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Friday, November 2, 2012

PEACE...........the end..

After the Japanese musicians, acrobats, and dragon dancers finished their performances Peace Wave, the Americans, took the stage and ran through our performance which consisted of some original songs finishing with Amazing Grace sung in Farsi and English which was a hit. Backstage I looked at Quigley and he commented that we, our group, really needed to get out of Baghdad as we had no hostages at that point and the scene was starting to look pretty dicey. As the words came out of his mouth the opening cords to the Beatles song "Help" flowed through the arena.

On the Japanese side of the group there were four guys that wore leather pants and jackets, had Ducktail hair and were accompanied by their "manager". They spoke NO English. Peering through the curtain these four guys were playing and singing the song in perfect English and sounded just like the Beatles. It was like an open invitation that we accepted as we gathered in front of the stage and started dancing. Once we got out and started we started to wave the Iraqi audience down to join us and we rock and rolled with them until about two in the morning.

The Iraqis in charge were a bit taken back by the event but were powerless to do anything other than watch. They were videotaping the entire event and about two they started to try to shut it down. Before they could though our Peace Voice ( The Japanese ) and Peace Wave ( The Americans ) Banner was flown to the roaring sound of "Johnny B. Good." We wanted to have Peace and retrieve hostages.

We loaded on to buses and were taken to the Japanese Embassy where we finally had dinner and were able to relax. There were two American Professional wrestlers that were part of the Japanese group that were a big hit when they took on a couple of Iraqi wrestlers, Captain America, and G I Joe. Interesting conversations into the morning.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Stairway to Heaven in Baghdad

As promised last week I'm adding some never before scenes from The Sports and Music Festival in Baghdad. This Festival was our chance as Peace Wave, to secure the exit from Baghdad all of the Japanese hostages that were being held by the Iraqi's one month before Desert Storm. I went to the soccer stadium one evening to watch some matches and encountered one of the Japanese participants
that was a National hero among the Japanese Kite makers.

As I walked into the stadium I saw, what I can only describe as, "a stairway to heaven".  A kite train is one kite attached to a line that holds many more along the line. Ascending out of the stadium was the train of 500 kites being flown by this Japanese gentleman. I can't tell you how overpowering this sight was. I have never seen such a display of power in my life. Perhaps you need to be a kite flyer to appreciate this sight, but for me, it was awe inspiring. The next day on the floor of the Palestinian Hotel where we were staying the same man was painting on a sheet of rice paper. As his brush flew over the paper I saw him create an image of a Geisha  holding an umbrella and looking at the viewer. He took this drawing and made a rectangular kite which he gave to me as we were passing through customs in Japan.

We attended several of the events before our games in Volleyball, Basketball, and of course the Music Festival. The line up in the photograph of the arena is of the Japanese Judo team preparing to start their match. Tomorrow or by this weekend at least, I will post the image of the ending celebration of the Festival. It was a moment of excitement and proposed promise, that was all inclusive throughout the arena.