Blather

A few disappointments marred an otherwise uneventful day. We went to our first language class. The letters of the alphabet, along with single words that are use a particular letter, went by lickety-split. We went to an unclassified briefing on insurgency theory and counterinsurgency theory. Examples like Che Guevarra and Diep came up on the PowerPoint screen. Some highly intelligent and well-read people among the students participated with erudition. The moderator noted one student had used an educated word. "You can't be above grade E-5," he joked.

Then we left because the next class was classified. We went to the language lab. Locked. Then the Internet Café where the nice gal didn’t have Ethernet cables and didn’t know when any would become available. So we came back and reviewed stuff in the barracks, where it was at least air-conditioned. After lunch, we came back and rested a bit. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I went outside, but the air had turned Martian. It wasn’t fog, and it wasn’t dust. But you couldn’t see 50 yards for the yellow-orange mist everywhere. The sun, trying to burn away what was keeping him from warming the earth, lit up the air with a glow from everywhere. No shadows, just a golden light. And since everyone else was in a class, it seemed like we’d been moved to some other planet- quiet, golden, hot and alien.

Back to the language lab where no one answered. Then back to the Internet Café where we used the power strip from the TV to charge our laptops. (I’m typing this on a 90% charge.)

Dinner was good. Then we went to the language lab and got into discussions with the language teachers. Ours is very good. He’s from the north, and he talked a bit about himself and his family. He’s lived in New Mexico for awhile. He talked about Iraqi history and culture. And he answered my question about Iraq’s King Faisal very well- he’s the cousin of the Saudi Faisal from Lawrence of Arabia fame.

Our homework for tomorrow is to write our name. He gave us a list of phonemes. I found no “ch” sound (like in “church”) so my name will be Rish. Three rather long, complicated letters make that name. Johnny came to me for help with his name- he wanted to write an “O” from “Johnny,” but I talked him into writing it with an “ah” sound. (Otherwise his name would sound like “Joanie.”) So our homework is done.

I’m in a building with a Marine unit. They are all great guys. The major in charge let me borrow his “Modern Iraqi Arabi” book. I may try to download the CD to my laptop. But I may also just use the CD that the language teachers gave me, “Iraqi Basic- language survival guide” and see how that works for me. It’s hard to evaluate a language CD in just an hour or so. In a bit,

I’ll call it a night and try to sleep. Though there’s a lot of boring downtime, the session with our language teacher was excellent. I may learn to like being here.

# posted by rich @ 5:20 AM