No Fun Allowed

Well, as the song goes, "the thrill is gone"!! We are experiencing a shift in leadership which is bringing a great deal of chaos and if you were to know how chaotic this organization has been in the past, you can understand why it has become unbearable. It is too late coming and now that it's here, it's seems to be focusing on all things fun! We have new work hours and no swimming in the pool during the day from 0900-1800 which means by the time we get off work it's almost dark and too cold. We have to wear business casual and move in two to a room.

Of course that is not the only thing - it's the people really. I have met some great people here and we have done some amazing things in the 10mos I've been here. Things that people will not really believe - but now the new regime has taken over and some of the personalities involved are making it very difficult to be here. I think that things like this happen for a reason though, it makes it much easier to accept and often promotes change. I am so blessed that I have options. I am returning to my job in DC, many friends and to my apartment with all the comforts of home, and I'm starting to get excited about it. I am working on getting my Baghdad friends to move to DC and a lot of them live there anyway, so it is all good.

Not sure of my exact return date as I want to do some traveling before I head back, but it will be in the next 3 weeks.

I might still keep the blog though! See you soon.

Najaf - Holy City

Today I got my third trip out of the IZ. One being to Iskandariah, the second to a hotel about 3 miles from the IZ, across the river, and today to Najaf. It was an awesome ride in the helo, the soldiers here are amazing the way they take care of us. I was traveling there with one other workmate - an older gentleman who has been in Iraq for over 5 years and has worked at the State Department most of that time and the second an investor from the UK who is currently manufacturing body armour in the UK and Kentucky, USA. He is interested in doing a joint venture with the company here and came for a visit. The Provencial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the area has been working with a textile company here and set up all the meetings and is available for follow on work. They were great. Some of the PRT's here in Iraq are not that great and our organization and State Department (responsible for the PRT's) has not worked well together in the past. But today, was a different story and it was great to get out and experience the business end of things instead of the logistics. I am typically planning all the trips for people, but never get to go anywhere. I got myself into this and now I can't get out, so I will try to get on as many trips as I can when they pop up. Anyway, the flight was about 40 minutes and weaving back and forth over the Euphrates, most of the time the land was green and had many date palm trees and crops. Once we got to Najaf, it was brown. The brown that I would normally expect Iraq to be. I did not know much about the city, but I've learned much today. It is the holiest city in the Shi'a Islamic world and it is estimated that only Mecca and Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najaf. It also has one of the largest cemeteries in the world. I didn't get to the see the cemetery, but the Army guys told me the graves are below ground.http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/najaf.htm. Once we landed at the small military enclave - established in April 2008, we got into the MRAP and drove about 15-20 minutes over to the textile factory. The MRAP is pretty amazing, but you can't see out of it very well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAP_(armored_vehicle). Someone took at photo of me in front of it, but they will have to send it to me.

One highlight of this trip was on the way back the pilots flew directly over and around (just for us) Babylon. It was amazing! Not because of the physical beauty of the ruins, but because it is the Babylon of the Bible....crazy!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon.

Well, that's my adventure for today! I'm exhausted from wearing the body armour all day and getting 4 hours of sleep last night. Good news is that all the visitors left tonight, so we should have about a 10 day break before the next onslaught. Also, a little weather update - it was only around 95-100 degrees today. A HUGE difference from 120-125-140...... that's actually just perfect for me!! :-)

Oven

You know that feeling you get when you open the oven and a wave of heat comes on your face and you think you've just been scalded?  That's what it feels like every day here.  It is HOT!  You know I like the hot, but this is HOT!! Average temperature during the day has been 120 degrees.  The other day the Suburban showed 140 on the temperature gauge.  I went on leave for two weeks and when I got back it's oven temperature.  That's about all there is to talk about right now. It's quiet here, which is nice. I got the day off today - it was awesome. I slept in until 10 and the only reason I got up is because the power was out and the computer back up battery was beeping.  We are getting new generators but the 6 week project has turned into 5 months. The contract was awarded to an Iraqi firm in support of the Iraqi First program that the government tries to use as much as possible, so that we are giving equal work to Iraqi and American companies. And apparently we saved alot of money....but I'm not sure it was worth it considering how power has been going out almost daily and that includes the air conditioners.  Hopefully it will all be sorted this week.  One exciting thing to report is that some church ladies from Oklahoma sent us cake mixes with frosting and Kallee Ray made a cake yesterday.  It was my favorite - chocolate with chocolate frosting!! Yum!! Well, that's about it for now!!  

