Move

I finally did it. After 6 weeks I moved from the tent to a villa on August 27 (yesterday). Before I describe the villa, I want to tell you something about the tent.

As I explained earlier, what they call a “tent” is actually a steel framed structure with tarpaulin roof and sides. It has high gabled roof, one single small door and 49 beds. I have seen the tent sometimes totally full and sometimes with a handful of residents. The tent is equipped with eight (8) air conditioners that are running 24/7/30/365 i.e. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 30 days a month and 365 days a year full blast full time. Having so many people in the tent there are so many demands for different temperatures. Some walk around and lower the thermostats while others walk around and make it higher. All around the outside of the tent, there are walls made out of sand bags that provide a fair degree of protection against direct fire. But (God forbid), if there are rockets coming from the air and hit the tent roof, there is no protection at all. Luckily no direct hit has been recorded on these tents.

With the number of people in the tent, it is (was) surprisingly quiet except the occasional banging of the door when some people just let the door close by itself and being a steel door, it shuts with a bang. Lights are off at 2200 and on at 0700. In between if any one comes late or has to get up and go at night, he has to use a flashlight because the tent is pitch black at night. So in the middle of the night there are numerous flashlights flashing. At the beginning when I arrived, I did not have a flashlight. So after walking out one night (you can guess why) I came back, opened the door, closed it ever so gently and started feeling my way to my bed which was at the far right corner two beds to the left. After passing a couple of beds I got disoriented in the dark and did not know which way to go. I stood there for a few minutes then I found it easier to retract my steps back to the door which was not too far and was slightly visible because of rays of light coming from around the frame. Once at the door, I mentally pictured my path and started again. This time I bumped into only one bed. Needless to say that I bought a thumb size flashlight the next day. Life was much more convenient after that.

The villa is a little farther away than the tent was. So we have to share vehicles of which there are four for something like 25 people. More about the transportation later as we go through so learning curve and 'teething'. The villa is a huge two story reinforced concrete building with equally huge front and backyards and a swimming pool. It is heavily guarded by Coalition forces and requires adherence with a lot of military regulations. One of the regulations is 'no picture' policy. So I have to abide by that regulation and will not send any pictures. I will work with responsible authority to if I can some pictures from the interior to give a fee.

There are some rooms in the ground floor where most of our group is housed. Before moving, we were asked to select roommates for room assignment. There is an Iranian born naturalized US citizen (like me) and another US citizen who asked me to join them to which I said yes. The Administration manager asked us if he can assign to our room another individual whom I will call Mr. X who was on R&R. I did not know Mr. X very well but the two potential roommates said “NO”. Apparently no one wanted to room with Mr. X. The Admin Manager is one of the nicest persons that I have met. So, he listed Mr. X in his own room thinking that they possibly could live together.

There are five beds in each room and with the three of us there were two vacant beds. These beds were assigned to two new people who are arriving on September 3. As soon as we moved in and Mr. X found out which room he was assigned to, he created a scene. I mean a “scene”. He did not like his room and did not like his roommates. So, he went from room to room to see where he could fit. When he came to our room and saw two empty beds and saw me and the Iranian guy, Mr. X just dropped his stuff on one of the empty beds and said here is where he will live. Guess what? The bed that he chose is right next to my bed. I am only hoping that others are wrong about Mr. X or God give me the strength and wisdom to change him. Although I doubt it.

More Later

Added pictures of the dining room and the outside of the sleeping tent.

You will note the tent roof above the different formation of sand bags which is stretched all around the tent leaving only a narrow pathway for egress and digress. Practically all tents and trailers are treated this way.

Just to show you the variety of people I meet at the breakfast, lunch or
dinner table with very interesting conversation. One of the most interesting conversation I had was with a fellow American who told me that his 6 month old boy needed eye glasses. I asked how they found out about, he told me that he was playing with his son and putting his glasses on him. All of a sudden, the baby started activities that they had not seen before. He was looking and jumping at various objects with such pleasure that they had not seen before. Then they took him to a specialist who confirmed that the baby was near sighted. The specialist prescribed glasses that was a challenge making the baby wear them.

To me it is a bizarre story and I don't know if any one of you have heard about situations like this.

