A Taste of Iraq

I haven't had the opportunity to eat in a local restaurant or at an Iraqi's house yet, although I hope to before I leave. However, I did get to eat some authentic Iraqi food the past few days. On Thursday, two friends of mine went to an Iraqi restaurant that is off base. They had leftovers and shared them with me. There was shaved lamb, Iraqi pickles, something like pico de gallo, sautéed peppers, a rice dish, and, the staple of any Iraqi meal, pita bread. We made kebabs, aka sandwiches, with all the fixings. Fantastic. One of my friends, Sara, kept tearing off pieces of bread, picking up lamb with them, and then putting hummus on top. Delicious, but she kept giving them to me and pretty soon I was stuffed. Although the DFAC food is good, this was wonderful and a much appreciated change of pace.

I was invited by the same friends to join them for lunch at their office yesterday. Sara is well known for being a fantastic cook. She was born and grew up in Iraq before moving to the US. She started cooking Saturday night and finished about 1pm Sunday. The spread she laid out for the seven of us there was of Thanksgiving proportions. She made leg of lamb plus lamb meet for kebabs. There were two different rice dishes, potato curry with meatballs, tomato and pepper salad, hummus, and, of course, bread. We finished with traditional Iraqi chai (hot tea). This was by far the best meal I've had here. She did all this with only a two-burner hotplate and microwave. Amazing.

So I'm certainly not hurting for good food over here. It's a good thing I'm working out regularly.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I previously told you about my CHU, so now let me tell you about my housing community and the base. There are multiple housing areas on base, I don’t know exactly how many or how big they are. The base has over 25,000 people, so obviously there is enough housing for at least that many people. Within the housing communities, the CHUs are organized into pods. There is nothing special about a pod, it is just a way of organizing the CHUs. For example, I live in B-32. Our housing community has a town square area. Within that area is our housing office, chapel, BX (a small store), gym, recreation center, drop off laundry service, do-it-yourself laundromat, barber shop, Subway, cyber café, coffee shop, library, and muscle therapy (aka, massage). The bigger places, such as the gym and chapel, are semi-permanent facilities. Some of the other facilities, such as the Cyber Café and Subway, are in trailers. The gym has everything you could want; there are two rooms full of aerobics machines, a room full of weight machines, a room of free weights, and a general-purpose fitness room, which is where my CrossFit class is. Outside the gym are three basketball courts and two sand volleyball courts. The rec center has pool tables, two large-screen TVs for watching movies, a video game area with multiple consoles, and tables where they regularly host card tournaments. I haven’t gone to muscle therapy yet, although I thought about it after straining my neck during CrossFit. Other than a dining facility, you could easily spend all your free time in the housing community.

The base itself is quite large. There are two other gyms similar to ours. There is also an outdoor Olympic-size swimming pool with a 10-m platform, an indoor swimming pool, and a stadium. Apparently this base was used for training by the Iraqi Olympics team. There are two other BXs, both bigger than the one in my housing community, and rec centers. Each BX has a food court area (Pizza Hut, BK, etc.) and additional specialty stores such as an electronics store and a gift store. There are at least four dining facilities. I’m not sure of the exact number because there are four official DFACs, but I know of other chow halls on base too. There is a movie theater that seats several hundred people and shows first-run movies for free. I have seen “Star Trek,” “Terminator,” and “Night at the Museum 2” since I have been here. The food at the Turkish restaurant on base is quite good and a nice alternative to the DFACs, although it is hard to beat free food and plenty of it. An Iraqi bazaar where merchants from the local area can sell their wares just opened today. Not only does that benefit us, it helps the locals get a business started.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a hospital on base that does amazing things for anyone who needs it. I was at a brief yesterday where two military doctors, one AF and one Army, talked about two locals they treated for gunshot wounds to the face. The doctors showed us x-rays of the damage the bullets caused (basically one side of each man’s face was destroyed), pictures of the surgeries (definitely not for people with queasy stomachs), and then after pictures of the reconstructive surgery. Wow! I hate to think what life would have been like for those two men if our doctors had not been here. There are stories like that from the hospital on a regular basis.

