27 JAN 08, Sunday

On Sunday I spent most of the morning in the PAX (passenger) terminal trying to get a couple of team members out the door back to their respective origins. There weren't any exciting tours so I don't really have much to post. Well, actually, here's a pic of some PAX loading into a fixed wing cargo plane. I think it's cool.

26 JAN 08: one of the best places to learn Salsa

It’s been a couple of days since I’ve written. I haven’t found a computer that will give me access to the page to post something so the entries will probably be a day behind.

26 Jan 08, Saturday: We had interviews and site tours most of the day. I got to ride around and drive an up-armored SUV that our client borrowed. It looks like a regular SUV from the States, you know, the ones that are everywhere in the suburbs and that bully all the other cars on the road. Anyway, this one probably weighs twice as much as those and the doors take a lot of muscle power to open and close. The plate glass windows seem like they are almost an inch thick, but I can’t really tell. We were thinking that it probably doesn’t get any more than 8 miles per gallon because of its weight. You press on the gas pedal and it’s like getting a locomotive to start. I could be exaggerating, though, because I have never owned an SUV or a truck so I have no idea how heavy those things are. All I know is that it was like driving a locomotive on the roads compared to the station wagon and sedan we own. I actually felt pretty cool driving it.

We got to tour a big hangar and also some of the areas on the airfield. We met with the Romanians who were very happy to speak with us and show us around their area. We also got to meet with some Polish soldiers. One of the best parts of traveling to these parts is that you get to meet lots of different kinds of people and because everyone is in Iraq, a lot of the personal barriers dissolve. People like to speak with new faces they haven’t seen before and they are typically more open about themselves than you would expect outside a war zone.

I hope that one of the many things that comes out of this situation in Iraq is that new relationships are started between countries, that existing relationships are made stronger, and that the relationship with the host country (Iraq) evolves into one of long-term commitment toward reconstruction, economic growth, and identifying those who cause harm because they are threatened by these goals. I want so much for this country to return to the time when they were able to freely celebrate arts, culture, education and economic prosperity. That’s my personal humble hope, but I also realize that there are many of my Western ideals which may or may not be translated into the Iraqi culture the same way that I experience them. I roomed with an Iraqi translator last week. She had lived here when she was younger and now she had traveled to the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand. She had the same hopes I did, but she did say that the Iraqi culture is very hard to understand because it has always been complicated and unique. That coupled with conflicts and dictatorship has generated a culture that is even more complex. I was very impressed with this young lady. She has come over here to try to do what she can to restore the country which she understands she comes from, but to which she cannot relate to her day-to-day life. I hope she stays safe.

On Saturday night we also had a short Salsa lesson. It turns out that one of the Senior Airmen in the office we’re working in is Cuban from Miami and used to be a dance instructor. He teaches class here as a way to help pass the time to whomever is interested. Our two clients, Chris and I lined up as he explained the robotics of each of 4 steps. I’m sure we were a sight…camo clothing, muddied boots, in a small office. Last year I fly-fished for the first time in Baghdad and this year I had my first Salsa lesson here! I think there is going to be another class on Tuesday which I hope to get to. I have been wanting to take dance lessons for a looooong time and since there’s nothing to do here other than work, it will be a good opportunity to squeeze a couple of introductory lessons in.

25 JAN 08

HERE IS A BLOG I WROTE ON 25 JAN, FRIDAY THAT I WAS NOT ABLE TO POST. IT CORRESPONDS TO SOME OF THE PICS BELOW THAT M POSTED.

It rained on Tuesday night and it was soooo muddy on Wednesday. Imagine that there is no dry land to step on AT ALL so there's not even any relief from it. I'm not even kidding. Here is a picture of the tent I stayed in. You can kind of see the puddled water right outside the door. The gravel kind of makes it okay in some spots, but it typically sinks into the mud after enough people walk on it and cars drive on it. It feels like you’re walking on about 4-6” of cake icing. Your feet sometimes get suctioned to it and it’s slick! Awful. I’d walk out of my tent and about 30 feet outside the bottom of my pants would be splattered with thick mud and my boots would be covered with the stuff. At the end of the day the bottoms of my pants were all mud splatter up to a third or the middle of my calf. Ugh. Everyone is like that, though, so there’s no reason to be self conscious about being muddy.

