My Journey as an AID Worker in Iraq

This is a compilation of all my posts while working in Iraq.

Iraq Post #1: Leaving for the Middle East

As most of you know I am heading to Iraq today in order to relieve one of our US AID workers that is taking some vacation time. I will be there for a month working as an Information Officer (the same position I have in DC). I will be staying in the green zone within Baghdad. The green zone is the compound where all the civilian workers live and work and it is pretty safe so please do not worry!

I am leaving out of DC today and flying to Jordan where I will be staying for a day before flying into Baghdad. Many people on my team have come and gone out of Iraq so I have heard lots of tips and advice. I am very excited about this opportunity and will take lots of pictures to post on the Internet.

I will be able to check email on a daily basis and I will be sending updates out to this list.

Thank you all for your support and I will be back in no time!

Iraq Post #2: Live from Jordan

Hello from Jordan!!

I arrived in Amman Jordan at 2:00am today and took a cab to the Four Seasons Hotel. The hotel is amazing and I cannot believe I am staying here. I immediately went to bed because after traveling for so long I had no idea what day it was and I just crashed. I woke up today, well the same day but about 7 hours later, and took a tour of Amman. I went to the old citadel where the ruins of Hercules Temple stood and also a Roman open theater...yes Jordan was once part of the Roman Empire. I also got to see a Palestinian Refugee camp which was quite a site, the living conditions are horrible and these people have been kicked off their land in Israel and forced to live in Jordan. My cab driver was Palestinian and his father moved to Jordan in 1948 and still has papers claiming land in Jerusalem. Over 50% of the population is Palestinian and their right of return is obviously a big part of the Middle East peace talks.

Jordan is a very interesting city and they are very friendly to Americans. I wish I had more time to visit all the different areas because there is so much history here. A couple of interesting observations: there is more honking here than in DC if you can imagine, also there are very few women out on the streets and when you do see one she is usually covered in the traditional head dress. Also there are a lot of Iraqis here who have yet to return to Iraq because they still do not feel it is a safe place to live. Jordanians love to drink tea and coffee and my cab driver said that he drinks between 5-7 Turkish coffees per day, if he has any less he gets a headache...I wonder why!?

Tomorrow morning I get picked up at 7:30am and I am driven to the airport where I catch my flight into Baghdad. I do not know the next time I will be able to email but hopefully tomorrow once I get settled.

Iraq Post #3 First Impressions

Hello All!!
I arrived in Baghdad yesterday and now that I have gotten somewhat more acclimated to living in a war zone I will do a little recap on my first days.

After staying in the lovely four seasons in Jordan, I took a small plane from Amman to Baghdad yesterday and it was quite an experience. The airport in Amman was tiny and there didn't seem to be much concern about security and screening passengers. After I went through "immigration," I preceded onto a small AirServ flight with 10 others. Everyone on board kept talking about the "spiral" landing and the best way one could position for this landing. After about 2 hours of flying we proceeded to make huge spirals around Baghdad and eventually they became very tight spirals where we were vertical and could see blue sky out one window and Baghdad's mighty palaces straight down out the other window. We proceeded to make a drastic dissent while spiraling tightly into Baghdad International Airport and luckily without incident. The fear is that insurgents will fire RPG and surface-to-air missiles at the planes while they land. I saw the DHL plane that took a missile to one of its wing and I am glad I was not involved in that one! We landed in the recently reconstructed Terminal C (yay Bechtel) where I got my Baghdad stamp on my passport and my luggage from baggage claim yup the airport is all ready for commercial flights, if only a commercial airline was willing to fly into Baghdad.

Upon my arrival I was greeted by 3 security officials in full armor and M16s and we loaded into an armored suburban with an Iraqi driver that USAID hired. We were followed by another suburban that was our backup vehicle in case there were any "incidents." We then proceeded to drive down the freeway to the green zone at about 80-90 MPH. Anytime an Iraqi vehicle was in front of us we would flash our headlights and honk until they got out of our way. I am sure they love that! The fear is that we will get caught behind a convoy of insurgents who will try and detonate something in front of us.

Once I arrived at the convention center I met the USAID/Iraq staff and got my flack jacket and helmet. I then proceeded to the Palace where I got my badge. Saddam's palace is huge and very beautiful. Aside from the convention center and the Palace, the city is in pretty bad shape and there are bombed out buildings all over the place. It is a very sad site because there is just so much destruction and can't imagine what it is like in some more rural parts. Aside from the destruction, the other very noticeable thing is the amount of army, weapons and tanks that are all around. This very much feels like an army compound with kids younger than me carrying around very powerful weapons and machinery. Blackhawks are flying constantly overhead and there are many checkpoints.

