Easter was a mixed bag. Typically Father says Mass at three bases that are down the road from each other, but for Easter he wanted to celebrate as a larger community. We had to arrange travel, but in the end I liked it. I was able to attend Mass on Holy Thursday and the Vigil. I missed Good Friday service because I had a meeting that ran long and I missed the bus. We meet at the Chapel, which a in the old pool house of Saddam’s wife’s former palace (the palace itself is bombed out). The acoustics in the chapel were incredible. Father has a great chanting voice and the choir was well done – all making for a very enjoyable liturgy – even kneeling on the marble floor.
Photo of the Chior getting ready for the Vigil
The Vigil starts outside on a little patio that served next to the palace's lake.
The entrance to the Chapel
And Easter Holy Water!
The Photo is of the Palace that is near the chapel. The top was bombed out in the invasion in 2003.
On the down side, after sleeping in on Easter Sunday, I went into work noon and stayed until 10:40 pm. There had been a slowing down of things for a couple of weeks, but last week things started to pick up and I had work quite extensively this weekend. I was a little made about it for a while, but the work paid off and in the end I offered it up. Things starting Easter started to heat up here in Iraq. We will see how the rest of the week goes … continue to pray for peace.
Some of my students asked what I do and I wrote the following. I think it adds some clarity and offer it all to you. “As to my mission ... Different than I expected, but still focused on building up the Iraq Civil Capacity. I work in the J9 Plans sections. The "J9" means that I am focused on military to US Embassy, UN, NGO and other relationships, in addition our boss is the spokesman for USF-I (United States Forces - Iraqi or the bulk of the military in Iraq) so we have to keep our situational awareness high on all of the major happenings in Iraq - both good and bad. We also work with the Iraqi government on a number of projects from Energy to Sewage. Right now, the military is in a supporting role to all of the organizations (which is a switch from in the past when we were in the lead). The US military to Iraqi military relationships are handled by other sections of USF-I.
The "Plans Section" means that I am not integral any one of the above projects. Rather I work on various ways to bring the efforts together. Sometimes it is a job, just to get two different groups to work together. Other times it is getting into the nitty-gritty of reducing redundancy and ensuring that efforts work together to create a momentum greater than each working alone. The Iraqi's are a sovereign country and is to the point where many groups are trying to have their influence here. Some are good and some are malign. My efforts are to work with any group and any country that is for a free, democratic, stable and prosperous Iraq - and to minimize the efforts of malign interests. The job requires me to have my fingers in a lot of various pots, but I do not actually "do the work." Most of the people I work with are UN or American - they in turn end up going out in town working in their various arenas.”
Lastly, we closed on our new house on Thursday! After I get some pictures I will write an entry. The other house is still for sale in South Bend if anyone is interested!
Peace,
Chris Culver
