two things I learned this week

Well, learned a lot of new stuff this week.

1. This week is a religious celebration for Muslims called the Hajj. this is the time the muslims make there pilgrimage to Mecca. On a related note, the U.S. guys call locals Haji's, using it as a derogatory term. well, actually they usually same something like explitive haji expletive, but you get the idea. we were told it is a horrible racial slur. Turns out it is an honor title given to a muslim that has made the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, so we were really saying what great believers in Allah they were!

2. Mark thought his toyota truck was bad, and lenny thinks his buggy is bad. If you REALLY want to be bad offroad go through a rutted, swampy, hilly area that just happens to also be a mine field. And do it in a front end loader with 10,000 extra pounds of armor plating. Makes you feel nice and safe from the mines, but the thing is crazy top heavy and have a tendency to flop over easily. Not what you want in said minefield. Luckily the guy that was driving was good and only got us stuck once, and we used the backhoe to pull us out.

so far the weather continues to be awesome, which we are all thankful for. However the closer we get to Christmas the worse most peoples moods get. the lucky few getting to go home over the holidays are pretty well disliked. Hard to get in the Christmas spirit, that's for sure.