Later, I found out that I was living in a trailer at the new AID site which is still being built. The trailer has a kitchen and bathroom in the middle and two bedrooms, one on each side. The living accommodations are nice for a developing country and I even had a hot shower this morning. I feel safe in this location though these trailers would offer absolutely no protection from a mortar attack...luckily none have hit any trailers yet. I do not have a car so it is a little hard to get around but I do have a cell phone (a new Iraqi one, a sign of reconstruction progress) and we have a pool of Iraqi drivers that will pick you up and take you anywhere. The food here is very disgusting and you eat with the army with their M16s littered all over the floor. I am afraid I will bump one and they will go off because they are just everywhere!

The office works about 12 hour days and they work everyday, including the weekends. There is not much else to do besides working since we are confined to the green zone and it is either work or stare at your trailer walls. The social life has greatly diminished ever since the hotel that everyone stayed in was bombed. Apparently they are considering bringing back disco night on Thursday nights so I will keep you updated on that one! Apparently the thing to do is to go the gym at night, which is great seeing that I have only had freedom fries and grill cheese for every meal!

Being at work seems like the same as being in DC, we have cubes and I am constantly talking and emailing with DC so it doesn't really seem like I am that far away. Even though we are confined to the green zone, we have a lot of Iraqis working in our office and they are all over the green zone and there are many opportunities for interaction. It seems that based on all the Iraqis I have talked to, they are happy that Saddam is gone and are glad the Americans are there but these are also the same ones that have jobs and we are paying! It is funny because the palace and its surrounding areas are so clean because they try to keep as many Iraqis employed as possible and therefore give them jobs to clean and water plants over and over again.

Iraq Post #4 - Life in the Green Zone

Hello all.
Everything is going well in the Green Zone. It seems that the area is a lot safe ever since the end of Ramadan and Saddam's capture, lets hope it stays that way.

The weather is very mild here, between 50-60 F and that seems like a lot better than all of you on the East Coast!! Had to come here to get away from that...

Life here consists of fried food, working and sleeping. Last night I had my first vegetable...fried cabbage!! Actually tonight I went with some of my colleagues to the Green Zone Cafe, which was quite an experience! Apparently it is run by a local Iraqi and he started out about 2 months ago with a roasting spit and a couple of plastic chairs and tables outside a bombed out building. Now he has a fully enclosed tented seating area with heating lamps and a full kitchen that serves pizza, whole chickens, kebabs and BEER! Yes I had my first beer in Iraq, a Miller Lite. This is an excellent example of the fruits of a free market system where a business savvy Iraqi has the ability to run with a good thing. The prices are high in Iraq but compared to America it is cheap and he takes dollars. He wants AID to give him a loan so he can buy a generator and A/C for the summer months!! This Iraqi is fully embracing American capitalism!

Oh and a word to the wise, when you are in line at the cafeteria to get food, never ask for French Fries, they are FREEDOM Fries and the army gets very offended when you get it wrong, trust me...

Today, I found out we have a dog on our housing site. His name is Ditch because he was found in a ditch. The little pupp is very cute and entertained me while I was waiting for my ride by biting my ankles and shoelaces, I do not think I have ever seen such a dirty dog.

As I mentioned before there are guns everywhere and contractors usually hire security firms to protect them. One firm is notorious for being very poor and they consist of ex-bar bouncers who have been trained with guns and are now walking around Baghdad in plain clothes drinking at the Green Zone Cafe, they have been known to accidentally fire their arms...great!

Life has consisted of a lot of work but it is not that bad because you feel very connected with the work and people are very into what they are doing. On Sunday, I am going to get to venture beyond the green zone and visit one of Baghdad's water treatment plants that Bechtel is rehabilitating. Though it does pose a great risk, I am very excited to get out of the green zone and see some of our work.

That is all for now, not too much going on but I am trying to give little snippets of life here in the Middle East. Thanks again for all the responses!

Iraq Post #5: Saddam's Palace

Hello All!!
I am perfectly fine here in Baghdad, thanks for all the emails and phone calls of concern.

