On the whole, nothing is truly urgent, because there seems to always be time to get something fixed. This is our first experience with something that has a concrete deadline and significant negative impact if it is not completed. It will be interesting to see how the system works from here.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
A Walk in the Park
On Friday Faith and I had a date, and we went to our favorite local lighthouse. OK, it's really the only lighthouse I know of around here, but we love it, and we go pretty often. If you've seen any of our pictures from Spain, you've probably seen the lighthouse. It's very photogenic. Yesterday, we actually paid the two euros and climbed all 202 steps to the top for the scenic view.
This short slideshow (9 pics) are my favorite shots from our expedition. To see larger sized photos, or other random picasa albums, click on the slideshow.
We took a family excursion Thursday evening to another of our favorite spots. Faith posted quite a few fantastic pictures on her blog here.
This short slideshow (9 pics) are my favorite shots from our expedition. To see larger sized photos, or other random picasa albums, click on the slideshow.
We took a family excursion Thursday evening to another of our favorite spots. Faith posted quite a few fantastic pictures on her blog here.
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