Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Forcast From Baghdad

On yesterday afternnon, a sudden and very quick sandstorm hit Baghdad. Everyone around the house was running trying to close all the windows and doors to prevent sand from getting inside the house! I tried to go out and take some photos to post them here but I couldn't go out cuz the sand was so thick and I couldn't breathe. Besides, I once heard that we should not use cameras in sandy weather cuz the sand would damage the lense... or something like that.


Anyway, this morning as I was checking the emails, I found a link with two photos for the same place in Baghdad taken before and during the storm. So I thought of posting them here.


Have a look at Baghdad's weather!


It's a good setting for a scary movie, I guess!!

15 comments:

David said...

Wow! The difference in the photos is really incredible! I often wear masks to keep from breathing various kinds of dusts and chemicals while I work. But, I never thought about having to wear a mask to protect me from the air of a whole city! Scary movie indeed!!

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Hi Morbido,

Don't worry about the translation, it wasn't important.

"Lost" is great! But you really have to see it from the start. I don't know if they have it in abc.com's archives for viewing or not. Anyway it's about a planeload of people who crash on an island. It sounds straight forward, but it has all sorts of twists and turns in it. Not least of which is the island itself.

Btw, I hope you don't mind, but I posted a link to you in Zeyad's comments section. Someone was discussing electricity and private generators and I thought of your post earlier on that. Do you know the comparison in prices between the public supplied electricity and the private?

I've heard from our guys how bad the sand can be. I would hate having to clean after that kind of storm! Of course, I don't need a storm as an excuse to hate cleaning! ;)

Take care, Morbido.

P.S. I don't know if you are into salsa in Iraq, but if not, that's something you have to try when you get here. That is, if you like hot and spicy food.

Anonymous said...
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Morbid Smile said...

And sometimes the mask doesn't work!! What we do in this weather condition is to put a wet towel on the mouth and nose.. You should have seen the photos of the sandstorm which hit the whole country during the first days of the war! I couldn't even see my sister who was sitting next to me in the living room!!!

Hey Lynnette, thanks for the info about "Lost". I once saw a desktop wallpaper of this show, and all what was there was an island and a person standing near a writring on the sand. The writing said "Lost".

Sure I don't mind it if you post a link to me! Actually, I'd get more readers by that! ;) I don't know about the comparision in prices between the public and private electricity. But the prices of the electricity which we get from the local generators varies from one neighborhood to another. For my region, one ampere of electricity costs 7000 Iraqi Dinars, that is about 5 Dollars. Every house can subscribe in the local generators to get 6 to 10 amperes. The public electricity's cost is much less than that.

Imagine that you clean your house, and then such a storm would start!! You'll have to clean after it as well. That's what happenes here!! Cleaning, and then re-cleaning .. A Nightmare!

Lots of the Iraqi food is hot and spicy, so salsa would be the first thing to try once I'm there! ;)

attawie said...

I bet everybody who sees these photos are shoked...

me???
no, I'm glad a bit.
why???
these are the same building we used to live in when we were in Iraq.. so I got the chance to see my city, the favorite area i lived in..

jarvenpa said...

I had read on Riverbend's blog maybe last year about the sandstorms, but had never thought how they would look. Amazing.
On an earlier post you mention the story of the swans--this was a favorite story of my childhood, but in the version I read (there was no movie then) the sister gathers prickly, thorny plants--nettles--to make special magic shirts for her brothers to save them. For some reason this story really touched my heart (I do have younger brothers--but really, when we were little they were difficult little boys!) I must have loved them though.

Anonymous said...

i imagined you all sneezing most of the time.

i dont know which is worse, sand storm or the typhoon with strong wind and heavy rain...

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Morbido,

Thanks for the info on the electricity costs.

We don't have sandstorms, but we do have Cottonwood trees. Imagine everything covered in white fluffy pieces of cotton. It sticks to your shoes and you bring it into the house. It sticks to the window screens. It gets into everything outside. It's a mess! Fortunately they only shed during a relatively small time period here.

But even so, if I had my choice, I would pick the cotton over the sand. That sounds nasty.

Wherever you end up here, hopefully they have a Chipotle's restaurant. They have good hot and spicy Mexican food.

Anonymous said...

http://360.yahoo.com/amala_2006 Luve the blogger here .it was sent 2 me by a bro in Iraq ,this is my yahoo blog if u want 2 check it out i have many historical pics of Iraq be4 our time 4 sure ,its a blog i do 4 mostly my iraq sis and bros that r here in Canada and there ,so enjoy ,Iraq has the most beautiful spiritual history in worlf i think anway ,and Karbala ,has greatest ,fi amaan Allah an blesses 2 Iraq from my heart and spirit 2 yours ....sis Amala

Original_Jeff said...

Hello Morbido. How are you doing? I have read in other blogs that things are quite bad in parts of Baghdad in recent weeks. I hope you and your family are OK.

CharlesWT said...

Morbido, wait until you get to the US and start spending time in institutional buildings like university campus buildings. You'll burn up in the winter and freeze in the summer. :)

Hadia ( pseudoname) said...

Wow, very interesting. Why I didn't hear about that??

Congratulation for your new flash dist, camera and labtop. انتم السابقون ونحن اللاحقون :)

Nibras Kazimi نبراس الكاظمي said...

Hi, this is the first time I read your blog. This is all very good. Please keep it up, and ward off the phantoms of boredom and depression.

Anonymous said...

It must be terrible!! :((

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