Outside the Wire

Thursday. We started off the day by taking a tour of a new Iraqi Army compound which is under construction. After lunch we had our Out-brief with the Base Commander, which went well. The folks who run the base, the Mayor's Cell, is made up of a really great group of folks. I think they are Army Reservists and National Guardsmen and they were so welcoming, helpful and great to talk to.




































Our Army escort traveling with us had the opportunity to go outside the wire Thursday morning. The previous evening (Wed) we went to the PX and bought some basketballs, teddy bears, pencils and notepads to have him give out to the children. He took about 185 pictures of the trip. Here are a couple. Most people who know me will probably understand how much I really, REALLY wanted to go along. After I saw the pictures I wish I had. Oh well, I didn't have a choice. I wasn't allowed, but my camera was borrowed and used to take these pictures.

Mixed Feelings

I have gotten a few messages about the lack of posts in the past week and I apologize...I've just been chopper and plane hopping for a while with meetings, briefings and work in between.

As I mentioned, Wednesday evening we had dinner at the IA dining facility (DFAC). When the U.S. military transition team (MiTT) team invited us I was so excited and looking forward to it. As I understand it, the mission of the MiTTs is to train the IA in order to eventually transition Army operations to them. I am fascinated by their mission and their perspective and I think it's a very important mission. Back to the dinner invite....So often when I travel I stay just on the military installations so I don't have the opportunity to eat local food, with an even lesser chance of actually dining with locals. I eagerly accepted the invitation and told my team they didn't have to come, but I was glad that my team also wanted to take this rare opportunity.

We (a MAJ from the MiTT team, a translator, my team and I) drove just a couple of blocks and were met by the IA Colonel (COL) and a couple of his Soldiers. (The MiTT team and especially the MAJ work with the IA on a daily basis so it is commonplace for them to dine with the IA.) My team introduced itself, shook hands, and were then escorted into the DFAC. We were shown to the COL's VIP table and took a seat. The rest of the DFAC was about half full of IA soldiers getting their food (cafeteria style) and sitting at the tables. We definitely received a lot of attention when we walked in. Since I was the Team Leader, I was seated next to the COL so I could ask him questions. We were waited on by an older gentleman and a couple of younger Iraqis dressed (unusually) in soccer uniforms. I think maybe the IA rotates kitchen duty and maybe they had just had a soccer game or were going to have one after dinner. As the first server placed a tray in front of the COL he waved his hand and motioned to serve me first, then the other guests and him last. I appreciated that gesture and was a bit surprised knowing the traditional role of women there. I appreciated the respect. We were brought stainless steel trays shaped with various compartments. On the tray sat ceramic bowls embellished with flowers. Dinner was chicken soup filled with couscous, a big piece of boiled chicken and green salad. In the middle of the table there were two blue plastic baskets filled with flat bread as big as pizza pans. To drink we had strawberry juice in juice boxes and water.

We were hungry and started sipping the soup with our plastic spoons. There were no forks or knives so eating the chicken from the bone with a single spoon was a new eating challenge for me. The MAJ said that the soup was basically chicken broth with lard for flavor. Hmmm, I don't even buy the traditional refried beans with lard. I buy the vegetarian ones, instead, so that will tell you how used to eating lard I am. Oh well, it tasted fine. I took a couple of bites of salad and realized the "greens" were mostly green onions mixed with some kind of leafy green and radishes. All of us who ate the "salad" had potent breath for the rest of the evening. We tore off pieces of the flat bread and learned that you are supposed to eat it like bread and dip it into the chicken broth liquid, too. Just a few minutes after we started digging in, the servers brought plates of boiled chicken and placed them on the table. During the meal, I asked questions through the translator and the MAJ and the COL both had comments which led to some good conversation. After the meal, the trays were cleared and we were served this steaming hot dark brown liquid in small shot-glass-size plastic cups. I carefully took a sip and couldn't really place what it was other than it was very sweet. So, by being sweet it passed my criteria for liking it. After a couple of more sips I distinguished it to be very strong tea. Someone said the sweetener was honey...a whole lot of honey. Apparently the tea was chai tea, which is consumed a lot over here. We had more tea and then the COL took out his cigarrettes and lit one up. One of my team members who also smokes also lit one up, he said he had to take advantage of being able to smoke inside a building since he couldn't remember the last time he had done that. After about a 2-hour dinner, the DFAC was empty and the serving line was almost completely clean. We walked out to the car and thanked the COL.

During the meal, listening to the COL I couldn't help but get a bit teary-eyed at times, so when we walked out the translator quietly said that he noticed that I was teary and asked why. I said that I just wanted the Iraqi people to succeed. He replied and said that he appreciated me sympathizing with the sadness and struggle of the Iraqi people. I guess in many ways I do sympathize with those people who want a good future for their children, who want a better life, who want to better themselves and have a self-sustaining country. The Army Captain on my team and one of my other team members and I had a discussion about this in the car on the way back from dinner. They couldn't really see why or how I could sympathize. There is a difference between having sympathy for people and being a sympathizer to unproductive activities (harmful and terrorist activities to try to gain power or instill fear). I have mixed feelings hearing about all of the corruption in the IA and Iraqi government that the MiTT has experienced first hand. IA and Iraqi civilians sometimes do awful things in the name of their own survival and to feed their families; of course, they also do awful things in the name of power and intimidation. As I tried to explain to my team members, my sympathy, or my sadness, is that the situation is so bad that it leads to that survival instinct for so many people....that people feel they have no other choice. I think it's sad that children are growing up knowing that.

It was a pretty unforgettable experience; not because it was gourmet food or because it was an exceptionally good time, but because it was such a unique experience to have at this point in history. Civilian Americans and Iraqis at a dinner table, sharing a meal in Iraq. Not many people can say they've done that. I wonder if I'll tell this story to my grandkids.

