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!! :-)