Catching up on all things Iraq
Howdy, buckaroos! It's your old friend, Moi, and I am here to tell you that things are just ducky in the Beautiful Baghdad Bureau of Big Defense Contractor. I was walking around today, taking the day off, and one of the things I noticed is that people are not very friendly around here. I try to make eye contact with those I encounter on my meanderings, and I say things like "Howdy" or "Hello" or "Howyadoin'?" but I usually encounter mumbled replies, looks of shock, or glares of intrusion-detection.
Do not most of these people come from Texas? What's up with THAT?
I guess it may stem from the personalities of those who choose to come work in the Middle East, although with a civilian population as big as it is here, I would have expected a lot more diversity in the crowd. Loners, though, are the rule here.
I have been on this particular contract since 30 Jan, when I left The Lovely One and the Daughters in Dallas and flew through Frankfurt to Dubai, and then caught the Russian-piloted Phoenix Air Charter from Dubai to Baghdad. I arrived 1 Feb, moved into my delightfully decorated hooch (the previous tenant apparently had a subscription to 'Maxim' magazine, and he was generous enough to paper the walls with the proof), and proceeded to work a few days in BDC's Regional Procurement Office in Camp Liberty, Baghdad. Liberty is a hop, skip and a jump from Camp Victory, where I was working last summer (May/Jun/Jul); it is also where the biggest PX (think Government KMart) is located, and it is also the location of the ever-popular Haji Mart, where local Iraqi vendors sell everything from rugs to knick-knacks to old Iraqi money to china and silver embossed with Saddam's emblem.
I had to go back to Dubai for a seminar, but we were bumped off of our intended flight on Mon 6 Feb, and had to go out Tue 7 Feb instead. If you weren't aware of it, BDC has only the ONE flight out of Baghdad every day, and it is always 100% sold out, although we technically don't BUY our tickets. They put me up in a very nice hotel, the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel (if you go to the website, it's the second tower from the left in the picture; the first tower (the taller one) is the Office Tower).
While we were in Dubai, we went snow skiing. I am not making this up. I have the receipts and the pictures to prove it. Ski Dubai is an artificial mountain inside one of the newest of the 24 malls in and around Dubai (Mall of the Emirates), and it has snow skiing, snowboarding, and other fun snow activities like snowball fights, and falling down, and being kicked off the slopes for not being a skier (this didn't happen to ME, but it did happen to my friends who had never skied before, but who tried to get on the slopes saying that they were accomplished skiers -- HA!). It is fairly amusing to see the UAE natives in snow gear. I still don't know how the women got down that hill in their burkas ...
On our way back from Dubai, I flew to Baghdad twice. The day started, as it always does when flying into Baghdad International Airport (BIAP for short), at 0230 when I gathered up my suitcases, checked out of the Hotel -- you will be happy to know that BDC had a negotiated rate of only 700 Dirhams (~$195) per night, as opposed to me just walking in and getting the standard rate of 1850 Dhs (~$530) per night; Hey, I am glad to save YOUR tax dollars, you know -- and got myself to BDC's Dispatch Hotel, where they loaded us on a bus, gave us the Security briefing, the HR briefing, and the Air Ops briefing, and we went to the airport, arriving around 0330. At 0400, they give us a Boarding Pass, we go through luggage screening, check our luggage, go through Passport Control, a secondary screening, and then we wait.
And wait.
And wait.
Around 0715, we board some more busses just outside the gate, and we are whisked to our lovely Boeing 727 (I could swear that this plane once flew for Braniff Airlines in Dallas) and we take off around 0800.
We fly to within 25 miles of Baghdad (in other words, about 2 hours out of a two-and-a-half hour flight) when the pilot announces that because of "visibility issues" we were turning around and going back to Dubai.
Stunned silence on the jet. My colleague leans across the aisle and asks, "What did he just say the reason for turning around was?"
I reply, "It doesn't matter what the reason was. We are going back to Dubai, and we can ruminate over all the possibilities of why we turned around as we wait to fly back to BIAP."
It's funny, because I talked with more than a few persons in Liberty once we had landed, and they swore up and down that the skies were clear, the sun was shining, and there was no dust in the air. My gut feeling is that the Army (who is nominally in charge of BIAP) probably had some Intel that there were "security issues" that prevented us from landing. In fact, someone should ask Mr. President if anyone in the US was making a call to the insurgents in Baghdad on 11 Feb around 1000 Iraq time ...
I digress, so back to Terminal 2 in Dubai: we sit around in Dubai for almost three hours, and then we finally get the call to "Load 'em up!" and we get back on the busses, get whisked once again to the plane, take off from Dubai for a second time that day, and land around 1930 (that's 7:30 PM for 95% of the WORLD). After an uneventful trip from BIAP to BTC (the Baghdad Transient Center, BDC's way of handling all travellers into and out of Iraq), we claim our luggage and get to our hooches.
It is now 2100 (9 PM), and if you have been following along carefully, you will notice that I have been up since 2:30 AM, and it is now 9 PM, and oh, by the way, when did I eat breakfast? When did I eat lunch? and When did I eat dinner?
So that FASTING thing started a little early for me this year. Usually I wait until Ash Wednesday to cut out things from my regular eating routine, but this year, I started on 11 Feb 2006.
Anyhoo, that's the news from the Middle Eastern Front. More in another missive, at another time.