Here's the only picture taken that night. The COL is on the right at the head of the table.

Unexpected Celebrity Gets Cold Feet

Friday. We started off the day running around/driving around taking more pictures and tying up some loose ends and getting additional data before we left. We had some interesting experiences today. For lunch we met some of the folks from the U.S. MiTT (military transition team) and headed on over to eat with the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi COL (see pic at left). Once again we sat at his table and were served with about 7 different dishes: tomato soup with some kind of white bean, a chicken noodle soup derivative, white rice with rotisserie chicken, two kinds of fried doughnut-like things filled with ground meat, big white flatbread and cola. The green onion salad and tomatoes were in the middle of the table. I didn't take any this time...I had too many meetings ahead of me to risk dragon breath.

After lunch we were invited to take a tour of their existing facilities. The tour was quite an experience for me. The Iraqi Army functions out of buildings amongst the rest of the base population. Aside from being interesting to meet the COL and tour the facilities (motor pool, med clinic, jail, admin, DFAC), it was interesting to see how the IA responded to us as visitors. I think I actually got to see what it feels like to be a celebrity. Seriously.

As occurs many times in my travels, I, of course, was the only woman on the tour. My team and the MiTT were escorted by the COL and a couple of other IA folks. As we walked from facility to facility I asked the IA COL how many children he had and where his family lived (9 children). We went to the medical clinic that is being organized by 1 U.S. Army MiTT guy. He has done a fantastic job training the IA medics on proper procedures to run the clinic and keep track of inventory. We walked in and met the 2 IA medical sargeants. The MAJ from the MiTT took a picture and that opened the floodgates. After that one innocent picture to simply capture the interaction between the IA, the MiTT and between us, one of the MiTT guys asked if he could take a picture of me with the IA folks because "they love to have pictures taken." I was flattered and grinned at the camera. You can see this in the picture on the left. Notice the young translator, the IA COL, then the U.S. MAJ looking on and smiling. What this doesn't show is that my 4 team members were looking on along with 2 other US MiTT folks and about 6 IA folks in the doorway...what an audience. Geesh. Well, then the IA folks who had congregated in the doorway to see who the visitors were asked if they could have a picture with me. The MiTT guys said, "see, they love pictures!" So I grinned again with two other IA guys, then my team members started snapping shots, then an IA had a disposable camera in his pocket and he wanted his own picture. We finally got out of there with just under a dozen photos snapped. We walked outside and headed over to the jail, that was quick and okay because there was no one in there. Then we walked over to the motor pool and we noticed that there were people poking their heads out of the buildings and were standing in the doorway as our entourage was moving through. Apparently word had gotten out that the COL was taking visitors on a tour. At the motor pool there were about 6 folks who were pointing out their one room garage and their operations. I got asked for more pictures there and kind of went through a period of shyness at all the attention. I'm not camera shy, but I'm not used to so many photos. So, we continued on our tour, stopped for more pics and ended up at the Brigade HQ building where the IA COL works. We took a bunch of photos here with all of our cameras and the COL even picked up my camera and started snapping pics. (Those pics are crooked and some folks are out of the frame, but it was kind of humorous to see him working the camera.) At this point I hammed it up for the last couple of pics. My goodness, what an experience to feel like a celebrity, even if it was just for an afternoon. Crazy, and I'm not sure how i like it. I asked the MiTT MAJ about how they felt about Western women since their role is generally different than the role of typical Iraqi woman. I asked also because I didn't know how strange or possibly uncomfortable it was for them to have me introduce myself, shake hands, and ask them questions. The MAJ said so far he had heard (from the IA folks he had spoken to) that they are pretty fascinated by the role that Western women play and, in a way, he thought they would prefer women to be more independent. That was good to hear, however, I don't know how true that is. The picture on the left looks like a good start to my career with the Department of State or in politics.

After the tour, we had another highlight when Tom and I got to meet one of the military working dogs named Gabe. As you can see in the picture, he's a very photogenic yellow lab. We met up with the rest of our team and went exploring in some abandoned bunkers to see about the feasibility of re-using them.







After the bunker exploration, went and had some coffee before we split up and did our own thing (packing, napping, checking email). We reconvened at the passenger terminal at about 10:30 pm for our Blackhawk flight. When we got there, the terminal said the flight was early and we had to hurry up and load up our bags and get on the shuttle. We still had to drop off the vehicle we borrowed about a block away. Being the team leader, I volunteered to drive the car back, run inside and drop the key in the engineer building and sprint through the pitch black back to the terminal. I was so lucky I didn't twist my ankle and I'll explain why. The terrain at Q-West is either dirt or dirt covered in gravel. The soil is very impermeable so when it rains it just puddles up. When non-tactical vehicles, HMMWV's and the sort run through the soil it just creates deep grooves. Then when the rain evaporates, the soil turns so hard it almost seems like concrete. So, basically what I'm saying is that running through this terrain of deep-grooved, hard soil, could have been a pretty bad hazard. I sprinted into the terminal, threw on my flak jacket and kevlar and we all got on the shuttle to drive all of about 300 yards to the helo pad. Once there, we grabbed our stuff and waited for the Blackhawks to land. When you're waiting for the helos, you have to have all of your luggage and gear on and in your hands. Usually they'll offload the choppers and as soon as the last passenger gets off and they give the all clear you have to hustle onto the bird. It's pretty fast, you just throw your stuff in and shove it wherever you can and buckle in. This time I got a back seat so I had a pretty good window view, which actually wasn't so advantageous because it was at night time. It would have been cool to have seen some of the landscape during the day.

