Week 4 - My Week in Iraq

Hey!

Well, I had an interesting week....how about you? Remember the sewer project I was talking about last week? Well, it got awarded and we started working on it this week. My main job this week? To work with - and oversee - the local Iraqi company doing the work. Sounds like fun, right? (it is). Now for some reason, all of the Iraqi workers decided to call me - Mr. Wade. And it kind of caught on around the camp - since I am the Base Development Officer - everyone kind of knows me anyway - so they all call me Mr. Wade. Cool. Of course, when the Iraqis say it - it sounds like....Mr. Wide. Yeah... great......  A bunch of people calling me Mr. Wide - kind of like high school all over again (but I digress...).

So a couple of fun facts about working on a sewer line in Iraq. First....why do we need 3 trucks of sand delivered? We are in Iraq, for Pete's sake - there is NOTHING HERE BUT SAND! Why do I have to pay for sand? That's like going to the ocean and paying for salt water.....

Another fun thing....try talking to another engineer through an interpreter (smart enough guy - but he doesn't do "engineer speak") - so words like "redundancy" (two pumps - so one can be "redundant") translates loosely to "over and over and over again".....not quite what I had in mind. And "slope the pipe to grade" comes out "point the pipe down." So, imagine the fun I had with words like "the female end of the fitting" and "manhole." (Again, I invoke the "pastors, moms and granddaughter's clause" here - and that is as far as I am going with this.) So, I spent the better part of each morning trying to figure out what to tell the interpreter - and the rest of it trying to figure out what the interpreter told the Iraqi guy....

All right now....for those of you who have seen the pictures of me in my hat. First of all, I love that hat - so make all the comments you want (...I'm rubber and you're glue...) - but even the Iraqi HoN (pronounced like "hahn"  - not like "hun" - But HoN stands for "Head of Navy") got into it.  I was packing heat, had my shades and my hat on - and he walks by and says...."Who are you?  John Wayne?" (true story - he talks pretty good English) - and as he walked past me, I  laughed and (before I even thought about it) - I said "John Wayne wishes he was this cool..."  (the "talking-about-it-before-I-think" part proves I am related to all my grandkids...). I don't know if the HoN heard me or didn't pay attention (I hope he didn't hear - as he does command a bunch of people who are being trained to be marksmen....) but I wasn't trying to be a smart aleck (well, not much).

So then I am checking out of the compound and one of the Brits says "Nice hat" - I said "Thanks - the HoN thought I was trying to be John Wayne..." The Brit looked at me and said "Nahh....it looks more like you are trying to be Crocodile Dundee." Sheesh.. Everybody's a critic. I still love my hat. Alrighty then.... So back to the sewer project..... we are out digging a trench and all of a sudden, we hit a pressurized line. (see photo #1601) 

#1601

I don't know if it is water or sewer or what.... it didn't stink real bad, so I am assuming it is water. Well, who do you call when you hit a water line in the middle of a war zone??? There is no city or county to call to shut off the water. Anyway, the water is pumping out pretty fast - and the level in the trench is rising - we have a guy who is over at the parts area - but he doesn't know what size pipe we have (it is under water).  None of the Iraqi  contractors can figure out how to tell what size pipe it is. I am motioning and yelling to the interpreter to tell them to stick their hand in the water to try and figure out the size. Nope...none of them know how to do it.

Sheesh....

So, I roll up my sleeve, take my 54 year old body down to the water's edge (again, the smell is not REAL bad) and stick my arm up to the shoulder into the "water" - which by now has combined with all of the dirt and trash laying around....I grab ahold of the pipe and bring my arm out of the water with my hand cupped at approximately the size of the pipe. I show all these young guys standing around my cupped hand - and holler out "4 inches! It is a 4 inch pipe". They all smile and nod.

OOoohh. They didn't want to stick their hand into the water, huh??? So I made each one of them come down there and stick their hand into the water and feel the pipe (I wasn't being "mean" - I was having a "training event.") When each of them pulled their hand out - I said "size?" and they each replied "4 inch, Mr. Wide....4 inch." Bottom line is - if they were faking stupidity because they didn't want to put their hand into the water, that didn't work. But they did all take it good-naturedly .....and of course, they won't pull that again. :-)

 I like telling these stories (they are kind of funny) - but understand after all of the "bad press" I have heard about working with local Iraqis, I am not experiencing that. These guys, for the most part, work pretty darn hard (and in conditions pretty darn bad) - see photo #1562 - 

#1562

...and do they make mistakes? Sure they do - but for every mistake I have seen here, I have seen similar in the states....well, I take that back. There is one exception - the "safety rules" here would make the safety officers at my office in Ohio bleed through their ears. These guys wear no safety gear - no hard hats, they are barefoot most of the time (or they wear sandals) - while they are working (see photo #1609 - and look close - the guy is barefoot in the trench). 

#1609

Several times, I have had to tell them to watch what they are doing.... because one guy will grab a pick-axe and just start swinging - and the guy holding the shovel will just stand next to him - watching - as the pick gets closer and closer to his head.

#1652

Okay, Photo #1652 is taken at the end of the day (about 7 pm) after we started at about 0800. So this was a long day- with the wind blowing about 30 mph - and it was about 100 degrees outside while we were digging the trench. Sand would get delivered and dumped right next to me. At the end of the day, I come walking into the office and it's like Clint Eastwood in those old spaghetti westerns. (okay - a short, round Clint Eastwood - but you get the picture)..  I take my hat and hit it against my leg - and I look like Pigpen in the Peanuts comic strip with a cloud of dust around me. I take off my glasses and the only thing I can think of is the WWII movies - where Rommel is out in the desert and they take their goggles off and the bottom of their face is caked with dust.....that's me. One other kind of funny/interesting thing - I am working with some real characters - some of them young kids - and they do funny stuff.  But I was escorting one of the young guys to the worksite and he asks me "Brittania?" - I thought he was talking about the British soldiers that were around the camp and I pointed to them.....then he shakes his head no and points at me "Brittania?". I said "No. American." And the guy just started gushing like a fire hydrant...."Thank you, thank you, thank you, America, thank you, Mr. Wide.."..on and on and on - for about a minute. I felt kind of embarrassed as he was just so overjoyed that I was an American (the kid wasn't that old - so when we got rid of Sadaam - he couldn't have been more than a young teenager...).  I talked with the interpreter and asked why the kid was so vocal. The 'Terp told me the guy was just...happy to be free. And you know what?

that set me back for a second.......

Happy to be free. 

Cool. Me too!

Wow, how email time flies.... I feel like I barely get started telling a story and it is time to go..... Again, thank you to everyone who has written to me - I appreciate every email or Facebook comment and I love hearing from you all. Typically (since I am 7 hours ahead of you), by the time most of you reply to me, I am asleep. So my GREAT joy is to wake up on Saturday morning - get my cup of coffee and read through any emails that happen to come through. And if I haven't said it before, I will say it now.....

God Bless America

Wade   "happy to be free"   Brower

مهندس  واد  بروير