Hello all;
They probably couldnt have sent a more technology (especially internet) challenged person to help these poor folks...Beautiful day - don't know why I brought a coat, although I am told it did snow here about 3 weeks ago. Hope to be in Ramadi by the weekend. It depends on my processing.
Got a slow start when my sponsor grabbed the wrong person off the bus at 2am Monday morning leaving me stranded at the drop off site. Guess none of the guards (of which their are lots - most know about as much english as I know Arabic (Marhaba means Hello - thats about it) ) thought I was much of a threat since they let me pass through about a dozen or so gates on my way to the embassy (Sadam's main Palace - not to hard to find even in the dark). Sure they thought guard duty bites, but at least I'm not dragging a hundred pounds of luggage and equipment through the streets of Baghdad at 3am! I'm just glad I could make their day seem a little brighter...
On that happy note I will sign off.
Love and miss you all more than you can know...
Cip
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2 comments:
Sounds like you got off to an interesting start!
The beer drinking is going well. I did a great job on Friday Night.
Take care of yourself!!!
Joni
ps. I don't recommend trotting around Baghdad...
JK - Me and another guy from the ePRT made it back to Baghdad for some training. He'd been stuck in Ramadi for 2 1/2 months (dry). The "bars" are closed Sat-Wed, so we had to take matters into our own hands. We got directions to a "local" liquor store (in the green zone - just outside the Embassy compound). It was starting to get dark when we headed out. By the time we reached our first landmark (the Freedom Restaurant) it was definitely dark. More directions (from the only American we ran into during the entire course of the trip) got us near the tactical store (second landmark). Our last stop was an official looking Iraqi in a very dark alley (off of an unpaved side-street) who required a password for our final set of directions. As it turned out, the password was "whiskey" - apparently the international word for booze. He directed us back down the same alley and further down the unpaved side street (that had no buildings left on the one side - just a ditch with burning garbage). A little further down we saw it - a glimmer of hope - the sign for our tactical store! We knew we were close. A small compound on the other side of a fence had a light on and another positive sign - a smoke shop (where one vice lives others breed). Sure enough, after searching for the entrance on the other side of some outlying sheds we saw the little trailer tucked way in the back. The sign read "LIQUOR STORE" and there was the most beautiful light shining through the open door...
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