I miss being at home, with my wife and daughters and friends and dogs and cats. I miss going to The Fig and singing in the Choir there. I miss going to Legal Grounds.
But I'll be back soon. That's a promise.
Moi
Do not most of these people come from Texas? What's up with THAT?
I guess it may stem from the personalities of those who choose to come work in the Middle East, although with a civilian population as big as it is here, I would have expected a lot more diversity in the crowd. Loners, though, are the rule here.
I have been on this particular contract since 30 Jan, when I left The Lovely One and the Daughters in Dallas and flew through Frankfurt to Dubai, and then caught the Russian-piloted Phoenix Air Charter from Dubai to Baghdad. I arrived 1 Feb, moved into my delightfully decorated hooch (the previous tenant apparently had a subscription to 'Maxim' magazine, and he was generous enough to paper the walls with the proof), and proceeded to work a few days in BDC's Regional Procurement Office in Camp Liberty, Baghdad. Liberty is a hop, skip and a jump from Camp Victory, where I was working last summer (May/Jun/Jul); it is also where the biggest PX (think Government KMart) is located, and it is also the location of the ever-popular Haji Mart, where local Iraqi vendors sell everything from rugs to knick-knacks to old Iraqi money to china and silver embossed with Saddam's emblem.
I had to go back to Dubai for a seminar, but we were bumped off of our intended flight on Mon 6 Feb, and had to go out Tue 7 Feb instead. If you weren't aware of it, BDC has only the ONE flight out of Baghdad every day, and it is always 100% sold out, although we technically don't BUY our tickets. They put me up in a very nice hotel, the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel (if you go to the website, it's the second tower from the left in the picture; the first tower (the taller one) is the Office Tower).
While we were in Dubai, we went snow skiing. I am not making this up. I have the receipts and the pictures to prove it. Ski Dubai is an artificial mountain inside one of the newest of the 24 malls in and around Dubai (Mall of the Emirates), and it has snow skiing, snowboarding, and other fun snow activities like snowball fights, and falling down, and being kicked off the slopes for not being a skier (this didn't happen to ME, but it did happen to my friends who had never skied before, but who tried to get on the slopes saying that they were accomplished skiers -- HA!). It is fairly amusing to see the UAE natives in snow gear. I still don't know how the women got down that hill in their burkas ...
On our way back from Dubai, I flew to Baghdad twice. The day started, as it always does when flying into Baghdad International Airport (BIAP for short), at 0230 when I gathered up my suitcases, checked out of the Hotel -- you will be happy to know that BDC had a negotiated rate of only 700 Dirhams (~$195) per night, as opposed to me just walking in and getting the standard rate of 1850 Dhs (~$530) per night; Hey, I am glad to save YOUR tax dollars, you know -- and got myself to BDC's Dispatch Hotel, where they loaded us on a bus, gave us the Security briefing, the HR briefing, and the Air Ops briefing, and we went to the airport, arriving around 0330. At 0400, they give us a Boarding Pass, we go through luggage screening, check our luggage, go through Passport Control, a secondary screening, and then we wait.
And wait.
And wait.
Around 0715, we board some more busses just outside the gate, and we are whisked to our lovely Boeing 727 (I could swear that this plane once flew for Braniff Airlines in Dallas) and we take off around 0800.
We fly to within 25 miles of Baghdad (in other words, about 2 hours out of a two-and-a-half hour flight) when the pilot announces that because of "visibility issues" we were turning around and going back to Dubai.
Stunned silence on the jet. My colleague leans across the aisle and asks, "What did he just say the reason for turning around was?"
I reply, "It doesn't matter what the reason was. We are going back to Dubai, and we can ruminate over all the possibilities of why we turned around as we wait to fly back to BIAP."
It's funny, because I talked with more than a few persons in Liberty once we had landed, and they swore up and down that the skies were clear, the sun was shining, and there was no dust in the air. My gut feeling is that the Army (who is nominally in charge of BIAP) probably had some Intel that there were "security issues" that prevented us from landing. In fact, someone should ask Mr. President if anyone in the US was making a call to the insurgents in Baghdad on 11 Feb around 1000 Iraq time ...
I digress, so back to Terminal 2 in Dubai: we sit around in Dubai for almost three hours, and then we finally get the call to "Load 'em up!" and we get back on the busses, get whisked once again to the plane, take off from Dubai for a second time that day, and land around 1930 (that's 7:30 PM for 95% of the WORLD). After an uneventful trip from BIAP to BTC (the Baghdad Transient Center, BDC's way of handling all travellers into and out of Iraq), we claim our luggage and get to our hooches.
It is now 2100 (9 PM), and if you have been following along carefully, you will notice that I have been up since 2:30 AM, and it is now 9 PM, and oh, by the way, when did I eat breakfast? When did I eat lunch? and When did I eat dinner?
So that FASTING thing started a little early for me this year. Usually I wait until Ash Wednesday to cut out things from my regular eating routine, but this year, I started on 11 Feb 2006.
Anyhoo, that's the news from the Middle Eastern Front. More in another missive, at another time.
I miss being at home, with my wife and daughters and friends and dogs and cats. I miss going to The Fig and singing in the Choir there. I miss going to Legal Grounds.
But I'll be back soon. That's a promise.
Moi
posted by Steve | 8:24 PM
1 Comments:
buddeee! I am really glad to hear all this stuff! hang in there, you know! We're out here thinking about you and singing in choirs for you... big hugs from Yduj
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