We arrived around midnight and found out that there was not another flight to Speicher until the next evening. We would be spending the night and the next day in an open-bay barrack (read: a big festival tent filled with cots). When we were at Speicher the week prior we were spoiled with a wet CHU, but now we had to rough it. We passed out and I was soooo cold even sleeping in my clothes. In the middle of the night I dug a pair of sweatpants and put them over my pants, put on a sweatshirt, gloves and a 2nd pair of socks. Oh my goodness, I was shivering so much that I didn't get much sleep.

Iraqi dinner menu

Oh yeah, Wednesday night my team and I were invited to have dinner at the Iraqi Army (IA) dining facility. We had dinner with an IA Colonel. (Don't worry, I didn't go off Post. The IA is on this Post.)

I'm exhausted now so I couldn't write very well if I tried so I'll describe that experience soon and post it.

WEDNESDAY

WEDNESDAY. Here I am in front of the mosque on post. While on site tours I usually always have a base map and notebook. Pretty nerdy tourist shot. As you can see, we've had beautiful weather.

We had more meetings today. My coworker and I went on our second night of post-midnight observation tours of incoming supply convoys. We didn't see as much action as we would have liked (lots of tractor trailers), but we did see one convoy of about 40.

Rabbit ears

Tuesday. Today we started our interviews at 8 am and continued on until about 6 pm. Then at dinner I hunted down the folks who run the DFAC and I got a tour of the facility. You have to take advantage of opportunities when you see them...sometimes dropping in on people and pouncing on them with unexpected visits results in the best and most honest info. I even had to wear a goofy white paper hat that looked like a 1940's sailor. I asked if they were making me wear it to make me look funny or if it was a real requirement. It turned out that it was a rule to cover your hair when you go back in the kitchen.

Anyway, tonight at midnight Tom (co-worker) and I are going to go see the cargo convoys coming into the base. They get like 300 tractor trailers a night here so the operations will be good to see. Unfortunately we have to put our vests and kevlars on for good measure.

Here is a picture of two of my team members (John on the left and Tom on the right) posing with our PPE (personal protective equipment). This was taken this past Saturday.

Chocolates vs. ROWPUs

Here is how I spent FEB 14, Valentine's Day:

I went on a site tour of the ROWPUs on the base. For those of you who don't know, a ROWPU is a Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit. Yep, as you can see, I was grilling the tour guide with questions about the unit. I'd take this over chocolates and roses any day. Ummm, not really.

Blackhawk

Well, our rotary wing flight last night was 5 hours later than we thought it would be. This meant we were in a holding tent with other Soldiers watching movies. They had Terminator 2 on which was cool and then they put on Joe Dirt...such a guy movie. Anyway, when they told us the chopper was ready we had to strap on our jackets and kevlar helmets, our backpacks and luggage and move out quickly to the helipad. It was really dark and so windy from the blades that one of my contacts just popped out. Anyway, the 5 of us shuffled onto the Blackhawk with about 5 others. Our bags and gear were shoved in in front of us, on our laps and anywhere there was room. (Blackhawks are not that big and do not have much cargo room when every seat is full.)

The gunners shut the doors and my coworkers and I fiddled with tangled seatbelts. We finally got buckled and the chopper slowly took off. The Blackhawk flight was very graceful in my opinion; very smooth. Well, about 4 minutes into the flight the left gunner shot some rounds...a split second after he fired, the right gunner sitting right in front of me also shot some rounds. It scared the crap out of me! At that point I just put my head down and buried my head into my backpack on my lap. I am pretty macho (in the most feminine way possible), but this scared me. I found out later that this is typical procedure and they were just test firing into the desert. Geesh. I would have not been so scared if I'd have known beforehand, because all I thought after it happened was that it was real and that the Blackhawk was defending itself from fire below. I have to honestly say that a few tears fell from my eyes when I buried my head because all I could think of was that I didn't want to be in a chopper after hearing the news lately. Anyway, about 5 minutes after the test shots I was fine and we were moving along pretty quickly. I was in the front right seat right behind the gunner. It was SOOO cold! The wind was just freezing because the gunner's window was open. Well, about 45 minutes later we landed ever so lightly and then we threw our stuff off the chopper and hustled off of the helipad. There was another load of passengers waiting to run onto the helipad as soon as we got off.

We got on a bus shuttle and met our POC. The 4 guys in my team stayed in a building on bunk beds and I got a "wet CHU."' CHU means containerized housing unit, which is basically just a trailer with a bathroom in it. I felt guilty for taking the CHU, because I don't want to live any better than my coworkers, but the POC insisted and the guys didn't seem to have a problem with it. Honestly, sometimes it's a hassle to be a girl over here because everything has to be separate and sometimes female facilities are located wherever they can fit. Oh well, I still like being a girl better.

This morning we had a great breakfast and then had a short windshield tour of the base. This used to be an Iraqi Army Air base. There are a lot of old hangars and stuff that are being reused now as offices. Luckily we have internet access in our work area.

Here's a picture of my team and me in front of the 82nd Airborne HQ at Speicher yesterday. I tried to get a sticker for you, Mac, but they couldn't find any.

oh yeah, I'm in Iraq

We had our out-brief yesterday and I'm glad it's over. Last night we got to our housing at around 10 pm. Just as I was falling asleep I heard and felt a blast. The walls are so thin in my trailer that I called my coworker neighbor through the wall to ask if he had heard the same thing. He said yes and we both ran to our respective front doors. All four of my team members and I met up on our front stoops nervously laughing and verifying what we heard. We don't know if it was a controlled detonation or not, but it was a bit jarring. You know, it's pretty nice here on base, I mean, the facilities are not all nice and there is mud everywhere, but there are a lot of things that DO NOT make you feel like you're in a war zone. Last night was really the first time while here that I had been reminded. Oh, that and then this morning we saw a chopper landing at the MEDEVAC pad...that most likely meant a critical injury was either arriving or leaving...that was another reminder. Third, today we were driving near the gate and a HMMV in front of us pulled to the right and then did a u-turn right in front of us. The CPT had to slam on his breaks. At that moment we could all see inside the rear window of the HMMV. There was a local with a dirty white cloth blindfold on with his hands obviously tied behind his back. The HMMV had just driven onto base and obviously passed the turn to get to the detainment facility. That was really kind of surprising and creepy. Not creepy in a scary way, but creepy to think that this guy was a detainee....why, for what, for doing something awful? That's what's creepy, to think about what he could have done to warrant him being detained. In another vein...maybe he didn't do anything at all and will just be questioned. In any case, in the last 24 hours I've been reminded, albeit in a subtle way, but still.