I’ve moved to a new and much smaller base. Below is a pic of me on the Blackhawk helo ride over. I look pretty cool with the sunglasses on. It actually wasn’t sunny, but you have to wear those so the dust doesn’t fly in your eyes when you’re walking to and getting into the helicopter while the blades are spinning. I think I would look even better than pretty cool except that my kevlar helmet is crooked, which makes me look like Private Benjamin. That and they squeezed 10 grown adults into the helo and piled all of our bags in between and on top of our legs. Here are a couple of pics looking out the window. One shows some agricultural farm land and the other shows some buildings in a small village. The helo ride was an hour and I didn’t take my eyes off of the scenery the whole time (except to pose for the picture). It’s sooo crazy that I was flying over the countryside. I mean, I have before, but it’s only been at night so this was the first real glimpse into what the Iraqi countryside looks like. I was surprised at how green it is and how much farms make up the land below. For some reason I thought it was all desert and desolate. I know they have pretty well-developed irrigation from the river and they have fairly wet and rainy winters, but for some reason I just didn’t believe how many farms there are. It was actually really pretty from the air. You could see the nice even rows of crops and the white greenhouses.
Anyway, back to where I am now. I think this is one of the most austere bases to which I have been. (See PX pic below that M posted. The PX is not the building...it's the container on the right of the building. Yep, it's in a shipping container.) My billeting is not bad, though. I am in a hardstand all concrete building with high ceilings and an environmental control unit (heater and AC). Here is a pic of my room. There are three lockers and three beds with real linens. It’s not bad. The only jarring thing was the 3 sets of zip-tie handcuffs randomly hanging on the coat hook on the wall. Yikes! I’m just not used to seeing stuff like that. I guess they use those in the States, but I just wasn’t expecting that as the room décor. I’m going to assume someone was using those as a creative solution for something else in the room and not their intended purpose. As far as the other amenities, well, there aren’t really any other than the necessities. The DFAC is typical buffet style, all you can eat with a dessert bar. It’s not bad. I had pretty good chicken fingers today and a nice bread pudding. The PX is open only part time and it only carries essentials, if they are in stock. It is very bare-boned. I haven’t been in it yet since it’s open very little and run by troop labor. I’ll let you know what kind of wares they sell once I get there.
I have a few more days here to get to know the place better and see what there is. I think this will be a good project.

A few more pictures

M here again. So apparently it's not the connectivity, it's that the blogger.com site is restricted where she is...so here are a few more pics that she sent over the weekend. The first one is her and CH with one of the logistics teams and the second picture is of them with the Romainians. Apparently there are a lot of Georgians at this location as well (the country of Georgia) but there are also a few Georgia National Guard (our state) folks as well. Small world. Anyway, I'll try to keep posting things as I get them until she gets back to where she can get on here.

More pics

M here.... E's connection is not very good, so here are some of her pics.

MUDDIEST PLACE ON EARTH?

If you're like me, you wouldn't consider Iraq much of a muddy place. I can honestly say I have seen the best mud here. When I say "best" I don't mean that it's a good thing. I mean, in the spectrum of muddy characteristics, mud over here is truly an incredible specimen. It's super thick, deep and slick and it camouflages itself well as stable earth. My tent mate said she woke up at 4 a.m. and the tent was swaying in the wind of the rainstorm. I was glad I slept through that. I stumbled out of bed, gathered my toiletries and towel and headed out I was met by puddles of standing water outside the tent.

Good livin'

So I got the pictures uploaded. My cot is the one on the left with the comforter on it and the blue towel hanging down. It's not very glamorous, nor should it be, I guess, but it's good shelter and I'm thankful for that. There are folks in convoys that end up sleeping in their Humvees, so a tent is good livin' in comparison.

abnormal DNA

Greetings all,
Unfortunately it wasn't such an exciting day as far as adventure or recounting stories. It was pretty typical: breakfast, meetings, lunch, working, coffee, working, dinner, meetings, midnight chow, talking with my tent mate, blogging. I did snap two pictures of the inside of my tent just so you could get a peek of what transient life is like. It's not so bad, but if it was for months it could get pretty uncomfortable. I've tried to upload the pics, but it's not cooperating with me so I'll see if I can do that tomorrow. I will say this, my Mom taught me how to be tough, how to speak up, and how to be strong, but her idea of camping is Camp Marriott or Camp Sheraton. I really don't know how I have the penchant for lugging around 70+ pounds of luggage and body armor and "roughing it" around Iraq. As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, I'm not sure there are many folks on either side of my family who would ever consider doing that. It must have been a fluke in the my gene sequence.

