Slang Shot

There is a whole new language when it comes to working in Iraq.  Most of it is military jargon, but some of it was started by an anonymous person and passed on through to the next person and so on.

Here are a few common ones.

CHU: Containerized Housing Unit.  What we live in.  Basically about a 15'x15' room with a bed, dorm fridge, stand up closet, desk, dresser, tv, bathroom with shower.  Just the necessities.  They are side by side units as my bathroom walls shares the wall with the bathroom of the unit attached to mine.

Dry CHU: The dreaded CHU without a bathroom.  We don't have many, but we do have them.  One must walk to an ablution unit.

Wet CHU: Typical CHU with a bathroom

Ablution Unit: Honestly I do not know why they are called this as the ablution means something not entirely regarding taking a shower or using the bathroom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablution
There are a few of these scattered about with showers, sinks and bathrooms.

Blue Man Group: Iraqi laborers that wear blue coveralls

Thrown under the bus: What happens on a daily basis here i.e "Sorry I had to throw you under the bus".  As in something unexpected thrown your way.

The Donkey: Our bar that is opened one day a week.  Story goes that there used to be an inflatable donkey that hung from the ceiling.

Haji shops: Again, entirely the wrong name for these, but apparently totally acceptable.  These are small shops that are on the base grouped together that sell clothes, electronics, carpets etc.

The Oasis: Where all the haji shops are.

TV Fun

One of the few things we have to keep up moral is satellite television in our rooms. We have seven Armed Forces Network channels (news, sports, movies etc.) and several Arabic channels with English programming, and a smattering of Arabic channels.

There was an advertisement on Armed Forces Network (AFN) that they were switching to satellite and viewers had to move their satellite dishes to align with the new satellite. They provided instructions on their web site complete with a video. I printed out the instructions and watched the video. They really made it look easy. I knew otherwise.

We had about a month to realign the dish, of course we waited for the day before to tackle it. The dishes were on one trailer but to align them you had to climb on the roof of another trailer about two feet away. This really made for awkward work, that and it was very hot on top of the roof.

Unfortunately as soon as we loosened the bold to adjust the dish we realized tiny adjustments was going to be impossible in fact not only were we dealing with left + right adjustment, but also up and down. The channels were separated between two dishes and now all of the channels were out as we had lost the signal. Much grumbling from everyone followed.

It was decided to adjust the dished at night, mainly because of the heat. Two guys on the roof, one guy watching the satellite signal and calling it out on the radio, as soon as the signal locked in, they would tighten the bolt holding the dish in place, done. At least that's the way it was supposed to be.

As soon as the signal was locked in, and the guys on the roof tightened the bolt, we lost the signal.
This went on over and over again for an hour. Finally over the course of two nights we locked in the signal on both dishes, everyone was happy.

I had a bad feeling that something was bound to happen. Sure enough the signal on one of the dishes kept slipping Now the signal is gone on four channels, one of them being the sports channel and we are hearing it left and right from the football crowd.

Nobody is motivated enough to go through this again.

Another Day Off

I live Saturday to Saturday here. It's my day off and I do just that. I sleep in and the only time I go to the office is to get the keys to the truck so I can go to the Iraqi shops and look around. I get some snide remarks about taking a day off, most people work seven days a week. The way I see it, the world is not going to fall apart if I take a day off. That and I'm sorry, but I'm not paid any extra for it. Is "Doc" a team player? of course. But we are limited to XX amount of overtime hours we can submit and we all work over that XX amount, I know I do. I had to work last Saturday for a few hours, my day of, will I see that as overtime? Nope.

Speaking of overtime I was talking to this Department of Defense civilian (GS) when I was in Kuwait about overtime, I told her how many hours we were limited to. She is "limited" to 60 hours of overtime per pay period, down from 70, down from 80, down from unlimited. Back in the wild west days you could submit for as many hours of overtime you could claim. The wild west days are going away.

We currently have free wifi Internet access, this is going away. We'll have to pay. Some of us get use of a wash and fold laundry service (me), this is going away. There has always been a rumor that we'll have to pay for meals. Yes, it's a whole new Iraq!

Just returned from the Iraqi shops and they are pushing hard to sell whats on their shelves as because of a new contract they have to leave the base soon. It's sad as they provide just one little added diversion for already very bored people and of course we provide them income.

Yesterday marks my third month I've been in country. My next R&R break is a little ways out, first week of November, but hoping it will get here soon. Planning on going to Dubai and staying at a nice hotel and enjoying the beach.

The Army has been packing up and leaving more and more, which means more office space for us and some equipment. We recently acquired the USO building. Complete with a small movie theater and game (XBox etc.) stations, less the game systems and 32" televisions, but the movie theater has everything there.

Well back to my usual day off activities, watch a movie, read and take a nap!