This evening we are scheduled to take a chopper to our next base. It will be my first time on a rotary wing aircraft. I'm kind of excited.

Fluidity

Thursday. We started off the day discussing wastewater, motor pools and hospitals and ended it discussing high-tech aircraft. We had meetings from 8 am through 6 pm with no break for lunch, but it was good. One of the meetings and tours I was especially interested by was the tour of the combat suport hospital or CSH. It is absolutely incredible how much this hospital functioned like the show M.A.S.H. No joke. They have lots of dark green tents, but the operating rooms are not in tents. They are in these crazy metal container/ boxes that are transported on the back of a flat bed truck and then just put on the ground and expanded. They kind of expand like those campers some people haul behind their pick up trucks, then when they park and set them up at a campground, they fold out. It's kind of like an accordion in a way. In any case, we got to see examples of an operating room and mobile pharmacy. I am amazed at how flexibible the doctors must be to be able to function and perform in this kind of environment. The roofs are kind of low and it gets hot in there in the summer, but they still do everything but brain or heart surgery.

The people here have been really helpful and I think we've gotten a lot of good info. Our Out-brief is tomorrow so I'm sure I'll get a little nervous right before. It will be nice to have it over with.

Anyway, everything here is going well...lots of dust and mud, but otherwise no complaints. I did hear that a water main burst in our living area and we might not have water. That would stink and so would I, but I guess I have no choice but to deal with it. Someone told me one time that "flexible is too rigid, you have to be fluid." That's a good motto for travel over here. Take care all, e

Dumpster surprises and the Big Dipper

Well, I had a pretty challenging day yesterday. I was put through some situations that could have easily made me cry, but it all worked out okay. As I wrote in yesterday's post, I lost my key to my room. It was a four hour ordeal to try to track someone down who could help out. My coworker graciously drove around with me from building to building all over the base. It was interesting to see the night life, which is fairly minimal except for a lot of people running with their PT gear on and reflective belts, as well as overnight restocking activities at the various dining facilities. As a last resort, I finally got into my room using a random key that was provided to me for our work space all the way across the base. I couldn't believe it actually worked. I wonder why God tests people like this. I mean, I'm exhausted, I'm dehydrated, I'm in Iraq on the third week away from home and then I lose my key to the only comfortable thing here. I guess it's always good to be pushed and pushed so you realize how strong you really are.

Anyway, then tonight as I returned to the education center to check email, I asked if anyone had found my jacket and the guy here said he found it this morning on the ground and threw it in the dumpster. We both went out and checked and it was there! Can you believe it? So, the day ended well.

We had meetings all day and toured around the base a bit more and took lots of pictures. I think I might go to bed early tonight so I can actually get a good night's sleep. Oh, you wouldn't believe how clear the night skies are here...the skies are so expansive because it is so flat here and there is no city glow. It's so beautiful and at the same time weird to think that I'm in Iraq. As we were driving after dinner I wondered how those people "outside the wire" live like and what their homes and families are like. Even though they are within a few miles of the base their world is so different from mine and everyone else on this base.

We have more interviews tomorrow to binge on as much information as we can the 5 days we're here. It's total sensory overload. ~e

Turkey and the Disappearing key

We arrived late Sat night which allowed us to hit the ground a day ahead of schedule (Sunday). We went on a windshield tour of the post and I invited myself onto a few operations for impromtu site visits with the operators. Sometimes that's the best kind of info to get...when folks are in the field and off guard. In any case, we made ourselves comfortable walking around and into the concrete batch plant run by a Turkish company. About 30 minutes later we were sitting in the company's DFAC VIP room eating a 4 course authentic Turkish meal off of real china. So far my impression of Turkish people is that they are very generous, friendly, take pride in their culture, and like to have fun. I think I should try to see about getting out to Turkey one day.

Back to business. The folks here have been quite supportive and today's In-Brief went well and we had a packed conference room with standing room only. We already have our day booked tomorrow with meetings so it appears folks are receptive to our mission here.

We have great accommodations in some nice trailers with real beds and furniture...no connectivity, though. The trailers were supposed to be for KBR, but somehow they didn't end up occupying them. We're so out in the middle of nowhere that the satellite is even intermittent. Geesh.

Anyway, today went fairly well, but this evening after dinner I realized I didn't have my jacket with me. I re-traced my steps, but did not have any luck. Guess what was in the jacket? My room keys. ARGH. I've been trying to figure out how to get into my room for about 2 hours. I hope I figure it out soon. I am sooo tired.

Take care. e

up north

hi everyone,
i traveled yesterday to Camp Speicher and will be here for a week....there is very little connectivity here so you will probably not hear much from me. all is well and this is considered a very safe location...mainly b/c it's in the middle of nowhere.

take care, e

Cultural Appreciations of the Palate

I’m attaching a pic of some of our team members in the lobby of the hotel. Tonight some of us ate at the Arabic restaurant for dinner and some of us ate at the steak house. Apparently the Western steakhouse had some pretty good rib-eye. The Arabic restaurant had a fantastic spread filled with beautifully crafted, creatively presented dishes.