I hope you all are having a good time wherever you are or whatever you are doing.

Pictures

My Daily Routine

My daily routine

5:30 A.M Wakeup, walk to common bathrooms and showers exactly 150 steps away. Shave, brush teeth, take a shower and return to the tent.

6:00 A.M. Change, walk to the palace dinning room another 200 steps in the opposite direction. Stay in line; sign in the list (staying still in line), pickup a tray, plastic plate and plastic utensils (still in line). Approach the serving area, point to what you want. Today I took one boiled egg, one biscuit, one hash brown, some fruits (grapes, pine apple, melon etc), one skimmed milk and one cup of coffee. Argue with the server that I do not need more but he insisting that I should eat more. In this big dinning room and the hallways look for a place to sit. Ask for permission but don’t wait for an answer and just sit. Every one is busy eating and very little conversation except if there are friends or acquaintances at the table. Try to open a conversation with limited success. Only occasionally, get engaged in very interesting conversation.

6:30 A.M. Head to the office which is about 20 minutes walking. There is a shuttle bus but the schedule is not quite regular. Walking is a lot better. The path is a very wide boulevard lined with large trees and lots of US military vehicles and where young Iraqi boys (as young as 7 years old) surround the young American soldiers (boys & girls) and sell them things among them porno pictures. Because of the trees, sun is not really a problem. One disappointment is that on this wide sidewalk, there is a water line that flows full force on the sidewalk and into the gutter. You feel sorry that in this country that water is life and in short supply, there is no body to put a cap on this water wasting line. I have asked one of the contractors to do that but have not seen him do it. I will ask him again.

7:00 (+/-) Arrive at the office. Check e-mail mostly work related. Occasionally (and very occasionally, hint/hint) get excited to see a message from the family and/or friends.

9:30 A.M. Attend daily briefing of the group I am working with. This is usually a short meeting when their manager briefs the group of various items including security. There is a security manager who reports on the happenings of the past 24 hours. Sometimes very interesting incidences. Occasionally, I too say a few things or ask questions.

During the day there are many scheduled and unscheduled meetings. Sometime I wonder how the work gets done with all these meetings taking place. In the mean time requests for information come from higher ups that take a good chunk of time of various people depending on their job relevance.

12:00 Noon or thereabout:
Head to the palace dining room for lunch. Again walking is preferred most of the time. Again stay in line in one of four lines for signing the list, getting the food and looking for a place to sit. As at breakfast time and again at dinner time, watch the trays of the diners and wonder how each one of them can eat all that food. There are some who will take from every thing that is available. In particular, the soft drinks such as soda and juices are piled up on the trays without mercy. It has come to a point where the management has put up signs saying that soda and juices are limited to two items per person but no one seems to honor that request. Yours truly is usually selective and take only what I think I can eat. Although I must admit sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach.

12:45 (+/-) Head back to the office either walking or take the shuttle bus depending on my mood. Afternoons also pass like mornings. Meetings and more meetings, gather information and more information and write reports and more reports. Again, I wonder if the higher ups really read those reports.

After 7:00 P.M.
Go back to the palace for dinner. Dinner, like breakfast and lunch, is very crowded. Again stay in line, sign in, take your plate and plastic utensils, argue with the server, select what you want from variety of dishes, walk to the soft drink and beer (not for me) cooler, walk to the salad bar which is good in variety and plentiful and with full tray spot an empty chair and jump. Eat dinner in silence or some street talk, go to the tent, read, take a shower and go to bed before 10:00 pm when the lights go off.

Briefly, this is how my days are with some slight variation like dropping or picking laundry once or twice a week. I will discuss the facilities in a subsequent message. I hope you all have a good time.

My trip to Baghdad

Well; I have already spent four full nights and three full days in Baghdad. But what a trip it was. I will begin with Tuesday July 13 when I left home. Saying goodbye to my dearest wife was hard enough. Seeing her tears almost made me forget about the whole thing. If it wasn’t for my commitment that I will make this trip, I would have cancelled it. Cancel, I did not so here I am.

My dear brother took me to the airport in Grand Rapids and there too, I found it hard to say goodbye. Goodbye I said and he went his way and I went my way.