Dinner

I have to apologize for letting the Doc Report fall by the wayside. I guess living in this "Groundhog Day World" doesn't provide much material to blog about. That and I just shouldn't publicly blog 99% of the stuff that goes on here. Nothing that's classified, but it would just disappoint a few folks.

So there's not much to do here. Lets see, you can go to the well equipped gym, throw darts, play pool on the pool table that is outside getting dirty, watch movies, surf the net, work. Yeah, that's about it. Okay, there are some small shops that sell the assorted knock off name brand clothes, carpet and some electronics, but one visit is enough.

So with that we tend to linger longer during dinner. It's not uncommon to see a table with empty dishes on the tray, people engaged in conversation, it's something to do.

Every night there's a new conversation to keep everyone engaged. The subjects cover everything from cars, homes, kids, jobs, and on and on.

I have this routine during the meals. When I am through with my dinner I dump my tray and plastic dishes and flatware, then go and get my dessert and coffee and go back to the table. I don't like having my dessert with dirty dishes in front of me (plastic or otherwise).

Afterwards I usually go play darts with a few guys. I'm not good at it, but it keeps me out of my CHU.

And that's dinner here.

Normal Noises

"It's just the normal noises in here" - Tom Petty - Even the Losers

Aaah the noises of Basrah. The little birds singing in the morning, the glee club singing in the gym auditorium. You know I'm kidding about the glee club.

Mostly the noises are not good.

The incoming (IDF) alert. Wow, if that won't wake you up and put a chill up your spine nothing will.

Lest we forget the explosions that follow, that's good for keeping you awake for a few.

The other night I was treated to a burst from the Phalanx C-RAM (Counter Rocket and Mortar) gun. At 1500 rounds per minute that three second burst sounded incredible, but whats worse is that it's designed to shoot down IDF's within range. I didn't hear any explosions or incoming alert, rolled over in my bed only to hear another burst from the gun. I didn't go to sleep for awhile.

But incoming alerts, explosions and C-RAM guns were nothing compared to the most frightening sound that I heard last night. Nothing. My air conditioner is on 24/7 and I always hear it.

Power had gone out in my trailer, actually both halves of the trailer. Thus no air conditioning. When it's 100 degrees at night, things like this matter.

I tried resetting the main breaker but it kept tripping. I called someone to assist and he determined that it was my air conditioner that was making it trip. He gave me the keys to another trailer to sleep in but the keys didn't work and I didn't want to bother him so I grabbed a pillow and blanket and slept on the couch in my office.

Maintenance cleaned my air conditioner today. Funny thing is that we have a bit of humidity in the air blowing in from the ocean. My air conditioner not used to humidity pooled up the extra condensation and tripped the breaker, which is not a good thing. When maintenance brought my air conditioner back, dripping water and plugged it back in, it tripped the breaker again. They blew it out with a compressor and it seems to be working fine now.

Steak and Lobster Night

Somethings never change in Iraq. One of them being steak and lobster for dinner on Friday nights.
I can hear the gasps from here.

When I was in Baghdad in 2005 I tried the lobster once and never had it again. Many people filled their plates with it like it was the best thing going. With that said, since 2005 at least, and probably earlier, all across Iraq KBR has been serving steak and lobster on Friday nights at dining facilities throughout Iraq.

First, you have to realize pretty much 90% of everything served to us comes frozen. The crazy thing being that the steak and lobster probably did originate in the U.S.A.

The lobster tails are the fancy prepared kind but how they are prepared here is not fancy. I don't know what they do to them but to me they taste awful. I see more people here pass up the lobster tails which make more available for those who want extra. The cooks usually take the leftovers and throw it in the next days salad.

The steaks are on par with the lobster tails. Served one style and one style only, in the big serving pan and you have no idea how they are cooked. The steaks are not bad, but by all means they are not good. Sometimes the edges are really hard and almost inedible.

On top of all of that we eat on flimsy disposable plastic plates and plastic utensils. I guess the fast that I can cut through the steaks with a plastic knife is a good thing.

One Month In Country

Has it been a month already? It sure went by fast. I'll have to say that the long days here really make the days go by quickly. The fact that everyday seems like "Ground Hog Day" also seems to help.

I think it only takes a week here to make you a seasoned veteran. One good early morning "Duck and Cover" alert and you've earned your stripes!

Speaking of "Duck and Cover" I was awakened last night by a 'rack shaker', as in a rocket shook my rack, which woke me up. As is the norm around here, it doesn't matter if it's one rocket or ten, when they blow up early in the morning you can forget trying to go back to sleep. Although I was able to go back to sleep, after about an hour, I woke up feeling like a Mack Truck hit me.