Time Off

Well, I'm taking some time off back in the states.  Left the 2nd of August and flew back to the states, spent a couple days in DC and then off to Vegas to meet my brother and his wife and my niece. We had a great time, no I can't quit my day job....We went on the roller coaster through the New York New York, that was awesome. We went to Stomp Out Loud - a great show and then to the Bodies Exhibit, which I've been wanting to see forever.  We also spent a  bit of time at the pool, which was nice.  Then I flew to Nebraska for some relaxation and family time. I am on my way back to DC now (14Aug) and will depart back to Baghdad on Sat evening. 

Final Flight Home

Well, a great trip overall - I would say one of the best ever.  Kallee Ray is great to travel with and Dubai, Jordan and Israel are amazing destinations.  We flew a military flight out of Amman, Jordan back to Baghdad.

Israel

The last stop on our trip was Israel. We took a day trip from the Dead Sea to Jeruselum and Bethlaham. I have been there one time before and it is amazing. this was the same as before, just a quick trip thru.  I could definitely spend more than a few hours there.  We went to all the best sights, where Jesus was born and crucified, we saw the oldest olive trees in the world and the wailing wall.  A great day overall.

The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea was amazing!  There is no way you can drown in the Dead Sea and don't touch any part of your face while in the sea, the salt will burn your eyes out.  We put mud all over and let it dry and had a facial and massage at the spa in our hotel. It was nice to relax!

Wadi Rum

This was an awesome experience. We arrived around 9am from Aqaba at the entrance to Wadi Rum and met our tour guide, Sabbah Ali. We were placed on our camels shortly after that and set out on our all day trek through the desert. It was pretty hot, but not unbearable. We took a break about 1/2 way through and they made us lunch which was canned tuna in a pita with peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers.  Then we took a nap - I love the Bedouin way of life!!  We ended up staying overnight in a Bedouin tent where we met a few other people and had dinner.  The most amazing thing about it was the night sky - five trillion stars and the Auroa Borealus. Very cool.  Check out Sabbah's website, he speaks English and has lived in Wadi Rum all his life.  Look him up if you ever go to Jordan - it's a must do!   https://desert-experience.org/about_sabbah.html

Aqaba

Aqaba is a port city, bordering Israel and Egypt. We got a slow start there with the hotel, but finished at the top of the list. We decided to go with an off hotel called the Tulip Hotel, which was supposed to be near the beach (and I'm sure it was depending on your definition of "near") however we both decided that we have no hot water and cockroaches in Iraq, so we decided to pick another hotel that night. We had to argue with the people to let us leave though because they tried to charge us $50 for taking a cold shower, but their credit card machine wouldn't work and we refused to go to the ATM. We won in the end because they got too frustrated. We moved to the Movenpick that night - which was awesome and the next day made our way down to the beach. We found a guy with a boat and he took us out to the "Japanese Gardens" dive area at South Beach where we met his "cousin" who had a big dive boat. Kallee had finished her dive certification in the pool in Spokane, but had never been on an official dive and she did great. She managed to take some awesome pictures in the mean time. We finished our day off by hanging out in the pub watching the Spain vs Germany football match. It was great fun!

The Dead Sea Highway to Aqaba

We left Jeresh and headed down the Dead Sea Highway to Aqaba. I lost track of the time, but we didn't get there until around 8pm. The Dead Sea was amazing to look at, but after that it was worse than the road between North Platte, Nebr and Denver, Co. Except it was orange desert and camels instead of brown brush and cows. The funniest sign I've ever seen in my life was posted near the Dead Sea - "Warning, Extremely Salty Water"!! We passed the Dead Sea at this point so that we could make it our last stop on the trip.

Jeresh, Jordan

From Dubai on to Amman, Jordan where we picked up a car and drove straight north about 1-1 1/2 hours to Jeresh. It is home of the one of the best examples in the Middle East of a Roman provincial city, and is remarkably well preserved. It dates from the time of Alexander the Great (333 BC).

Dubai,UAE

R&R

I know I have been horrible at keeping up the blog. I have been so swamped at work and then I got some r&r and have been digging out since I got back a little over a week ago. We had a change in leadership here in June - the guy I was working for as left and a new person has come in and I have been swamped. I did manage to get away from the 28th of June through 6 July. I went with my friend Kallee from here to Dubai, UAE for 3 days and then on to Jordan for a week and a day trip to Israel. It was an amazing vacation. I will post some pictures over the next few days. Here is our first stop Dubai. I think it is the most under construction city in the world. There are cranes everywhere and unfinished buildings all over the place. They are building the tallest building in the world and it is also the place where they have the indoor ski slope at a mall. Dubai is a Muslim country, that has become very westernized. They have alot of British and having lived in London for so long, it was nice to see some of my favorite stores like Marks and Spencers and Monsoon. I did some shopping there and we went on a hop on hop off bus. I also got my hair cut, so there is a picture of the stylist. It was only like $40 and I thought he did an ok job. There is still a bit of the old city that remains with the gold and spice souks and the boats that carry the exports to other countries thought the Gulf of Arabia.

