Greetings, all.
Well the madness continues. And here I am again, having arrived back in this tortured land after a wonderful 4 weeks off. The shock of coming back here was somewhat lessened by the shock of arriving back home from Florida to a foot of fresh white snow courtesy of a spring storm. It took me four days and three nights to travel back to Iraq due to a combination of full aircraft and 9 hours time difference. My departure from home was preceded by a frenzied day of packing and buying essentials, and was only successful due to the efforts of my wonderful wife who, I truly believe, could fit a piano into my suitcase and still have room for all my ties. This time, however, a piano was not required. I did bring a couple of pounds of Maxwell House coffee, though.
I left Winnipeg for Minneapolis after teary goodbyes with Genavieve and Heather. No, not me. I am a rock, as you probably know, but Genavieve is too young to be a rock, or even a stone, and while she was brave up until the end, finally she cracked and I left with her sobs ringing in my ears and firmer resolve (if that was possible) that my next contract must be a lot more family-friendly. After a layover in Minneapolis, it was over the pond to Amsterdam again, where I received a royal runaround looking for the Mercure Hotel where I had been booked. It seems they have a Mercure Hotel WITHIN the Airport proper. To get there, one must pick up one's baggage and carry it through the security lineup where they scan it and check it. This is plain aggravating because carts are not allowed and when one finds that THAT Mercure Hotel is not the "Mercure Airport Hotel" it is even more so. So I arrive at the airport, clear immigration, get my bags, go through passport control, go through the checkout line, find that that is the wrong hotel and have to clear customs again. I'm glad there was a lot of time. Anyway, I did get to the hotel, finally.
The next day I left the hotel for the airport and picked up my tickets for the rest of the journey. Then it was off to Istanbul on the late flight. Once I arrived I caught a taxi for the Hilton, about a gazillion miles from the airport. Why the journey cost 24 million! I took out 150 million Turkish lira from a bank machine, which seemed to work out to about a hundred US bucks. Gad! Remind me to show you the picture of the deviate on the front of their bills. OK, that is not fair. I am sure he is a very nice man and was probably a hero or something, so if you are reading this and you are Turkish, don't hate me. The ride to the hotel was nerve wracking only because it was dark and both suitcases were hanging mostly out of the trunk of the motorised roller skate of a taxi, secured with a single bungee. Interestingly, the traffic lanes were marked with small, raised, lumps akin to the reflectors we are used to. These units were spaced a few feet apart and did not have reflectors, though. Instead they had 2 red LEDs flashing in each of them. It was very odd and really reminded me of a horde of devilish frogs neatly aligned along the road. it was quite surreal. The view from the hotel window the next morning was quite beautiful and I had to remind myself that this country had recently been the target of multiple terrorist attacks.
Then it was off to Dyerbaker, Turkey for the final night in the Class Hotel. The Class Hotel had been full so I was tentatively booked into the second choice, the "Dedeman Hotel". Honestly! Luckily a room came available in the Class so I did not have to face any serious karma issues. I arrived close to midnight and the Class Hotel had only a tiny room with a single bed in it. I immediately had to call to have the phone, the TV, the remote control and the AC fixed. Where they got all the repair people from at that hour, I do not know but I fell asleep about 2 AM hoping there would be no more knocks on the door. The next day at 7:30 our smuggler driver, Abdul, picked me up and we were off to the Iraq border. My border crossing went smoothly and our logistics guys were on the Iraqi side to meet me. Then it was 7 more hours of driving until we arrived back in Sulaymaniya.
Northern Kurdistan is beautiful. I think I have said that before. Now the flowers were out and there were many places where wild bushes full of massive blooms covered the ground. Red poppies and yellow and blue ground flowers were everywhere. When I left, it was early spring but it was now moving into summer and the change was evident. It soothed me, somehow, since at home, Heather was buying her yearly blooms and I missed being there.
My room was booked in the Palace Hotel. My main reason for changing hotels (from the Ashti) was that I could control the room temperature in the Palace. They don't really have air conditioning. It is called a chiller, cooling the room with a flow of cold water, but it works like a bear. Well it does now, at least. We will see how it performs in July, when I am told, it frequently gets up to 40 degrees. Now it is 30ish during the day and 15 at night which is quite pleasant.
There were a few changes at work. Our new CEO had become comfortable with the job and our Marketing director was gone. Several staff were on their last few weeks of their contracts and not coming back. A push was on to hire staff from Lebanon and Jordan, who would work cheaper and sign 2 year contracts. They were less of a security risk too, having much more Arabic appearances than those such as I. Baghdad was still a major danger spot and daily gunfire was exchanged in Mosul and the surrounding area. Our company, AsiaCell, has now decided to start building on the road toward Baghdad, recognising the potential of such a major market.
It took a week to get over jet lag. I celebrated our CEO's birthday with a few friends on Friday night. There was plenty of barbecue for everyone. Our CEO is an Arabic guy from Chicago so he knows how to cook a mean buffalo wing. The next day he left for Beirut for a week. Enough time to get a lot accomplished before his return. I am in the process of hiring four new Project Managers from the local resource pool. Interviews are a bit tedious. These folks are slated to work with me in the Project Management Office and if I do my job well, they will take over most of my tasks and I can go home when my contract ends. The incentive to get good people and train them well is huge!
And, of course, the usual goofyness. Where is the logic?
The fire chief in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk was shot dead along with three family members Saturday morning, according to police. Col. Mohammed Sabir Hameed, his wife, and her brother and sister, were all killed as the fire chief headed to his office around 9 a.m. (0600 GMT), according to Kirkuk deputy police chief Gen. Torhan Yousif. They were all Kurds, and their assailants are unknown.What excuse could anyone - even a fanatic - give for knocking off a fire chief and his family?
I regret not having taken more pictures on the road back. Especially of the flowers. One of the contract guys from Switzerland left me a CD with a swack of local pictures and they are great. I intend to put up some sort of page to show some of them off, but only when I get a few spare moments. Time to get back to work. It makes the days go by faster.
My best to you all,
Steve