I primarily ate the cold buffet of taboule salad and hummus. I had a couple of pieces of some kind of spicy chicken with a brick red colored sauce and then moved on to the dessert tables. The desserts lined both sides of the buffet area...the left side had various “western” type cakes, cheesecakes, pie, chocolate mousse, ice cream cake, etc. As I held my empty plate surveying the left side, I was strongly drawn to survey the right side before I dared to commit to a specific sweet concoction. Just as my eyes met the far end of the table, a young waiter walked out from the kitchen door and spotted my indecisiveness. Actually, I wasn’t being indecisive, simply surveying the surroundings before moving forward with a course of action. In any case, he came over and said I should try the desserts on the right side because they were the Arabic specialties. I obliged, of course, and took a spoonful of some creamy bread pudding filling up a stainless steel serving clamshell thingy. He then told me the name of the next dish I should try (a two-layered creamy custard with a white top layer and orange bottom layer) I put a modest spoonful on my small plate...then he identified the next donut-hole looking pastries, so I took one, then he recommended the last dish. Now this last dish was interesting...we had been discussing it at the dinner table and had described it as “the hairy one.” No, it did not have hair, but it did have some kind of phyllo dough thin spaghetti covering on the outside which was dusted with pistachio crumbs. I didn’t even know how to serve this so the young server took it upon himself to cut into it and spoon a large serving onto my already crowded plate. The bowl next to the dessert was filled with somewhat of a clear syrup, which I was told was sugar syrup. This was spooned onto the “hairy one” and my plate was full. They young server was pleased that he corralled me, an obvious westerner, onto the native side of the buffet where he could show off and take pride in his cultural delicacies. I, of course, obliged and enjoyed every last bit of it.

I do have to say, I am definitely not used to eating in a restaurant where so many of the women come in with their birqas. The fabrics are black, of course, but they are decorated with ornate embroidery and detailed edging. Just before we stood up to leave, five ladies sheathed in black were seated next to us. I was so curious how they would eat...would they remove the bottom part of the birqa to reveal mouths colored with lipstick? Would they maneuver their forks underneath the covering? How would they react to the 5 western men sitting next to them? Before I could take part in my social observations we pushed back our chairs and left. So, I’m still wondering...













Another neat observation within the hotel walls is the gorgeous hand-painted tiles accenting the walls and ceilings. They are just fantastically handcrafted. Here is a picture of some stunning 3-dimensional, blue and gold tiles located on the wall just outside of the elevator on the 8th floor.

Kuwaiti Bottlenecks and a Picture of Victory Base Camp

Here is a picture of the tent I stayed in at VBC for 4 nights. The port-a-potties are about 20 feet to the right.

So, today is Thursday and I’ve spent all day in the Crowne Plaza in a conference room with 11 other of my co-workers. The window overlooks a huge excavation construction project just below. We can see the traffic circulation outside and it’s kind of funny how there is a 4-way intersection without any stop signs or stop lights or signage or anything. Cars just kind of slow down in the middle of the intersection and move forward honking. So far I haven’t seen any accidents.

Dry drinks and fancy bathrooms

The 12 of us just had Japanese food in a Crowne Plaza in Kuwait City. The restaurant actually was pretty authentic looking and feeling...I’ve been to Japan so I hopefully have a good frame of reference. In any case, when we checked in we each got a complimentary drink ticket. At dinner we all pulled them out to cash them in for a pre-dinner drink. The waitresses dressed in kimonos brought each of us a small orange menu from which to choose our drinks. We all flipped through oohing and awwwing the colorful pictures and tropical descriptions. They had everything from fresh squeezed natural kiwi and mango juice (yeah, I don’t really know how you squeeze a kiwi, either) to pina coladas to Starbucks coffee. Anyway, we got through about 4 people’s orders when we realized that the drinks sounded great, but there was no mention of liquor in any of the descriptions. Oooooh, it’s a dry country...maybe that’s why the drinks were free. For some reason we all thought that the “dry” rules maybe didn’t apply within the hotel walls. WRONG. Oh well, we all got some frou-frou drinks in fancy glasses with fruit on the rim. No umbrellas, though. They had a special where sushi and rolls were half off so we helped the budget out a lot by dining there.
We started off the day waking up at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait....actually, let me back up to last night after I posted yesterday’s blog. I signed off the computer in the psychedelic USO and was waiting for one of my co-workers who was still on. My other co-worker, Lars, was sleeping on one of the many sofas in front of the large-screen tv. There was some show about Army rangers on that I caught the tail end of. When I found out that 24 was on next I decided to hang out for another hour to see what Jack Bauer was up to. So, I watched the show and it ended just about 2 minutes before the USO closed at midnight. I woke up my co-worker and rounded up the other one so we could head over to our respective tents. My tent was number Q3 among a sea of about 100 other tents, each filled with about a dozen metal bunk beds. The mattresses ranged from being covered in clear plastic to green zippered vinyl to no covering at all. The temporary billeting didn’t have any linen to issue so, once again, my red fleece blanket came in handy; that and the beaded neck pillow Anne gave me have been a life saver. (Thanks Anne.)The tents have heating and air conditioning that runs from outdoor units to the inside via large 1.5 foot wide vinyl ducts. Even though it was chilly outside and windy, it was actually a bit stuffy inside because the temperature is not allowed to be turned below 72 degrees. No complaints, just telling the facts.
Anyway, as I mentioned, these tents are part of what is called a ‘tent city’ which is typically reserved for transient units and during rotation periods. They are also located adjacent to the passenger terminal, which means that folks who fly in and need a place to crash for a few hours can take a snooze (read: flights arrive any time day or night...read further: all hours of the night, so the lights are kept on inside the tents and there are always people coming in and out). So, needless to say, it wasn’t very much continuous sleep. When I woke up my eyes were so swollen...maybe it was from being irritated from the sand blowing around all day, or from the layer of dust on the mattress I was sleeping on (no sheets), or maybe there was more salt in the dinner than I had thought there was.
I got up and walked through the gravel with my towel and toiletries past two laundry trailers, a male latrine, a male shower trailer, until I got to the female latrine and shower trailers. These facilities are super nice compared to the ones at Victory. There, all we had was port-a-potties that you had to take a flashlight into to see. Anyway, later I met up with the rest of my team and we went and had coffee at the Green Bean. Basically the Green Bean is a Sbucks-like coffee shop that operates all over this region on military bases. It is such a treat to have good coffee. I know some may think it’s a superfluous amenity, but there has to be room for simple pleasures like a good cup of expensive coffee....strike that, a good cup of coffee, that is expensive.
We turned in our body armor and caught a ride to Kuwait City. Our driver wandered around for a bit so we accidentally toured some residential areas of the city and then we stumbled across the Crowne Plaza. (I wonder if Mac ever stayed here when he visited Kuwait.) The hotel boasts 7 restaurants...one is even a Western Steakhouse. Maybe we’ll try that for dinner tomorrow...or maybe not, we should try to eat some local food. For lunch we had Iranian food, which was fantastic. We were spoiled with lots of different dishes (hummus, parsley salad, baba ganoush, the best, creamiest feta cheese I’ve ever had, and grilled lamb, chicken, fish and chicken with rice). They were making the pita/nan-type bread right behind us in a stone oven. I went up to the guy and asked him how he made it and he gave me a demonstration. Very cool.
After totally stuffing ourselves we went up and did some work until it was time to pick up the other folks and then headed to a Japanese dinner as I described at the beginning. Now, three of us are in a room typing away. I just called my boss who is in the IZ to verify that he is okay...just got word of a rocket attack there. He is fine, but I have to say, when his phone initially said not in service, my heart did beat fast for a bit.
The craziest thing will be taking a shower and getting ready tomorrow morning in a bathroom with marble and a bidet, and real towels and a hair dryer. I almost feel guilty for even being here for 2 days. I mean, after a week of traveling I really appreciate being here, but I wonder if it will be harder to go back to tents, sand, and port-a-potties. I’m here so I might as well enjoy it while I can. Tomorrow will be a big day packed with lots of work. Four of us are going to lead meetings all day in front of the team before w