Animal Love

So the other day I come home from a very long day at work and I am getting my pajamas on and I see something on my bed move. I thought I was imagining it and I wasn't even going to check it out, but then I thought - yes I did see something - so I went over to my bed and pulled back my covers and there was a little mouse right there in my bed - on my covers, on my pillow. Down he went under the bed. Hyperventilation of course and then I had to go find someone to help me get it. Two people came and helped me, we moved everything from under the bed and saw him two times, but yes...he got away. Now two other people have reported seeing him in their room. We went out to look for mousetraps yesterday, but all they have here is some glue that you put on a board or something and I guess the mouse happens across it and gets stuck on the glue and is trapped. My question then is then what do you do with it?? Of course you would have to kill it and that would just be too brutal. I know it sounds insane that a mouse trap is better, but at least if all goes well, it's instant death. So...I am not going to have any of the glue in my room, but I am curious to see if my friend Kallee catches one. I actually think it's the same mouse.

We also have some newborn kitties. They are actually older than newborn, but we just discovered them. We are trying to tame them so that they can live around the Villa and capture the mice.

We have three dogs on the compound. Kallee has named them Lincoln, Greg and Tina. The Peruvian guards have named them and the Philipino workers have named them also. So they answer to three different names. They are trilingual dogs!! Sadly Tina was very sick last week, so we had to take her into the vet and have her put down. We are just hoping that the other dogs don't get what she had. It is against policy to have dogs for pets, so we say they are guard dogs of the compound, but we still can't get the vet to come and treat them officially, although we have made some connections so hopefully they will stay healthy.

Well, that is all the animal reports for now.

One last thing is the pool is finally fixed here at the Villa. It was never clear, but they fixed it a couple days ago and it is beautiful. I will take a picture soon.

Commanding General (CG)

Once a month the CG, General Petraeus has the military camera crew set up in the middle of the Embassy ballroom where the coffee shop is and takes his picture with as many people as he can in 30 minutes. My friends Kallee and Clairissa and I went on Monday and got our picture with him. I have been in breifings with him on Fridays (well he was on the other side of the video camera) and I've seen him once at a change of command ceremony, but I've never met him in person. I don't know if I should really count this as meeting him in person, but I guess I will. It was very well choreographed. I received a 3x5 card to fill out my name and email address on and then once I got up near the stage (yes there was a stage), I handed the card to the guy and he wrote a number on the back, then I went up a couple of steps on to the stage where this Army guy said "step up to the tape" (marked on the stage floor) and then he put his hand on my shoulder and said "step forward when you hear the shutter". Then he pushed me over to the CG. The CG stuck out his hand, looked at the camera, the picture was taken, he said "keep up the good work your doing". And off I went. And that's how it happened. Amazingly my picture arrived in my inbox two days later, as did my friends! We compared our pictures and the CG looks the same in everyone. I'm thinking they could have got a cardboard man in his image, but of course then it wouldn't have counted for me to meet him in person.

Outside the Wire

I got to go on my first trip outside the Green Zone on Saturday. We had two investors interested in looking at a bus factory that is about 25 minutes by helo from Baghdad. My friend and workmate Stacy went with me. It was pretty fun riding in the helo, except for on the way there the Army Col who was with us was trying to impress the investor and asked the pilot to do some crazy maneuvers. It was 106 degrees out, I had all my personal protective equipment (PPE) - helmet and flack jacket that weighs like 15 lbs on, I had just eaten lunch and I was facing backward in the helo. I don't mind the rollercoaster like moves, but the side to side on top of it about put me over the top. I had a "car sick" headache the entire day after that. The way back was nice a smooth though. I attached some pictures of the landscape so you can see what it is like. If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was a peaceful place.

Sand Storm

Today the weather was horrible. There is a sand storm and I can hardly breath. Light orangeish sand is everywhere - all over everything. We got a thermometer that we put right outside our office area - funny thing is, it's American and it only goes to 120 degrees. Yesterday it was around 98-100 degrees. Today it got up to 88 and it felt cool. I don't like the sand at all - I hope it doesn't last long. The pictures are of the backyard of the Villa - the one on the bottom is during the sand storm.

I got my hair cut today - one of the little bases in the IZ has a salon - although it is a called Cleopatra's Saloon. I was expecting the worst and it came out not bad at all. I was pleasantly surprised. $35 plus an $8 tip and I used a $6 box of hair color that I brought with me. $49 sure beats the $200 bill I got last time I went to the hair dresser in DC.

