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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