wastewater portrait and ham

Saturday 28 April 2007. We took a driving tour of the base and didn’t see too many exciting things. However, when we saw this wastewater pond under construction we asked our tour guide to halt the brakes so we could jump out, take a closer look and snap some photos. Yeah, our day-to-day lives and our work over here changes our perspective of what “cool” and “exciting” is. This especially struck me when I was thinking what to write about; I thought to myself “Oh man, this is pretty bad.” Then I thought, I’ll throw in a picture to make it more exciting....yeah, I’m just kidding, the picture won’t really help, but I’m including it anyway since I was glad I got a good shot.

Sunday 29 April, 2007. We are back at Victory Base Complex in Baghdad and met up with 2 more of our team members: Chris K. and Chris H, who both work with me in Atlanta. It was good to see them again and to add more folks to our dinner conversations. It was pretty sandy and overcast today so when we took Chuck around I felt bad that he wasn’t getting the best views of the Al Faw Palace and the lakes. Chuck was just happy that he got his photo taken on “the chair” in the Al Faw Palace; his mission was complete. Check out this very hammy picture of him. He’s a really fun guy, a good planner, has a kindred coffee addiction like mine, and has a contagious laugh. Getting to know him better has been a really good perk from this trip.

Monday 30 April, 2007. The weather cleared up a lot from Sunday and it got pretty hot, about 94 degrees. We had a good briefing today. Afterwards we went to the roof of the Palace and took a couple of pics. Here’s a pretty fun one of us that starts to show the relief after having completed another milestone for the trip (L to R: Chuck, Chris H, me, Chris K). This work has been made 100 times better by having truly great people to work with (many of whom weren't on this trip, but were on the first trip in February.) We worked a bit more and then went to the edge of the lake to watch the sun set and talk a little bit. When I closed my eyes and listened to the water it kind of felt a little bit like I was on a pier in [insert any place other than Iraq]. Of course, that feeling is short-lived when you pay attention to the other sounds around.