Example of USPS success:

A humorous card with a wonderful note from someone my grandparents know.

If you are a creative, card-making crafty sort, I want to share a good organization to get involved in.  Operation Write Home is a group that makes pretty sweet cards for soldiers to write home with, whether it is for holidays, or just to remind their families that they love them.  We (the nurses here in Kuwait) have had a ton of fun looking through these miniature pieces of art, picking out a few and sending them home.  Think about it!  Especially for those in places where they can't stop by the PX to purchase cards.

No, thank you.

Dear friends and family,

This box from the Custers (MPC church family members!) represents numerous care packages and letters that have made the trip safely across the ocean and desert to Kuwait.  My heart is lightened and overjoyed with each card I get, and I am so thankful for the encouragement received and support and prayers offered!  The Lord is so good to me, and he has used all of you in that. 

These letters and goodies are also a testament of the gospel and of God's goodness and God's family to the people I serve with.  Some of the other nurses are surprised at the number of packages and notes that come, especially because they are from people other than my husband and parents.  So thank you for being an incredible witness here in Kuwait.  You are a blessing to me, to those around me, and to Jonathan by showing God's love in these ways.  My sincerest thanks to you, and God bless you.

Lovely.

I have finally restored our printer to working status. Ok nothing was wrong with it, I just didn't have any drivers installed. Enjoy these gems sent from my lovely wife's family. I appreciate the fairness evidenced by the second picture. :)

Please sir, may I have another.

Another sandstorm has hit, not sure the magnitude of it because three of us female nurses locked ourselves inside of our cubicles to wait it out with Cliff bars and yogurt, and lots of movies to watch or sleep to catch.  Sleep is a bit rough to come by because these storms set off our fire alarm systems, so its quite loud and very dusty in here.  We're safe, of course, just annoyed and very spiteful towards sand.

For a better idea of sandstorms, I found this news-link of someone who caught the last sandstorm from the end of March.  This person was in Kuwait City, close by here, and at a height where they could see almost all of the buildings around them as they were enveloped in dust:  Super Sandstorm.  And another example: More sand! (Please give me a heads up if the link doesn't work.)

Now, back to Psych.

What one does on a lazy Sunday afternoon in the Middle East...

Let's get right down to the real nitty-gritty...

Do you see that huge, towering wall of sand over top of my head?  Sandstorm big enough to get on the news!  Just to clarify, it is like "The Mummy"...it's a wall of sand coming at us, moving pretty quickly.  That water tower in the background is maybe 1/4-1/2 mile away, and the sand hit the hospital about 10 minutes after this picture was taken.  According to those who got stuck outside in it, it was light as day and then dark as night within an instant as they were enveloped in sand and dirt.  From what we heard, it started about 2 hours north of us and came the whole way down to us; you could see it on radar.

The aftermath: the entire hospital was covered INSIDE with sand.  And inch of sand in the radiology hallway, an OR that needed to be re-sterilized, dining facilities closing down because sand got in all the food.  An unpleasant natural phenomenon!  Glad its over, hoping that doesn't happen again while we're here!

Irony in Irony

This is a post of sheer silliness, so if you're purely glancing for an update or important information, you won't find it here.  My apologies, but if you feel obliged to read on, please enjoy.

In my spare time on my day off today, I escaped the warming desert and sand by sitting in my cubicle and watching a "chic-flick" (sort of) while painting my nails.  At home, I would be thinking up a delicious meal list for the week or ironing or calling on my husband at work to eat lunch with him.  However, with none such things available or practical, I found myself curled up in my cubicled bunk bed watching "Becoming Jane."  Thanks to the free movie rentals, I waste no money in these cinematic indulgences.

If you've read any of Jane Austin's novels, they are all of love, the plights of love in marriages where love is met but impossible in the relationship of differing social statuses.  Strangely enough, this movie of the authoress's (an old-ish term) life seems to turn out very much like one of her books except by one depressing, ironic detail: despite multiple proposals and a very real and passionate love, she never marries.  I will tell you that I like the truth of biographical information (I know films aren't fully truth, yes), even when it is ironic, but not when the ending turns out in a depressing way.  You must understand the fragile emotions of a woman who is physically separated from her husband and has found herself hanging on to the life circumstances and consequences of the the heroine of the movie...only to have her left alone, unwed yet accomplished, in a fit of irony.  Please know that I am being overly dramatic in order to make my point and yes, you should laugh at my 5 minutes of sad foolishness.  I am cared for deeply by a wonderful, God-fearing and so very loving husband, so I need not live through movie romances.  They will ALWAYS fall short, as we all know.  It is acting, after all.

The irony in Austin's ironic tale: 'Irony is the bringing together of contradictory truths to make out of the contradiction a new truth with a laugh or a smile.'  Or as another character put it 'I find irony as insult with a smiling face.'  Take it as you may.  No more 18th-19th century love stories for me, at least for now.