Checking in and going through the security was routine. But I found out that I was too early. So I took my gate pass and browsed through the shops at the airport. I had a cup of coffee and bought a copy of the Newsweek. As I was doing this, I noticed that Bill Clinton's book (My Life) was on sale. Needless to say that I bought a copy for $35.00 thinking that I would read it on the planes. I did read some but not enough.

After a long wait, it was announced that the plane from Chicago would be late because of bad weather there. The plane arrived one hour late and after all normal procedures, we boarded the plane only to be held on tarmac for another one hour and 15 minutes. Again due to bad weather in Chicago the tower would not allow our plane to take off.

Finally, we did take off and arrived in Chicago only to be held again on the tarmac because there was no gate available. The pilot kept on apologizing until he no more spoke. Finally it was decided that they would bring buses to take us to the terminal building which they did and we disembarked.

In Chicago and having a "business class"ticket, I went to the United Airlines lounge where I had a cup of coffee and some fruits. The long delay in Grand Rapids shortened the wait in Chicago. But, again because of bad weather in Chicago, the tower kept us on the tarmac after we had already checked in and boarded the plane.

The flight to Frankfurt was very nice. The business class seats were wide and roomy with lots of leg room. I did not have a neighbor but I could not combine the seats because of the seat configuration. The seats turn into a "Lazy Boy" type chair where you would adjust it to your liking. The service was excellent, the food plentiful and tasty unlike the tourist class service. I ate, read some and slept some.

In Frankfurt too, I went to the United Airlines Lounge where I requested a shower. I had to wait my turn for the shower and took advantage of the time had something to eat. The shower room was clean, water temperature and pressure good and came out refreshed.

In the waiting room at the gate in Frankfurt, I met three other AECOM employees who were going to Baghdad on the same project. One of them was the project manager in the US working at the Pentagon, the other was a replacement for the current project director, Eric Jankal who enticed my to join his team and who decided to leave while I was in Afghanistan. Again, the business class flight on Lufthansa to Kuwait city was pampering and comfortable.

Arriving in Kuwait was routine except that members of our team did not present our passports as there were no visa requirements. All we had to show was the Department of Defense ID cards we had obtained when each one of us visited Washington earlier. The Kuwaiti Immigration Officer simply put a sticker on our cards with a number on it. Everything went smoothly until we reached the office that was tasked to help us get to the hotel. We faced a most inefficient and disorganized person who kept on saying that a bus is on its way but never arrived when he said it would. This was an American (not a Kuwaiti) officer of the US Department of the Defense. Finally a small car showed up for seven of us with lots and lots of luggage. Needles to say that there was no way all of us with our luggage would fit in that small car. Once again, we had to wait for a bigger car which took for ever to arrive. Arrive it did and we were finally on our way to the hotel, after almost fours wait.

The ride to the hotel was a smooth 25 minutes journey. The hotel turned out to be Hilton Hotel with a main building where the reception, restaurants, shops and other essential facilities were located. The bedrooms are a number of two story, three bedroom villas with extremely basic items such as a bed, a common washroom and one TV in the lower floor for all residents. I was lucky to have what you might call the master bedroom with its own shower. The two nights we stayed there were not luxury but comfortable. The three times a day free food was good and plentiful.

The second day after our arrival in Kuwait, we went through an orientation process when the same person who arranged transportation from the airport conducted the briefing. Aside from him being disorganized, he scared us so much that a lot of people were rethinking their decision to come to Baghdad in the first place. A list was circulated to sign in and to register social security numbers. They also issued to each participant a military helmet, a gas mask with protective hood and a bullet proof vest that included two heavy "plates" one for the chest and the other for the back. They also showed us how to wear the helmet, the mask and the vest. All in all the equipment must weigh around 120 pounds. At the end of the briefing which lasted from 1000 to 1600 hours (As the military would say it) we were told to be ready at 0500 hours (5 O’clock in the morning) for pick up and departure to Baghdad.

The next morning, every one brought their luggage in front of their "villas" and waited for the bus. A large van showed up around 5:30 A.M. and loaded the luggage while a large buss followed to pick up the passengers. Collecting about 40 people and their luggage took about two hours. On the buss a list was passed around for each passenger to sign up and register their social security numbers.