Oh. I had ketchup flavored potato chips from the DFAC. They are made in the UAE and they were pretty good.

"The Juicer"

Sorry. I did not take any pictures today. I thought I would, but we were walking back and forth from meeting to meeting then to the DFAC (dining facility) and I just never got the right time. It was beautiful in Baghdad today. The skies were bright blue. I think the temperature was in the 50s. The Al Faw Palace looked really beautiful on the lake. Once it turned dark the sky was covered in stars. I think I remember writing last February about my amazement at how beautiful the night skies were in Iraq. I think I still feel the same way.
As I mentioned, we spent most of our time indoors, but I was lucky to see some Blackhawks in the sky at one point during the day. I actually really like the sound of helicopters for some reason. I can hear them overhead right now as I am typing this on my cot. Even at work back in Atlanta my cube is by the window so I get to see the traffic-copters whoosh by over the interstate. I always look up at them. They are not nearly as cool as Blackhawks.

I did not end up really sleeping well last night. I tossed and turned and in the end got about 2 to 3 hours of sleep. The good thing is you don't feel jetlag as much because you're too tired to feel it. (That's the "cup is half full" interpretation.) The culprit to this crime of disruption is a large generator about 50 feet away from my tent and it sounds like someone is revving an 8 cylinder SUV too big to drive anywhere other than the mountains, and certainly not the city or suburbs. I thought after a while it would turn into white noise, but it never did. I would try to re-adjust to get comfortable, but I would just end up scrambling up my sleeping bag and when I would try to straighten it up I would just slip and slide in it. You know the kind of sleeping bag I'm talking about, the kind where the material is so slick that it kind of reminds you of the plastic bags they use at the grocery store. It's a great sleeping bag, and especially good if you stay still at night.

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday...it's also my good friend Melissa's birthday...and it's also my coworker and cohort over here on this trip, Chris', birthday. It's crazy how I know three people with the same birthday. Maybe it's part of a grand scheme for me to keep those memory cells vacant for something else or for remembering someone else's birth date. hmm. Anyway, I declared tomorrow a calorie free day so I can induldge from the dessert bar in honor of these three birthdays. Maybe I'll be wild and crazy and have three desserts. I'll survive, I'm sure it's been done before. To add to the cheer Chris said, "near beer for everyone and all other drinks are on me." They have cans of near beer or non-alcoholic beer in the DFACs here and, of course, no drinks, so Chris' offer was a generous one. I remember spending my birthday in Iraq last year...waking up on a cot with what I thought was appendicitis. It wasn't the greatest birthday by far, but I'll never forget it.

We worked inside a building today that is referred to as "the juicer" because it has a spiral staircase in the foyer to get to the second level. I suppose the spiral shape makes it look like an orange juicer to some people. This isn't just any old spiral staircase, either. The ceilings are very high ceilings covered in intricate cast plaster reliefs that are painted and then dotted with numerous sizes of chandeliers. The walls and floors are white marble slab. The actual stair treads are made out of about 7-foot long planks of inlaid wood. They are quite nice, but not as impressive after you read a sign at the bottom of the stairs that says "385 lbs maximum per tread." I found myself doing some quick math to ensure the stair would hold as we walked up. Like every man I've ever met, and much to my dismay, my coworker decided to stand on one and lightly jump up and down to "see how well it holds." I don't understand why guys need to challenge everything...."Oh yeah, let's see how thick the ice is on this frozen lake...let's see how much of this 32 oz steak I can eat...let's see how long I can wear my jeans before they look dirty to me." Back to the stairs....the stairs led to a circular balcony around the staircase. Apparently the building used to be a villa or small palace to one of Saddam's cronies. Now it has cubicles in every nook and crannie so it just functions as an office space. Needless to say, the cubicle panel walls don't match the ornate brass faucets on the porcelain sinks. What a clash of worlds.

