Requests, TV and Supermarkets

Two Requests I have had only two requests from people that were unrelated to work. The first was from a boy outside the Citadel who asked me to take a picture of a dove. I asked him why. He said, “To show pretty in Iraq.” Unfortunately, the picture of the bird didn’t come out well. But I got a picture of the boy, which I think is better anyway.

The second request was yesterday. A bellhop in the hotel came over to us while we were eating dinner. Earlier in the day he had helped us fix our WiFi, so we knew him. He told us that he was a lawyer. I think that is an undergraduate degree in law, not a JD. He had received a scholarship from a UN development agency for study abroad. He had to find a University in the states or Europe. He had seen the Seton Hall screen saver on the computer when the Wifi kicked in. He asked for our cards. We had both run out, so he said he would wait until after we ate. Sure enough, he was waiting after dinner. As I gave him my card, he said thanks and that if he came to Seton Hall he would work hard. I have no doubt about that.

Musings on Iraqi TV The hotel has an English language movie station. It appears that anything close to sex has been cut out. However, I have heard every four letter word in the book. Violence seems fine. The ads on the station are infrequent and mainly about alcohol. There is also an Arabic channel that seems to have X-games-type sports and music videos. The videos might not show as much skin as MTV, but at they show as much as that old Friday Night Videos show. There also seems to be a lot of really fat male singers with high voices. The sports show seems to focus on crashes and people getting knocked out.

A Supermarket Across the street from the hotel is a supermarket, so we went. It looked like a normal supermarket, except for a couple of things. Every shelf was totally stocked. I don’t think I saw a single empty space anywhere. It was almost as if as soon as someone bought something it was replaced. In the meat case, the packages were wrapped in cellophane and they were enormous. I think one had an entire lamb without its head.

We are close to finishing our work here. I am hoping that we will be able to see some of the surrounding area in our time remaining.