Not long now

Well, as exciting as it has been over the last 3 months I will be due to come home to the UK soon for some well earned rest. I should be on my way home sometime next week if all goes well. I am currently back at the US military base ready to do a handover with a guy who is coming in tomorrow. I also have to wait for my passport to come back from the Iraqi government with my exit visa stamp which will allow me to leave the country. You're not allowed to leave the country until you get this stamp in your passport and when you get the stamp you have to leave within 7 days or you have to get it done again.

 

The process for getting back into the country is not an easy one either, you have to have a Ministry of Interior letter that you hand over to immigration on your way in. They then give you a visa which lasts a month and you are told that you will need to have a blood test within 10 days or you get fined. When you have had some blood taken you send your passport away to the MOI and they give you a 3 month visa. The last time I had blood taken it was done in the front of a car in the airport car park. The Iraqi doctor is not allowed on the US base and we are not allowed to go downtown to have it done as it is too dangerous. Its all a moneymaking scheme set up by the various Iraqi government departments and I very much doubt that your blood even gets tested.

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MMMmmm Doughnuts

One of the security guys said he had some doughnuts that I could have. He gave me the impression that he was giving me a full box of 12 (Which i intended to share with the rest of the guys in the office) but when i finally got them there were 6 left in the box. I had never had Krispy Kreme doughnuts before and I must admit they are very nice :) I found the chocolate ones with sugar coating I was given to be more like cake in consistency. I have seen them around in the UK supermarkets but they are expensive for what they are. At the US Army base here there are boxes and boxes of Krispy Kreme flying around and I guess the US Army purchase them in bulk to keep the soldiers happy.

 

Our friends back at the base try and get things out to us to make life here a bit better, some of it gets to us and some of it does not. There were three cases of Gatoraid sent the other day which we never saw, I guess the security guys like it so much they decided to keep it. We won't miss the Gatoraid I don't think, the case we got last time has hardly been touched so I did not bother to ask where it went. The problem we have here at this camp is that we have no way of getting anything for ourselves and we cannot go anywhere to get anything so we have to rely on the security teams.

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Iraqi Toilet

Not used one and not sure I will, I like the way the foot positions are marked for you so you know where to put your feet while squatting, maybe this is a result of years of use and is the optimal position for the feet. I prefer the western toilets that you can sit on and relax :)

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Like being on the moon

I woke up the other morning, opened my cabin door to be confronted with the world in a kind of Orange hue. I think there was a sand/dust storm in the night and everywhere was covered in a kind of Orange dust/fine sand. It was very dull and cloudy and looked very unusual. You may be able to see the sand/dust in the photos.

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Fun with flies

Today I decided to have some fun with the flies that I have been zapping. Normally when zapped there is nothing left of the fly as it gets caught in the bat, sizzles and crackles for a while and then explodes. Today I zapped one and it lost a wing, after watching it spin on its back very fast I put it upright and watched it pull itself along with its two front legs until it fell off the desk onto the floor. It's gone now but I'm not sure how far it got on two legs.

 

A while after that I zapped another fly, this one seemed undamaged but unresponsive, maybe I just knocked it out or something. So i decided to have some fun with it as you can see.

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Dining Room and TV Room

Here are a couple of photos that show the inside of the large dining room, believe me when i say this is large. There is a smaller dining room that is about half the size in another trailer. The TV room is next door although there is a TV in the large dining room but the two TVs have different satellite systems so the one in the TV room seems to have the most english speaking channels on it. We are getting another complete satellite system from a guy back at the main US Army base, he has one that he said we could have as people here were starting to get nervous about not being able to watch the world cup.

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Goal !!!

Jason came through and managed to get some goal posts made and here is one. Pretty smart for some plastic piping.

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If you need something, make it

Jason, the engineer on site has now decided that we are lacking something on the football front. Fed up with putting bottles and stones on the floor to mark the goals he has taken it upon himself to have some goal posts made out of water pipes. He has even designed them on Autocad so that we have prints to give the contractor. We have our priorities right!!

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Patio Part 2

Our patio area next to the cabins is complete. We now have a hard concrete surface to walk on and table and chairs to sit at in the shade. Shade provided by a tarpaulin type cover that our US Army friends gave us. The cover took a while to put up and fell down shortly after because the para cord used to put it up snapped after rubbing on the edge of the concrete T-walls. Our Iraqi friends came to the rescue with some more rope and I think they put it back up for us.

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Dragonfly

I went to the gym tonight and did some rowing. While rowing a dragonfly flew in and landed on my shoulder which put me off my stroke somewhat. After I finished I returned to my cabin to find a dragonfly sat on my bed. I tried to usher it out the door but it seemed content in my room. I eventually got rid of it but tonight there seems to be more about than usual.

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Patio

Jason, one of the engineeers has arranged for a concreted path to be put at the bottom of our steps leading into the cabins. At the end of the path next to the facing T-walls there will be a square area of concrete where we can put the table and chairs that you see in the photo. We managed to get a large tarpaulin/hessian cover that we are hoping to string up between the cabins on the right, safe haven on the left and the T-walls at the end to make a shaded area so we can sit outside. The area will mainly be used after work on an evening so i'm not sure how much sun we will see.

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Safe Haven is still standing

The steel frame went on, the Hescos went on and they are now filled. The structure has not collapsed this time which means the job is done and the contractors are just tidying the place up now. Lets hope we never have to get inside the place.

