Independence Day Sunrise
The sun is there, you can see it reflected in the clouds, but not yet able to break through the clouds. LOL, the weather report for today says “Clear.” We had one big huge lightning strike, and a little rain last night, and – at least where I live – there are a lot of big fluffy clouds in the sky – it is NOT clear. If these clouds gather together, it could get rainy again – not such a bad thing, but definitely a damper on Independence Day celebrations.
Is Kuwait going to have any fireworks – Independence Day or Liberation Day? I mean the official kind, the great big kind?
#1 Entry: NWB – Great Kuwait Liberation Day Challenge
OK, OK, the rest of you might as well just give up. It will be really, really hard to find more adorable children than these celebrating Independence and liberation! Thank you, NWB!
Just kidding – the children are adorable AND I want more entries!
Barely There Sunrise
You’ll have to look closely, but the sun is there, hidden in the bands of smog hanging over the horizon today. The reflection on the clouds was pearly, and beautiful.
Although technically, the holidays don’t start until tomorrow, they seem to have started early for many. 🙂 Have a great day, Kuwait.
Lenten Challenge
In church this week, our priest spoke of the necessity of listening – and hearing. He spoke of how important it is to be fully present for our spouses, our children, not just listening with half an ear and going “um hmmm, um hmmmm” (ulp! guilty!) He also spoke of how hard it is to truly listen and to hear when our minds are unquiet, and we have a lot going on in our lives.
Lent starts with Ash Wednesday – this week.
I am tempted to give up extra noise for lent – to live a more silent and contemplative life.
Here is the problem – I love silence. I do listen to BBC when I am in my project room or in my car, but other than that, I don’t fill my life with a lot of noise. Silence is my friend. So for me, seeking more silence is not such a good thing, it is more like feeding an addiction. Listening to BBC is, for me, probably a good thing, keeping me more connected to the world, less in my ivory tower. It confronts me with problems in the world, and inspires me with people who seek to make a difference, even in a small way.
But that is not the point. The main point is to be fully present, to listen to those who are speaking and to hear the heart behind the words, and to love them as Christ loves us. I know that silence is not my solution, that paying attention is the real test. Focusing, paying attention – that is a real challenge.
It would be easier to give up chocolate!
Pale Monday Sunrise
This is it – slightly better than yesterday, when we couldn’t see the sun at all, but the small, continuing headache tells me this is a sandstorm, ongoing. When you are in the middle of it (for those of you not here) one day seems endless, two days seems more than you can bear. The very air you breathe feels heavy. I tell myself it is a mist, but my sneezing and itchy eyes tell me otherwise.
We call it sandstorm, but I know what sandstorm is like – in Qatar, a sandstorm has SAND, it abrades your face, it piles up in the roads, it is very sandy sand, an English Patient kind of sandstorm. Here, it is sand the size of dust and grit. Your face feels dry and tight and gritty, there are no piles in your house, but your feet leave tracks across the thin layer of dust, so tiny it seeps through sealed windows and the bathroom exhaust fans.
In the midst of a sandstorm, Count Almasy explain the different kinds of storms:
This is from library.thinkquest and is short and sweet and explains the differences:
“In a few minutes there will be no stars. The air is filling with sand.”
Dust storms are common in arid regions.They are not to be confused to be sandstorms. A true desert sandstorms is a low cloud of moving sand that rises usually only a few centimetres and at most two metres above the ground. Above this level the air is almost entirely free of sand. Sandstorm consists of sand particles driven by a strong wind. It is rarer in occurrence.
Where winds are exceptionally strong and large quantities of loose soil are available, dust storms may develop. These can reduce surface visibilities to only a few metres. Normally only silt and clay particles are carried in suspension by the wind.
A dust storm approaches as a dark cloud extending from the ground surface to heights of several kilometres. It can take the form of an advancing wall or a whirlwind and are usually short lasting, although some storms of up to 12 hours have been recorded.
Within the dust cloud, there is deep gloom or even total darkness as the sun is blot out. A large dust storm can carry more than 100 metric tons of dust – enough to make a hill 30m high and 3km across the base. Dust from a single dust storm is often traceable as far as 4000 km. After a particularly violent storm in Algeria in 1947, red desert dust, mixed with snow, turned parts of the Swiss Alps pink.
The onset of dust storms is sometimes marked by an increase in respiratory infections and germs borne by the dust particles appear to be responsible for outbreaks of cerebral spinal meningitis.
The Great Kuwait National Holiday Challenge
We have a wonderful week coming up – Liberation Day and Kuwait Independence Day, back to back. If you haven’t already made the trip downtown to see all the fabulous lights, go for it. There is also a house along Highway 30 (Fehaheel Highway) with a HOUSE SIZED flag on it, and many many houses with huge flags – it is a stirring sight, seeing so much love of country demonstrated.
Your challenge for this week: Go forth and show us what you see. Show us the faces, show us the lights, show us the celebrations. Show us the “arda” (I might not have spelled it right, the war dance done with swords), show us the children, show us the hooligans. Show us the weary cops. Show us the multiple facets of Liberation Day/Kuwait Independence Day.
The prize, as usual, is recognition by your fellow photographers, and photography connoisseurs. We vote, but the voting can be heavily influenced by mass manipulation and politicking, so the photos we share, we share for the love of the challenge. If you haven’t played before, it is easy.
You send your photo or photo to me, Intlxpatr@aol.com, 550 pixels maximum in any direction, and I will print them with your name. At the end of the challenge – I am arbitrarily saying March 7th – I will post a poll and people can vote, but the major part of the fun is taking the photo and having your photos posted so your fans can make encouraging comments.
Show us what you see this week. 🙂
La! La! La! (No! No! No!)
Re: Don’t Trash My Kuwait, NBQ found this adorable video from the Keep Kuwait Clean Campaign – looks like maybe 2003? (update: Oops, no, nbq says the ’80s!) Oh! These children are so cute! This song is so good!
Just in time for the trash-filled holidays coming up! La! La! La!
Walk-a-thon Tomorrow (Saturday)
The weather is PERFECT. There is no excuse – honestly – this is a wonderful activity!
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