My colleagues were a bit excited as they heard the rocket whiz over their rooms, which first woke them up. There is a certain added stress level to hearing the rocket whiz over you and blow up versus it just blowing up. As one of them said to me this morning "That #^%$ rocket, WOOSH, right over my #$%^ hooch and BAM!!! it shook my $%^& rack, WOOSH! I heard that $%^& thing! "

(I just edited the above paragraphs, think this might be the last of my rocket stories)

I am going to take my first rest break much sooner than I thought, and glad to do it! So come July I'll head back to Sri Lanka to see my beloved.

A Day In The Life

My Doc Reports from Iraq have been a bit slow. Partly because I'm too tired when I get back to my CHU (containerized housing unit), partly because I have to mentally edit over and over what I want to write.

CHU. When I was here in 05' we called the hooches. You lived in a hooch. Well there was mumbling and grumbling about 'hooch' not being politically correct, so now we call them CHU's.
It's funny as the WiFi network is still known as "hooch-net".

A Day In The Life:

My supervisor went on vacation a scant six days after I arrived and two of those days I spent in Baghdad so basically I got four days to learn from him how everything worked. Along with that we have a big project that a team from Baghdad came down to do.

I wake up at 0700, although the little chirping birds tend to wake me up much earlier and sometimes something else wakes me up much earlier. More on this.

By 0730-0740 I'm cleaned up and dressed and drag myself to the DFAC (dining facility) which is not very far away. I get three boiled eggs, two pieces of pineapple, a big coffee and some low fat milk. Scarf down breakfast and head to my office.

0755 or so, unlock the office, login to my computer and start going through emails.

Run around and put out fires, attend meetings, work on projects, do operational stuff, attend more meetings.

Go to lunch.

Run around and put out fires, attend meetings, work on projects, do operational stuff and attend more meetings.

1800 Go to dinner.

Go back to the office and put out one more fire.

I am back at my CHU usually around 1900 or so.

If I don't feel totally like collapsing in my bed I'll go to the gym, again just around the corner.

I'll do some reading, maybe watch some television (Armed Forces Network + some Arabic channels with programming in English).

2200 or so hit the sack.

Now the fun part. We have loudspeakers throughout the compound in case of emergencies. I can rarely if ever make out what they are saying except when the incoming alarm goes off. The bad guys don't like to bother us during the day, they prefer the night and early morning. So when I'm sound asleep, HONK HONK HONK HONK INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING HONK HONK HONK HONK. This WILL wake you up. And then you wait. BOOM! Wait a few seconds, maybe a few minutes and repeat once, twice, maybe ten times. The good thing is we have a ring of Phalanx guns (200mm 1500 rounds per minute gatling gun) to shoot down the mortars or rockets. If you don't hear the guns it means the rockets are not in range. This still doesn't mean that it won't make you nervous. I'd say given between an unsettling feeling and totally terrified when you are waiting for the explosions I'd say it's that going to the top of the rollercoaster feeling, but not the being at the top looking down feeling.

Then I try to go back to sleep.

Fortunately this isn't a nightly occurrence. As funny as this may sound the fact that bad guys are not bothering us during the day and everyday is proof that we are making a difference. Baghdad 2005, fuggedaboutit. Rockets day and night.

I work six days a week, Saturday being my "day off". Ha ha. Today is Saturday, I have already put out one fire, responded to about ten emails and already have two more things to do after lunch that require my attention.

Never Easy

When it comes to information technology work, it seems that it's never easy. The smallest thing can become a nightmare. Now add being in Basrah, Iraq to the mix and you have oodles of fun!

Just recently there was some equipment that needed a software upgrade that I had done before, shouldn't be a problem. In fact things started off easy enough. Now my easy enough software upgrade has turned into a priority flight to Baghdad and even a helicopter to pick me up at the airport (with another helo escort) to bring me to the embassy. Honestly hate to think how much this little adventure is going to cost, but back to the subject.

I've been working very long hours, but I never seem to catch up. It's always one step forward and three steps back.

Along with the all of the other mayhem I have to scrounge for just about everything, be it office supplies or cleaning supplies. I visited the cleaning supplies container, boxes of toilet paper and Windex, that's it. My boss has purchased many things around the office out of his own wallet.

One day at a time I guess.

Iraqi Dinar laughs

When I was in Baghdad the big frenzy was buying the Iraqi Dinar, it was something like 1500 Iraqi Dinars to 1USD.
Current conversion rate is: 1,195.000 Dinars to the US Dollar ($0.00084)
If it would just equal 1 penny, we'd be rich. So people bought huge amounts of Iraqi dinar in cash and stuffed it away.

Take a peek at the exchange rate

Remains ID'd as missing Ohio soldier's

Nothing to do with Uruguay or being an expat, but I felt that this shouldn't be brushed under the rug.

This soldier has been missing since 2004, but the Army never gave up it's search for him.

Article from my hometown paper.

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/03/remains-idd-missing-ohio-soldiers