Usually, pitcures take forever to load, so I haven't been able to post many. But lately, my Internet connection has been improving. These are all old but fun to look at.

This is the pre-school that was right outside the door of one of our many apartments.

A Friday afternoon pre-service in front of the Mahdi's tomb. (He's the guy who brought the majority religion to the Sandbox)

A couple of camels. Some of their legs were tied up like this to keep them from running away. Some of them had their 2 front legs tied together, and then there were some that didn't have anything and could roam as they pleased. We just figured that maybe those were the bad ones that no one wanted and maybe they were hoping that they'd run away.

These are the dervishes, also known as the 'whirling dervishes'. Basically they are a sect of Islam. Every Friday night, hundreds gather in this huge cemetery to have their worship ceremony. They make this huge circle, the guys in the middle lead the service and the ones in the circle participate. They use drums to get a beat and then just chant for hours. Eventually the ones in the middle will get so worked up that they start to spin and they can spin for long periods of time without falling over. It's really one of the wierdest things. Their white outfits are called jalabiyas and are the typical outfit for men here. They're not required to wear them, but they're pretty much like pajamas, so who wouldn't? Even if they don't wear a jalabiya all week long, they will definitely wear one on Friday. Also, notice the little kid in the middle of the circle...

This guy is one of their main leaders. The color of green that he's wearing is an identifying symbol. Most of the men in the Sandbox wear all white, but when you see one with any type of green on with his jalabiya you know that he's a part of the dervishes.

So they aren't all that exciting, but these are the kinds of things that I see on regular basis and, at some point, they just became normal. I've been here over 5 months now. I can't say that I don't miss the comforts of the states (like central a/c, walmart, English), but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.