e head north.

I’m attaching a pic of the Al Faw Palace, me fly fishing in a canal in front of the palace, and the Flintstone house.

flintstones and steaming in a C-130

HI all,
Today is Tuesday and I started off the day pretty uneventfully. I went to the Palace to pick up something and then began our trek over to BIAP to get on a flight out of Iraq and back to Kuwait. On our way to BIAP we stopped off at another Camp within Victory Base Complex called Camp Slayer. THere is another palace there that was never completed called the Victory over Americas Palace. I don't know if it's as big as the AL FAw palace, but it looked pretty nice. The whole reason we went to this palace in the first place is because there was a Flintstone-like house behind it that Saddam built for his grandkids. Apparently it was made to be like the Flintstones cartoon. Anyway, we took a couple of pictures and drove by it, and it did look like a big stone complex with tunnels all over. It was pretty neat...I mean, it was one of those things that every kid would probably like. Anyway, this palace complex also had a big lake, canal and a swimming pool. It's crazy to think that there are lakes in the middle of the desert.
Anyway, then we headed over to the flight terminal and got onto a flight just after lunch. It was a C-130 and we were packed in it. Unfortunately we had to sit on the airfield for about an hour before even taking off. Let me tell you, there is less room than in an economy seat and there is no air. Everyone just sits on two rows facing each other on both sides of the plane. So, your knees are touching and leaning agains the people's knees on either side of you AND on the person across from you. Oh, add the fact that you have your carry-on in your lap, your flack jacket on, and your kevlar helmet on, too. It got SOOOOOOOOo hot after that hour because the engines are on and we were just sitting there. It was just my luck that it had been windy and pretty brisk while waiting for the flight so I put on my sweatshirt and fleece vest. I was steaming. But, even though it was kind of miserable, I cannot complain. I cannot imagine how much the soldiers have to go through doing this all the time.
We finally got off the ground and it cooled off drastically for the 2 hours we were in the air. We arrived at Ali Al Saleem in Kuwait and took a bus from the airfield to the passenger terminal. We checked into tents for the night and headed over for a nice sit-down meal...chicken, sweet potatoes, collard greens....a proper southern dinner. Then I had some Baskin Robbins ice cream for dessert. I have to say, so far the food has been pretty darn good everywhere I've been.

We found the USO tent and are chilling out in here for a while. It is super cool in here. I love the USO and if anyone is looking for a non-profit to support I recommend it. The walls are purple, there are two buses in here painted in psychadelic colors, and there are comfy sofas and chairs everywhere. One of the buses has chairs in it and a large screen tv that they show movies on. The other bus is up front and serves as the reception desk. I thought it was neat that they make you take your shoes off before you come in. There are not many places you can go without boots on. Even when you're at your bunk, the floors are plywood and dirty so you try to keep at least flip flops on. They have a bunch of books, a couple of tvs with video games and some Morale phones that you can use. The USO is so good for morale and they really provide an escape.

So, that was my day...full of travel and lots of sitting and waiting. I will say that after this month-long trip my trapezoids and lateral muscles are going to be pretty strong after dragging around a heavy backpack and duffel bag over my flack jacket. That's good, though, it will help me get back into working out when I return.