As most of you have heard by now, at 8:00am this morning (Sunday) a car bombed exploded outside of the green zone. The car bomb exploded, with a half-ton of explosives, outside of one the entrances to the green zone. Ironic that the entrance is called "Assassin's Gate." I was inside my trailer when it the explosion occurred and it was quite an experience. This was my first big explosion since I have been in Baghdad and it came as a real shock to me. The sound and feel of the blast ripped through our housing compound and it was a really loud and deep explosion, similar to a large cherry bomb going off in the school yard but times that by A LOT. Of course my first reaction was to go towards the window because it felt like it was right outside but that is the LAST thing you are suppose to do. In this type of event, we are supposed to pull the mattress over ourselves and wait because if it is a mortar there are usually a couple more that will land...since this was my first explosion I assumed it was a mortar or rocket. It is a little hard to pull the mattress off the bed when it is connected to the frame so I put on my flack jacket and helmet and sat on the floor. About two minutes later my roommate got up and got in the shower so I assumed it was probably safe again, I guess most people are used to this by now! I eventually made my way outside and I could see the smoke in the air and smelled the poignant burnt rubber smell. One of the Iraqis told me what had happened and I found out that the explosion was about 1 mile from where I was living...pretty intense wakeup call to say the least, didn't need my morning coffee after that...what a way to get your juices flowing in the morning!

The sad part of the whole thing is the many Iraqis (over 20) who were killed, as this is where they line up every morning to try and get a job from the Coalition government. Additionally, while I have experienced this once since I have been here and it was pretty scary, I can't imagine people in other Middle Eastern states that fear this sort of violence on a daily basis. While there is a lot of progress here in Iraq and I could tell you about schools that have been rehabilitated and the health care clinics we have repaired, the truth of the matter is this country is a mess and I cannot imagine turning over sovereignty in a couple of months. I know the Iraqis keeping protesting for free elections but it is a concept that is just so foreign to them. One colleague here told me that he was speaking to an Iraqi a couple of months ago and the Iraqi was so confused because he didn't know which side to bribe. It was such an innocent claim when bribery and corruption are a way of life in many parts of this region. I do hold out hope that this will work out but if things don't, this could easily slip into a nasty civil war.

Now to the brighter side, I have had a chance to wander around a bit in the green zone and there are many sites to see. We discovered one army mess hall that seems to serve a lot better KBR (Halliburton subsidiary) food than the Al-Rhasheed hotel (the place across from the convention center, my office, where we eat almost every meal). This location was behind the Baath party headquarters, which is an enormous building that was severely bombed during the war. It is amazing how many large buildings Saddam built for himself and his party during his reign. I took pictures! Another large building I visited was the Republican Palace, Saddam's main palace. This time I got to look around and boy is it something! The hallways are lined with chandeliers up top and the ceiling contains very fine detail work. The rotunda, where Bremer's office is off of, is huge and makes you feel very small--a theme that runs throughout Baghdad. There are gold plated thrones and chairs piled together in side rooms where people have impromptu meetings. There is a large chapel where about 100 people sleep in bunk beds and there is a picture of scud missile on the wall, apparently pointing towards Israel. In the back, there are trailers sitting upon what used to be lush gardens and date palm trees. There is also a swimming pool in the back where troops can swim and relax, a very odd site to see in the middle of it all.

After the palace tour, I got to eat at another good spot (I am really getting lucky this week) and that was the Bechtel dining facility. Bechtel has its own camp next to the palace and each trailer has a TV and the trailers are each surrounded by sandbags, unlike ours!! At their dinner they have real plates and silverware and the food was so good and they had fresh salad fixings and they even have a new pastry chef. Bechtel doesn't even let us eat there, even though we gave them the contract, so we had to sneak in...also it was interesting to find out that Bremer's uncle works at Bechtel, Captain Bremer is his name!! Yes folks, it all goes round and around, a mini-DC in Baghdad. I like to refer to this palace area as "inside the beltway," where Bechtel and all the political appointees (CPA) can be very cozy!

Well that is all I can muster up this round, I have been working 12-14 hours everyday and I am exhausted and good thing there is nothing else to do here but sleep!

I also just found out that Iraq has Cubans and Operation Iraqi Freedom t-shirts, so put your orders in now.

Got to see the beginning of the playoffs last night in the rec room on an Arabic version of ESPN and that was very exciting...

P.S. It has come to my attention that this is spread around far and wide, from my grandmother's oldest high school friend to the SMU Pi Phi sorority! So for all you newcomers and distant readers, welcome and thanks for reading!