Normal

These pictures are from Camp Victory, there is a building there called the Flintsone House. I 'm not sure what it used to be, but it reminds me of some of the buildings in Barcelona. Now it sits empty and people have put graffiti all over it. It seems to me like it would be a great place to have a party.

If you are following the news, you know that the cease fire is now back in effect. We had a rough week, but things are getting back to what - from my experience seems - normal. It was very quiet up until Easter for me, so my experience has been that it's normally quiet. People who have been here for a couple years say that is really not the norm, that last week, with all the blasts (maybe not sooo many), is more the norm and the quiet is abnormal. So....we will see - I like it better when it's quiet though.

On the mosquitoe front, I have made progress. I have procured some spray for my room and for my body, so the double effect seems to be working. I am back to sleeping through the night.

I have been very very busy with our senior manager here the past two weeks as well as planning for many investor trips this month. Things are still busy, but many of the trips have been moved to May, so that spaces our my workload at bit.

I have been neglecting the gym the past two weeks. While there was a lot of activity, we couldn't really get to the gym and also I have been working so much, that it's been hard to get away now that things have settled. I have no excuse though really because we have a treadmill and rowing machine in the villa now. We've had it for two weeks probably and I haven't tried it out yet. Unsat!!

During all the bombings, we had to wear our flack jackets and helmets when we left the villa - I was complaining about wearing it for 1/2 hour or so, but then I think of the soldiers out there who wear it everyday all day long. They really do sacrifice in so many ways for our country. I appreciate them so much.

Easter Sunday

It's not even summer and the mosquitoes are out. I killed at least 7 from midnight to 4am last night and I still got ate up. It's crazy - they are brutal too - I have bites all over me. It seems that all the girls here are get eaten up, but the guys never do. Or, maybe they just don't talk about it as much. The bad thing is, the walls in my room are white, so you can imagine all the mosquitoe marks on the wall.

Besides the mosquitoes, I have to report that I have finally heard the "incoming" alarm. If you have seen the news at all, you know that we got blasted today. I heard the first of it this morning around 0615. It seemed like it was very close and it I have to say my heart started beating quickly, but the Villa really is the safest place to be. We heard later that the Embassy was the target and considering it is approx 2 miles from us, the blasts must have been amazingly loud at the Embassy.

I didn't really know what had happened when I got up though, and I had some meetings at the Embassy this morning, so I went to my meetings and then arranged to go to church with two of the other girls that work with me. We were sitting in the service about 10 minutes into it and we heard 3 large blasts and the incoming alarm. Everyone in the service ran out of the bldg and into the bunkers right outside. We were in there for about 15 minutes before we got the all clear sign. Needless to say I didn't stick around the Embassy after that.

People who have been here for a while say that they holidays are always the worst. They really target us on Holidays. I have to say, I didn't think anything about it.

So, now I can say that I didn't sleep through the mortars for once. If I could get rid of the mosquitoes, maybe I could!!

Oh, we played volleyball and had a cookout last Thurs. It was so much fun - we had about 30 people total. I hope that we can do that again soon, before it gets too hot. Right now the weather is about 90 during the day and mid 70's or more at night.

Same ole!

Well, I hate to say that it's starting to be the same ole thing, but I am getting into a rhythm. People call it your "battle rhythm". I have always been a night owl, so it works out good here as I still work with a lot of people back in DC, so I can work late and sleep in a bit longer in the morning. Usually I quite working around 930-1000pm, hang out a little while and get to sleep around 1230 or 1am. But I get to sleep in until around 0800, and that works perfect for me. The tough part comes in when I have to get up for meetings at 0800, but that doesn't happen often.


This trip I have been spending a lot of time working from the Villa. I like it when no one is around, but when alot of people are here, it is line of sight tasking on anything. Everyone thinks that I work for them and they feel free to task me - that's when I'm happy to work in the Embassy. I will be there most of the day tomorrow. Plus, it's nice to mix it up get out of the Villa, see and meet new people.


I have been going to the gym everyday which I'm starting to enjoy. This is week 3! I am incorporating weight lifting this week along with my cardio, so today the legs were a little sore. There is always someone willing to go workout, so that makes it fun. The gym we go to is really nice - it's kind of in a basement like setting and has little nooks and crannies of equipment. It's big and has a lot of choices for equipment and the best part is, it's never crowded - unlike the Embassy gym. I went there one time and it was sooo stinky and crowded - I'm very happy to have found this other gym and it's close to our Villa.


Well, that's about the extent of things for now, you can see it's definitely the same ole thing!!