Tomorrow the advance team and I are going to pick up our 10 other team members at Kuwait Int'l Airport. We'll get to spend the night in a hotel so it will be nice to get away from the dust for a night. I keep on forgetting to have pics ready to upload, but I will do it tomorrow evening. I hope the hotel in Kuwait City has good connectivity so I can post some. Take care all of you and thanks for reading my ramblings. Erika

Fly Fishing in the Canal

Sorry I did not post yesterday...very tiring day and didn't get back to the tent until about 1 am. We had our briefing on Sat afternoon in the palace. it went well and we walked around the second floor of the palace. THe place is decked out in so much marble. THe bathrooms are huge...just the sink room is bigger than my livingroom. you walk in and there are a ton of sinks then you go through another doorway and there is a hallway full of individual little rooms which are all toilet rooms. the toilet rooms are about 6 feet by 10 feet and all have a bidet (mom, you would appreciate that). i think there's a rule in the military that no one is allowed to use bidet's because they just serve as a convenient place to store extra rolls of toilet paper. the toilet, sink, bidet are all porcelain or at least really nice ceramic. there are filigree gold flowers and designs decorating them all with the edges gilded in gold. so fancy.
speaking of fancy, i have never seen a chandelier as big as the one that's in the rotunda of he palace. huge, i'll upload a pic when i can. i keep on saying how huge the palace is, but i found out it was actually just a hunting lodge...a vacation home. can you believe it? apparently it was built in 1991 and cost $500 million to build. it has 3 lakes and various smaller lake houses all around the lakeshore, which just happen to not really be 'cabins,' but carved sandstone villas. Apparently they were for his friends and family to use. After leaving the palace we worked for a while in a building that used to house an outdoor pool. it's pretty neat how the building has been retrofitted. you walk in and it would take you a while to figure out that the "downstairs" full of cubicles is actually a tiled pool. The 'loft' is built over the pool.
In any case, Saturday night I did play ping pong, but it was just volleying it back and forth so no awesome winning point to tell you about. Saturday night it was sooooo windy, which normally can be loud if you are in a house, but think about how loud it is if you're in a vinyl tent. My goodness, the tent shook and was very loud until about 1 or 2 am. Do you know when you empty the garbage and you get a new plastic garbage bag and you shake it so it is open before you put it in the garbage can? Well, think of that noise, because that is what is sounds like when you are inside a tent in windy weather. Also, the walls were shaking so hard that it kept on bumping my mattress on my cot and scaring me. i survived the wind and then it started raining big rain drops. the good thing is i finally fell asleep. Sunday we started off with a hearty breakfast at the Coalition DFAC. The mud created from the heavy rain drops was the stickiest mud...it suctioned my boots onto it and it wasn't even deep at all. THere was so much mud everywhere...even covering the asphalt streets. There's no grass and the soil is pretty impervious so the mud just slides and spreads everywhere. You're supposed to clean and stomp and wipe your feet when you enter a building, but sometimes it's impossible to get it all and the floors are constantly being swept up to at least get the big pieces.
After breakfast we headed over to some meetings. I didn't go to the palace, which was kind of a bummer, but i did go to the Boathouse on Al Faw lake, which now serves as an administrative office building. It was only yesterday, but i don't remember too much about what i did other than being in meetings and in front of a computer. i guess it wasn't eventful enough to put in a blog. Oh...the DFACs opened at midnight for the superbowl pre-show and stayed open all night through breakfast. i didn't go watch it, because i figured if i had time to do that, i should be doing something else...especially sleeping. anyway, my coworker said he could hear the noise coming from the DFACs on his way to watch it at the boathouse. Oh, now i remember what else i did yesterday...i did go to the palace after all. in the lobby they have kind of a tourist trap. They have a huge ornate chair that apparently was saddam's chair. you can sit in it and have your picture taken. at first i didn't want to sit in it because it kind of creeped me out. then, my team wanted to have a picture of the 4 of us so i conceded. although, i somehow accidentally deleted the pics from my new camera right after i walked out of the palace. i was trying to look at them and pushed the wrong button. oh well, it was a creepy chair anyway. on our way back from the palace we have to walk over a bridge over a canal and we saw a Major and a Lt Col at the water's edge. THe MAJ was fly fishing!!! it was a pretty basic rod and he was still in his ACU's, but he said everyone has to stop and take breaks every once in a while when and where you can to be able to keep going in this environment. anyway, he asked if i wanted to try it. of course i did and he had me throw the line out a few times...i didn't catch anything, but now i can say the first time i went fly fishing was in iraq.
we started today (monday) off with a tour of some power generator farms which was kind of neat. we had meetings all day. we had one at the palace and measured the rotunda to be about 100 feet across. not much to report for the day, really. the nice thing is that every building you walk into has big bowls or boxes of candy everywhere. there are so many care packages received from the US that people just leave them out to share. i never mind having candy lying around. the weather was super nice today...sunny, clear, maybe 68 degrees. it helped dry out the mud, which was nice.
Tomorrow should be my last day at VBC and then we head on over to Kuwait to pick up the rest of our team members. hopefully all will go well getting on a flight tomorrow without too much of a wait.

signing off, erika

A pic from Afghanistan...

A couple people have asked me when they will see pictures. E will probably upload some when she can, but until then, here is one of her and her co-workers posing for the camera in Afghanistan back in October with their protective equipment.

M

I figured out how to log into this thing so now I can post stuff myself...unless I don't have good internet connectivity at my next location.

So, I spent my first night in Baghdad last night and I want to clarify that I am not in the Green Zone/International Zone. I'm about 10 miles away in a huge complex of military bases/camps that is collocated with Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). This complex contains a military controlled side of BIAP called Sather Air Base/Camp Anaconda where I landed yesterday. Down a bumpy road from that a couple of miles is the Victory Base Complex (VBC) which is made up of various camps. This is where I am. The IZ is about 10 miles away, but you can only get there by chopper or by something called a Rhino, which is an armed mini-bus type vehicle that can withstand an IED.

