Ugly Americans

Blue skies! This was the sky at 1:30 today, at post. Today was pretty awesome. I was outside with the kids in our backyard for about 30 minutes and it was very nice. Right now, the temperature has risen enough that people are burning less or not burning any material, which is part of the air pollution problem here in Sarajevo. It is supposed to be warmer this weekend, which means that hopefully people keep burning less. I have no idea whether this will keep up, if we'll see snow and colder weather, or if the air will once again become opaque. I'm just happy that for now the skies are clear and the air is far clearer than it has been.

For almost all of December, we lived in a cloud of pollution. On most days, a grey wall of smog obscured our view of the houses across the street. On better days, you could kind of see them. It was so bad, the majority of plane flights into and out of Sarajevo were cancelled. All of posts pouch bags were stuck. While only a few of our holiday orders were caught in the delay (because I ordered most of our stuff in advance), and miraculously our pollution masks managed to make it in before the mail cut out (YAY) not everyone was as lucky. Near the end of the month, it finally cleared, and we were able to see the sky. I know. You are probably saying, "Suck it up, because you're not in China" , right? Monday, the reports were that our pollution index here in Sarajevo was over 500, and our MED unit put out an email blast warning us about it. That is China Bad. Tuesday, it was still bad. Today, The smog is back. So you say, "That's why you get three air ...