The ride to the airport took about 30 minutes. This was the American Military airport totally under US army control. At the airport, all the luggage, including the carry ons, hand bags and plastic bags were placed on several rows and after a long wait a young girl soldier showed up with a very good looking dog. Yes, a dog who went through all the luggage sniffing one at a time. The dog did sniff one piece quite animatingly. Needles to say that the luggage and its owner (not me) were taken aside for questioning and inspection. I never found out what was in that luggage, if any. The entire luggage were placed on two pallets and strapped around and loaded on the back of the plane. After that we were told to wait for further instructions as they can not tell us when exactly the plane would leave (For security reasons). Finally, around 12:00 noon word came that the plane is ready for boarding. Prior to that it was constantly announced that no one is allowed to make any phone calls for fear that some one would mention on the air what time the plane would leave and therefore would make it a target.

The plane turned out to be a C130 military plane with four rows of seats arranged along the length of the plane with two rows facing each other and so closely placed that you would touch your neighbors on both sides and be knee to knee with your opposite person. The back of the seats were a series of straps woven together and hanging from the ceiling. Those who had been on this plane before frightened us to death by saying that close to Baghdad airport, the place would take evasive action by dropping into free fall and making circular maneuvers. At least one person spoke of his experience witnessing nine people passing out. True or not, I couldn’t be sure. With all that in mind, I just closed my eyes and went to sleep until the plane touched down. I did feel some slight turning and dropping but nothing to give me upset stomach.

Baghdad airport was an episode by itself. The palletized luggage was brought at the edge of pavement and dropped there with no one to help. The pavement finished and gravel surfaced parking lot started. The gravel was thick and large in size. You can imagine the passengers including myself pulling the wheeled luggage through the graveled surface. Those poor suitcases were definitely not made to be pulled through that kind of surface. Lucky were the ones with light and only one luggage. In my case, I had two pieces of luggage, the helmet, the gas mask and the bullet proof vest. In the chaos no body would tell where to go. Again, no Iraqis were there. Only the Americans were running the show. They kept us waiting for the armored busses and military escort to arrive. Luckily there was a pox store which had cold drinks and other supplies. I went in and b ought a bar of dial soap and a diet cola. As I was paying for my purchase, I dropped my soda which I had already opened. Now I leave it to your imagination as to what happened to my ice cold drink. My misfortune at the Afghan Embassy in Iran years ago came to mind.

Again after a long wait and suffering under the Baghdad sun, two bullet proof busses showed up. Luckily the buses were air conditioned. A jeep with machine gun ahead of one bus, another between the two busses and a third one at the end of the caravan put us in motion and escorted us to a parking lot inside of the "Green Zone". There too, the luggage had to be lined up for another dog to sniff them all. This time the dog did not pick up any scent. Once more, a list with social security numbers had to be filled in, the luggage loaded to another vehicle and the passengers on another bus off to what they call a “Belittling Office” or the housing office in the back of to one of Saddam’s palaces to a series of trailers. One of these is being used as the housing office. They won’t let more than two people in at one time. So again the wait started. When it came my turn to enter, I was assigned to tent No. 2. Yes, TENT NO. 2 and was given a pillow, two pillow cases, a blanket and two sets of top and bottom bed sheets. I felt like a prisoner entering a prison.

They call it a tent. But actually it is a large warehouse with steel frames and tarpaulin roof and sides. I suppose you can call it a tent as the sides and the roof are tent like material. Instead of a tent I found a warehouse with 55 beds with 8 air-conditions in it.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served inside the palace. This palace must have had its glory days. There are at least three lines each time where people first sign in, then go through the line to pick up their food. The food is plentiful and rather tasty. Lots of vegetables, good cooked food, coffee, tea, juices and lots of cold soda of all kinds. Once people collect their food on a tray, then finding a place at a table to sit becomes a challenge. Upon spotting an empty chair at a table, you need to jump, ask permission but don’t wait for an answer and set. Sometimes people introduce themselves but most often they eat without saying a word except if the people around the table know each other. In the process, I have met a lot of interesting people.

This note turned out to be very long. I am sure by now you all have been bored. So I stop now and write later about the work, the office and the program.

Haider