The team and I started off the day meetin our POC for breakfast at 0700...yes, I know, if you know me you know that I don't usually get up that early unless I'm up from being awake all night. For some reason when I travel I need less sleep than usual and I can actually get up really early and be on time. Maybe it's because I work with the military so I feel I have no other choice... or maybe it's because I don't have any distractions when I get up in the morning (ie. playing with my pups)...or it might be (probably is) because I remain in a complete jet-lagged state the entire time. I also typically have so much adrenaline from these trips and from information and sensory overload that I go into a weird survival mode. In any case, Michael would be very impressed...although probably wondering why I can't function this way at home. Anyway, we had breakfast at the Oasis Dining Facility (DFAC) which has any kind of breakfast food you could imagine. They don't have Korean breakfasts, however, which sometimes include kimchi and miso soup.
We headed for a pre-brief with the COL of Multi-national Corps-Iraq where he provided us with good planning guidance for our work over the next couple of weeks. Then, our POC, took us on a short driving tour around VBC. You wouldn't believe it, but it was raining...not hard, but big rain drops. It rained for about one hour and then it was over, but I just had never thought of it raining in Baghdad...I had always thought of it being so arid over here. They have a rainy season and sometimes the streets flood. Actually, it happened about 2 weeks ago and we've been told the ground is finally drying out. Our tour took us around 3 lakes and many sandstone carved buildings. The buildings are really incredible from an architectural standpoint. Aesthetically, they are really nice and you can see the craftsmanship in pretty much every detail. My architecture side really appreciated them, but my humanitarian side was thinking about how much slave labor probably went into their construction. I mentioned there are 3 lakes. One of the lakes Al Faw Lake is in front of the Al Faw Palace. Yep, I said palace. There is a palace here with a lake and a moat around the front of it...a real-live moat! The lakes have white-healthy looking ducks with big orange bills and lots of birds flying around. There are also HUGE carp in the lake. We saw some Iraqi army guys fishing for carp with a net. It's actually really pretty to look at the palace and lake...like a painting, but it's depressing to see all the military vehicles everywhere on the lawns.

I'm signing off because my co-worker, a 6'5" dude from Oklahoma of Norwegian descent is challenging me to a game of ping-pong. I can't pass up a challenge so I'll finish my narrated tour soon. Take care, Erika-I-sat-on-a-porcelain-toilet-with-gold-leaf-today McGinley.....yep, that's a teaser for the next post!

Note from Erika

Erika tried to log on to update the blog, but couldn't access it. We'll try to work it out so she can post things up here, but until then she just e-mailed a message to me to post for everyone, so here it is...

Hi,It is actually erika from baghdad. our advance party arrived safely this afternoon with backpacks, duffel bags, kevlar helmets and flack jackets. we took a shuttle from BIAP (aka Sather air base) and met up with our point of contact (POC) at victory base complex. i've never seen 10-foot tall jersey barriers before, but they line the unpaved, uneven gravel road system here. i'm staying in a cushy tent (read: bare)with a few DOD civilian ladies that told me the scoop on the port-a-potties outside our door and the showers. there's no toilet paper in the potties today...good thing i brought plenty of travel kleenex tissues. also, the showers apparently DO have hot water...i'd settle for warm. this morning i woke up in camp arifjan in a bunkbed in a tent and woke up even quicker when i took an ice cold shower. now, i would whine if i was at home and that happened, but when i travel i make it a point to be as rough and tough as i can so i didn't even complain in my internal monologue. all i could do was wet parts of my body at a time and my head separately to ease the pain from the cold. i was thinking, however, that maybe i should send an email warning the rest of the team who's arriving next week about the water. then i thought i shouldn't because it would just make them bitter before they even arrived.

so, i am part of the advance party of four of us who are giving a presentation to MNC-I (multi-national corps iraq) tomorrow. we're also the guinea pigs to see how smoothly or bumpy the in-country travel goes. we're bringing 12 more people over next week to join us. apparently, MNC-I is located in The Palace. I guess it's Saddam's former palace and I've heard it's decadent...marble everywhere. it should be pretty interesting. the four of us ended up on a c-17 flight this afternoon from ali al saleem, kuwait along with about 200 other military personnel heading into baghdad. the trip was uneventful and short...about 75 minutes...however I did cringe a little bit when the "red lights" came on. inside the aircraft they have red and green lights lining both of the walls. the lights turn red when the aircraft officially enters a combat zone...i.e. baghdad. yeah...that kind of put a lump in my throat. oh, the other thing that i forgot put a lump in my throat was when we were loading up the plane to take off and i could see the pilots up front through a porthole...they were putting on flack vests...yeah, the fact that they had to have those on just to pilot the c-17 was also a bit jarring. in any case, i apologize for the lack of capitalization and/or proper sentence structure...really no time to or energy for much of that. i'm in a morale welfare and recreation facility (MWR) and they are giving salsa lessons upstairs...i wish i could join...then i could say i learned how to dance in baghdad. take care, erika

Between Iraq and a diffcult latin dance

Erika has safely arrived at the green zone in baghdad and is in her tent where she will be staying with three other female DOD personnel. She is in a MWR center (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation for you non-Army folks) and they are having salsa lessons there right now, and the music was pretty loud. She was actually kind of jealous and wanted to go take the lessons.

Anyway, she should be there for two days of meetings and preparation, then back to Kuwait for a few days to meet up with the rest of her team when they arrive, and then back to Iraq for a month. As of right now, her return flight is scheduled to get her back to Atlanta on Saturday, March 3.

Quick Update

The Air Force said "sorry" but they have no room for them for transpo today, so Erika is going to have to spend the night at the AFB in Kuwait again tonight and try again to get on a flight to Baghdad sometime tomorrow. Also, the Air Force doesn't have any room for them to spend the night, so they will be sleeping in tents. Real cushy consulting business travel, huh?