Iraq Post #6 Fulbright Scholars and Bremer

Today I walked upon a ceremony that is very indicative of the progress being made here in Iraq. I happened to come across the Fulbright Scholarship ceremony in the main arena of the convention center where I work. The ceremony was honoring 25 Iraqis that had been awarded the Fulbright Scholarship after a 20-year absence of the program in Iraq. One of the speakers was a woman who had been awarded a scholarship in 1968 and talked about her experiences in Iraq. Then the keynote speaker was none other than Amb. Paul Bremer himself. He arrived in his heavily guarded black suburban and his security force of about 20 heavily armed men with dogs. Other than congratulating the 45 scholars, rather than the actual 25, he made an impressive speech but looked very tired and haggard. It was very exciting to see him as he is usually not that accessible.

Life has been good here in Baghdad, especially now that I have discovered the huge abundance of copied DVDs for sale. Today I bought 2 for about $10 and this is very exciting since going back to my trailer and watching DVDs is usually the highlight of my day. In addition, they have a nice selection of Rolex, Tag, and Breitling watches that are very tempting to buy. I was very surprised to find that all the little shops in the green zone do not have many cultural items but instead have DVDs, watches, cell phones, gun holsters, and Saddam memorabilia. I guess this is what everyone wants and are the first things to come into a newly opened economy. It seems that Iraqis are eager to get their hands on anything American...I wonder how long it will take for the first McDonalds and Starbucks to come. Apparently the CPA requested a Starbucks in the green zone but they declined because they said they didn’t support the war.

Other than a couple explosions here and there it has been pretty quiet in the green zone and hopefully that doesn’t mean the insurgents are taking more time to plan attacks.

The AID mission here, as they usually do, has been trying to get me to stay longer, until February 15, but I decided on a week extension and then I will definitely be coming home around Feb. 8.

Iraq Post #7: Outside the Green Zone

Today, I got to leave the green zone for the first time but do not worry because I am now back safe and sound. We took some BBC reporters to a huge water treatment project in Baghdad. The drive to the site was very exciting because it was the first time I really got to see how Iraqis are now living. Unlike the green zone, there was tons of traffic, people in the streets, and children playing. The area we drove through was fairly poor and there was garbage everywhere! The highways were packed with very old cars that we either barely running or broken down on the side of the road. Gas is very scarce in the country, and there were numerous Iraqis selling containers of gas along the side of the road. Another interesting sight was the herds of sheep that where all over the street, I am not sure their purpose but I would guess that they are sold and then slaughtered for food. We drove in a fully armored Mercedes, which are the strongest since the armor is put on in the factory instead of retrofitted later. We had two armed security escorts in the car and a suburban followed and would box out Iraqi vehicles whenever they got close. I felt pretty secure because we were not in military vehicles and therefore not a big target.

The water plant was very interesting, as I had never seen one before, let along an Iraqi one! I have many pictures for anyone interested in how water is taken from the Tigris River and turned into potable water. All in all, it was a good trip and I am glad I got out of the green zone and saw the real Baghdad, it is a huge city!

Last Thursday, we had a farewell celebration for our wonderful mission director and it was quite a party! We had a large spread of Iraqi food and got to actually mingle with colleagues outside of the office. There were many speeches but there was one in particular that was very moving. One of our female Iraqi assistants got up in front of the large crowd and spoke on behalf of all the Iraqis working with USAID. She said they were so grateful to have a manager who was so nice to them and respected them, especially the women who rarely had high levels of responsibilities under the Saddam regime. It was a very powerful speech and I was grateful to be part of such an amazing organization. Our director had been in the area for 14 months and was stationed in Kuwait before they even knew if there was going to be a conflict.

Our staff came from all over the country for the party and one group had a very exciting trip. Our staff from Basra (in the South) were on their way up when their vehicle hit an IED (improvised explosive device) filled with nails, luckily they were in one of the powerful Mercedes G-wagons and there were no injuries. I have attached some pictures and you can see the nails imbedded throughout the car and luckily they were in an armored car or else they would not have been so lucky.

I have also attached some pictures from the Saddam parade ground that is near the office. At both entrances there are huge swords that cross overheard, which are held by giant hands. The most sobering part, however, are the helmets at the base of the swords. The helmets that litter the base of the swords are helmets from the Iran-Iraq war and they are all helmets taken from dead Iranian soldiers. Each helmet has at least one bullet hole and many have more. It is hard to describe such a sight and it is one of the many testaments to Saddam's brutality. It is amazing to see this and yet hear ranting back in the U.S. from a certain presidential candidate (luckily it no longer looks like he will win) about how Iraqis are no better off since the fall of Saddam. I think many Iraqis might disagree and are enjoying their freedoms from the wrath of a ruthless dictator.

Once again, thank you for all the emails and I will be leaving Baghdad on Wednesday, stopping over in London for a few days and then returning to DC on Sunday.