The bottom line is we are well taken care of here, from security to our health to our mental well-being. All of those things enable execution of the various missions on the base, whether it is flying, moving equipment and people, or anything else. The US military, especially the Air Force, learned that if you take care of the people, the job gets done. That is especially true when deployed overseas. All of these services make it easier to take of everything from the basics, such as eating, to recharging your batteries so you can work your next shift. If you are bored here, it is your own fault.

Post 1, but not Day 1

It took me a while to set this up and find out I could do it while at work. It is somewhat difficult to get on the Internet outside of work, so I couldn't do this if I couldn't post at work.

For those of you I haven't been updating, let me catch you up. I arrived in Iraq on 8 May after leaving the US on 3 May (I stopped in Qatar for a few days). The guy I replaced greeted me at the terminal and helped me get settled in. We had a week of overlap, so more than enough time for him to hand the reins over to me. Yes it is hot and dusty here, but you get used to it. I've been told a lot of people develop respiratory problems here, but so far (knock on wood) I haven't had any problems.

Let me run you through a typical day of mine. I wake up at 0530 (military time, it's just easier). I go to the gym to do CrossFit. I love CrossFit because it changes everyday and it kicks my butt. After my workout, I go back to my room to shower and get ready for work. I go to the chow hall (they're called DFACs here; nope, I don't know what that stands for) and grab breakfast. I'll usually get it to go so that I can check e-mail and read intelligence reports while I eat. When I get to my office (I have my own office), I check work and personal e-mail to see if anyone loves me. Then I'll read reports and take care of any hot or quick tasks before going to the daily 0900 wing update. That runs about a half hour and it is back to my office. My meetings vary, but there aren't too many of them. Most of them are on Friday and Saturday, and there is even one on Sunday. Most people work 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week. I work 7 days a week, but I have reduced hours on Saturday and Sunday so it is about equal to 6 days. We are here for the job, so might as well be at work. When I am in my office, I am usually reading messages, fighting the e-mail monster (it exists even here in Iraq), coordinating with people locally or even back in the States, or working on my list of to-do's. There is always plenty to do, so I am keeping busy and time is passing fast. I'll call it a day between 1800-2100, depending on what I have to do and how motivated I am. So that is a day in the life.

A little on the living conditions. When I first got here, I was in what is called a dry CHU (containerized housing unit). It is a roughly 10'x10' room with two bunk beds, two wall lockers, two night stands, and a few other odds and ends. Dry means it doesn't have running water. So I had to walk to another trailer to go to the bathroom and yet another to take a shower. This past weekend though I moved into a wet CHU. I still have my own room, but I share a bathroom with another guy. It is wonderful not having to get dressed and walk outside when I have to go to the bathroom or take a shower. My new CHU also has a single queen-sized bed instead of the bunk beds, only one wall locker but it also has a closet, a desk, and a recliner. It is also much bigger than the other room. I get the better room because of my rank and because I'm here for a year. I'm grateful.

Many of you know that I have been a vegetarian for the past 3+ months. I have been able to maintain it, but it has been difficult. The DFAC near me is small and has limited food choices. I find myself eating too many grilled cheese sandwiches and onion rings. If I drive farther (I have a Ford F-150 to drive around--boo Ford, but yeah I've got my own set of wheels), I can go to a larger DFAC that has more vegetarian options. Still, I'm thinking I may eat vegetarian most of the time but have meat (but never red meat) now and then. I'm concerned about getting enough protein since I don't have access to soy or tofu products here. I figure I need the protein with the workout program I am doing. Separate from the vegetarian issue, the food tastes good and they serve you too much of it. Also, dessert is available at every meal. I need to workout just so I don't gain weight.

There is more I could say but it is dinner time so I'll save it for another post.