Birds in Baghdad

Well, I'm still around, going through the days, and surviving until I can go home in June.

The days are all very much the same here...we usually call it Groundhog Day. Hey, it's Friday, but it's just like Monday...like there are seven Mondays a week. But I reached a milestone today...I have approximately 69 days left here. I can't wait to get home.

It's spring now, and everyone seems to have a little spring fever. We've taken to eating as many meals as we can outside. And I've also taken to running outdoors...it's not raining and it's not yet too hot...

For some time now I've been wanting to tell the tale of this bird I saw. It was probably a month and a half ago, but I haven't been able to get to the site to write this up until now. It was one of those rainy days that are just muddy and cold when you just want to go and sit by the fire with a cup of cocoa, but that's not really an option in Baghdad.

I was walking out of the main palace after having delivered a briefing, and was on my way back to my building when I saw it. It was a pigeon (some folks around here call them doves, but they look like pigeons to me). The poor bird was clearly disabled...I don't know if he had been injured in some way or if he was just old, but his feathers were all out of whack and he was walking with a limp.

In short, he was disheveled. And he clearly couldn't fly.

He was crossing the road and picking at crumbs of bread that folks scatter for the birds...well he was picking at whatever was left by the more healthy birds. That's when a big black SUV with tinted windows approached.

I thought for sure the bird was a goner...he was just hobbling across the street trying to get out of the way. But he couldn't fly...it was perhaps one of the saddest little birds I'd ever seen, and I just knew he was going to get squashed...

But he didn't...amazingly, the driver of the SUV stopped his car and waited for the bird to hobble out of the way...it had to have taken at least 2 minutes.

I went on my way to work and wondered about the bird for the rest of the day. The next day when I went back I looked to see if the bird was still hobbling about...or if he had been flattened...but there was no evidence of either of those events occurring...alas, I'll never know how the bird fared, but what about that driver...I wonder if I would have stopped?