One of the highlights for the day was on my way back to the tent this evening. I was given a tip that there may be some toilet trailers behind the 10-foot tall concrete t-walls near the tent. Sure enough, the tip was reliable and I found a trailer full of women's bathroom stalls. This means I get to go to the bathroom without having to use my flashlight and it's even in a heated trailer. WOO HOO. There are many simple pleasures around here...I'll take them when I can!

Other than that, there wasn't too much to report today. Maybe it's just that this is my third time here so stuff does not stand out as much as it initially did, or maybe it's just that I was tired. We'll see what tomorrow brings; hopefully it will be be birthday celebration dessert for breakfast lunch and dinner. I heard it's calorie free.

I wonder what Iraq will be like in 2008

Well, here I am back in Baghdad almost exactly one year after the first time I was here. My first night here I remember hearing alarms in the middle of the night. Let’s hope tonight isn’t a repeat of that. I’m in a 12-person tent like last year...not the same tent as last year, but pretty much. It’s in the same tent city. The plywood floor tent contains the expected dusty mattresses on top of the cots. I can hear the loud roaring of the generator sitting right next to the tent. It’s not that bad. At least we have heating and air conditioning units inside. We have electricity. We have mattresses on the cots...cots are not that comfortable to sleep on without the mattress. There is wireless connectivity. Think about that one...there is a wireless box hanging from a zip tie at the top of the ceiling of the tent and you are reading this because I wrote it from my cot in my tent. Technology is crazy and apparently cheaper than porcelain thrones...read more below.
The bathrooms are in a different location, though. I went and checked out the shower trailer and it looked pretty nice. It actually looked kind of new, which I figured from the gleaming stainless steel sinks and the bright white shower curtains on the stalls. The rules of engagement (3-5 minute military showers to conserve water) still apply. The toilets...well, that situation is also the same as last year. We have port-a-potties or port-a-johns or port-a-lets. Whatever nomenclature you prefer, that’s what we have sitting in a row right in front of the shower trailers. I decided I couldn’t avoid it so I went ahead and tried it out. It was just like I remember: open the plastic door, close the latch, fumble through the pitch black to turn on the flashlight, don’t dare touch anything with bare skin, complete, exit, then pump the hand sanitizer dispenser a good 3 pumps to completely kill anything that may have come in contact with your hands.
I have just one roommate in the tent. This is her first time here and she is a bit surprised at how much she will have to “rough it” while here. I kind of felt bad because I get to leave in a few days and she will be here for at least a few weeks. I’ve been giving her advice and pointers all evening. This kind of environment encourages you to share all your lessons learned, your recommendations and tips to make it easier to get through. For instance, I made sure to tell her not to shower without flip flops; to use a blow dryer instead of letting hair air dry to avoid dusty, crunchy hair; to wear boots instead of sneakers, to wear your clothes as much as you can without washing so you don't have to wait for the 3-day laundry turnaround, etc. Now that I read that last bit back about the clothes wearing I realize I must turn into a different being over here because I would never do that back home. Strange, I know, but some of you reading know what I mean.
We went to midnight chow and sampled the variety of foods they serve at that hour of the night. They don’t have the full hot line or the stir fry, but they did have hamburgers, ravioli, mac and cheese, collards, along with the full salad bar, breakfast foods, and dessert bar. It's actually a really weird combination of food. This is clearly evidenced by the chocolate pudding sitting about 1 inch away from the nacho cheese sauce in the salad bar. It’s so easy to gain weight here: it’s all you can eat for 4 meal periods per day. For some reason, the fact that you’re in Iraq somehow makes it almost like you deserve to have dessert every day...even for more than one meal...simple pleasures and comforts of home, I guess.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I know it brings only 4.75 hours of sleep if I fall asleep in the next 2 minutes. Hopefully tomorrow will also bring a large double latte from the Green Bean here. (For those of you who are not familiar...the Green Bean can provide sanity and happiness over here. In it's liquid form, sanity and happiness are called lattes, I think.)