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Dr John

After the game of football the other night I went back to my room to get changed and have a shower. While stood outside my room chatting to a colleague from Pakistan a Iraqi man walked up to us and stood next to us without really trying to communicate. After a short while the colleague and I were looking at each other and wondering what the man wanted. Then the man eventually started talking to my colleague in Arabic and it turns out that he had a sore upper chest area, just below the base of his neck. He showed us his red skin and lumps which looked like heat lumps.

I had a large tub of Sudocream on me for skin complaints so I said I would give him some. I produced the tub of cream and at first the Iraqi man thought I was giving him the whole tub until I said he could not have the whole tub because I may need some in the future. I gave him some there and then and told him to rub it on the affected area which he did. I then cut the bottom of a bottle and gave him half the tub of cream in the bottom of the bottle. I explained to my colleague to tell him to wash the area at the end of the day and apply more cream and away he went very happy and I got a 'God bless you' from him.

That over I decided to go in my room and get ready for a shower and then emerged to find another man stood talking to my colleague. This man was complaining of a skin problem on his shoulder and I think he was wanting some cream as well but my colleague managed to tell him to go to the medical facility the next day. Today I saw the camp Paramedic and wanted clarification on who can use the medical facilities on site. He told me the Iraqi contractors cannot go to him and they need to speak with their managers if they have a problem. I doubt there are medical facilities in place for the contractors which is a shame. I am not surprised that they have ailments in these conditions, Its a hot dusty environment and working long hours in the sun will have these effects.

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My Office

My office equipment. Air duster to blow all the dust and sand off the laptop and desk top. Fly swatter to swat the flies that manage to get into the office, we have my electric zapper to catch flies in flight and a conventional swatter to get those that land. Then I have my sunglasses for when I venture outside of the office and also the control for the air conditioning to keep things nice and cool. Bottles of water to keep hydrated and we now have a fridge that arrived today to keep the bottles of water and cans of drink cold. The printer/scanner arrived today as well which enabled me to print off my e-ticket for the flight home which I was pleased about.

 

It has been a bit like Christmas today in the office with all the things we have managed to get today. Serban came back from his leave and fetched lots of sugar, tea and coffee. We have a kettle in the office now and I asked the contractor to get me a couple of boxes of water so we can now make hot drinks. We also got brushes to sweep the sand up and a big yellow bin outside to put our rubbish in. I never thought I'd be so pleased to have these basic things out here but it makes a huge difference.

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Catering Facilities

The catering facilities on site are good although some of the food combinations are a bit bizzare. The staff are very attentive and like to serve you, but this is not always a good thing as I found out today. I said I would have some of what looked like stew and I got one piece of meat and one and a half mushrooms in sauce?? I made sure I got plenty of onion rings and salad to go with the miniscule stew portion and mash. This evening there is a barbecue and I have heard there are Lobster tails and Steaks on the menu.

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Football in the dark

One thing to keep us occupied out here is a kick around with a football. Last night I had a game of football against some Iraqi workers. The people that know me know that I don't play football and I rarely watch football but out here there is not a lot to do and I need the extra exercise. It was fun while it lasted, towards the end we had three huge lorries turn up and drive straight thru the area that we were using.

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Big Bugs - Ants

While playing football in the dark last night i nearly ran into a bar sticking up out of the ground. I decided to tie some plastic sheeting around it to make it more visible and while doing that I noticed some huge ants running about on the ground.

 

Today I went back to the same place and found the ant hole, Kirk and I decided to pour some water down the hole to see if we could get the ants to come out and sure enough they did. Kirks finger is in the photos so you get a better idea of the size of these things. They are certianly the largest ants I have ever seen.

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More Construction

These photos show the steel grid that make up the roof support for the safe haven in the camp. The safe haven is designed as a temporary place people can go to if the camp is attacked while under construction. It is a shipping container surrounded by Hescos (Huge sand filled cubes of steel mesh and fabric) with a steel roof support that will have Hescos placed on top.

 

This is the second attempt at the roof, the first steel support made collapsed when they filled the Hescos with sand so the contractor had to take it apart and rebuild it again. Three days later, they finished making the steel grid structure and were about to lift it into place when we stopped them. We told the contractor that the crane they had could not safely lift the steel in one piece. Either the steel would bend and buckle or at worst the crane would fall over. After much deliberation it was decided to cut the steel grid into three sections.

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Old Guns

These are some old anti-aircraft and artillary guns that I walked past when I went for my meals. They look like they are no longer in use and I am not sure if they are American or British.

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Sheep

Sheep herding across the oil fields. I cannot imagine this being easy work, trying to get the sheep to jump over the oil pipes.

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More videos

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This time another short video showing what I see whilst travelling to work and back. The plumes of smoke are constantly being spewed out into the air 24/7. What looks like pools of water are pools of oil.

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Sign in the kitchen

I saw this sign in the kitchen today and it made me smile. What a good way to tell people to clean up their mess after making cups of tea and coffee in the middle of Iraq :)

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Guns in the bar

In our bar in the welfare building there are some guns on display, probably guns that have been captured/confiscated and made safe so they no longer fire. The bar bell is made from a large shell casing and you can see this hanging verically in one of the photos. There is also, I think, a rocket propelled grenade launcher on top of the fridge.

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More Images from Southern Iraq

Some more general photos of scenery. Iraqi villagers, reflections of smoke in pools of oil and more rusting tank carcasses.

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Welfare

We have a welfare facility which we make use of. Inside the building there is a pool table, a couple of TVs with satellite systems, dart board, books, dvds and a bar with seating and tables. It's not much but it provides more things to do with your free time. Most people go in to watch football matches and have a game of pool.

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