Day #28 - Random thoughts

Not much going on the last couple of days here ... which is always a good thing for our troops. Nothing too exciting to talk about today and I am a little tired. Got woken up in the middle of night to sew a guys foot back together after he got it crushed in the door of his armored vehicle. So here are a few random thoughts ...

I came across this poster the other day. Apparently Chuck Norris is on a diplomatic mission to bring peace to the Middle East and serve as a role model for the Iraqi police force.

These two pictures were taken by a guy I know when his unit was out on patrol in Mosul. They were only about 5 miles from where the hospital is. You can see that not all of Iraq is sand and lifeless desert. In northern Iraq there are a lot of mountains and parts that are very similar to Colorado and the Rocky Mountains.

Below is the Tigris River which runs through Mosul and Baghdad.

Below is a date palm tree growing on our compound. They grow wild here. All the brown clumps up near the tops of the trees are dates (the kind you eat not the kind related to calendars or romantic dinners). Yes, these are the same dates you get in the grocery store back in the U.S.. In fact, dates used to be Iraq's top export before their economy was destroyed by the war. The downside is that the dates fall to the ground and get crushed making a sticky, tar like substance that sticks to everything especially your boots as you're walking by.