This is the start of the holy month of Moharram (Islamic New Year). The significance of this month is the martyrdom of Imam Husain whose mother was the daughter of the prophet Mohammed. It’s an interesting story if you decide to look it up. Almost surely, the first Jihad. The start of Moharram was actually Friday the Sabbath (Feb. 20). So Saturday was to be the holiday. But on Friday, the local Kurdish administration declared that Saturday would be a normal working day. A lot of people apparently did not get the message, since the office was quite empty.
Normally people leave work early 1-2 PM every Thursday. We expats take the opportunity to get away from work around 6 PM. Then on Friday we come in at 11 AM. So Thursday is our night to enjoy shopping, an early supper and perhaps a drink or two in Tom, “Mr. Haich Arrr”’s room. Tom is a saintly old Irishman with a flair for doing Elvis impressions. He runs HR like a finely tuned clock, from his powder blue office. I call home every night, but I call earlier and longer on Thursdays. That's my treat.
These last few days have been marked by the arrival of a huge lot of office furniture. I’ve been responsible for organizing the clutter. I do not know where it is all supposed to go. It reminds me of trying to reorganize the crawl space. Ask Heather to let you have a peek down there. If she does, you will know what I mean. My predecessor ordered all the kit and he did not leave a floor plan. The furniture arrived a few weeks late and parts of it do not fit together properly. It was a disorganized frenzy Thursday night when everything was being delivered. The wrong chairs and many mismatched parts combined with a huge language barrier made for a rather comical scene. Later in my hotel room, I was telling Heather about part of it when I lapsed into a fit of laughter that had me rolling on my bed, tears running down my cheeks. The part where the lock on the cabinet doors did not work so they removed the doors and turned them upside down, thinking that would work was especially comical. The lock would not engage, because there was nothing for it to engage with. They had not put that piece on. So, if you locked the cabinet, the doors could still be opened. I showed the owner the problem and he immediately barked orders and all six of the assemblers crowded around to unscrew the hinges and flip the doors upside down. It was quite a sight. Then, when the doors (now with the handles a foot above the floor) still would not lock, he looked at me with full comprehension of the problem and said, “Where is the key?” As if that would solve the problem. If it isn’t as funny now, it’s because you weren’t there. Take my word for it. It was hysterical!
Just above Darrin's shiny head is where the previously mentioned cabinet sits.
I have compared the streets here with taking an open box with a jigsaw puzzle in it and shaking it back and forth. There is tremendous activity. Nothing seems to fall into place, but you have a feeling that everything would fit together if you could glue it to a table. I’ve heard the phrase “herding cats” used over and over. When we get an equipment delivery and there are a dozen laborers assigned to assist, if you go down a flight of stairs and count, you will have 9 left. Another flight and you’d get one or two of the missing back, but 3 more would be gone. By the time you get to the bottom of the building, you’d have somewhere between 6 and 18 people but none of them would be the ones you started with. It’s most amazing that anything gets done, but somehow we persevere.
I usually have mutton or beef on a bun for lunch. The meat is shaved off a leg that is upright on a platform. They skin small pieces off and plop it on a fresh bun. It’s digestible but very basic. Sort of like Hardees without the mustard. Each bun costs about 25 cents. For 5 or 6 bucks I can buy 24 Diet Cokes and I carry a flat up to my office once a week. The bread is fantastic. I’d rather have jam and peanut butter sandwiches in my room with a tall glass of cold milk than anything else I have eaten here so far. When Heather talks about KD or tuna sandwiches for lunch, I drool. Thai food from our favorite restaurant or a large, thin crust Gondola Pizza would be like a dream come true for me.
This week the Board of Directors is meeting in Kuwait. They are discussing the project and should be pleased with our progress. While they are away, we have all taken the opportunity to work 11-hour days, instead of the usual 12 hours. Surprisingly, the extra hour off is meaningful. Some of us use the extra sleep, some work in their rooms and I update web pages! It has been cold this week. We had 3-4 inches of snow one night and it all melted the next day, although it was only a couple of degrees above 0. The heaters at the office were not working right so there was no heat and we had the same problem at the hotel. I felt like I was living in a constant 16-degree environment. Back home, the weather broke, and it will be near zero degrees for a few days. Blessed relief after the -20 to -30 degree temperatures they have been suffering. Last year at this time, I was basking in the heat of South Africa, again sans wife and child. I have a lot of making up to do when I get home.
TV had Frasier in English on Monday night. Wow. It's one of our favorite shows at home.There were Arabic subtitles though. Not quite like home, but a bit of a taste of it. I enjoyed it very much. I also depend on my computer for a lot of entertainment. I have numerous Star Trek Enterprise and Voyager videos and quite a few DVD's left over from Holland. There is BBC on TV but it has not been on the air for the last few days. Anyway, there is not much time to watch video, what with the work load and all.
We met two US soldiers (in full battle gear) sitting in the hotel restaurant. They were short-timers after a year in Iraq. Both were delighted to be going home and Tom got his picture taken with the two of them. He said it was for his sons back in Ireland, but I bet if he ever invites us for a visit, we'll see the picture on his desk. They were good guys and politely moved their machine gun when I requested they take it off a chair, so Darrin could sit down.
A suicide bombing happened in Kirkuk about an hour away from Sulaymaniya yesterday. You can read the rather graphic article if you like, although the vehicle was likely a "sedan", rather than a "saloon"! This was not the first attack in that city. Much to Heather's dismay, I was scheduled to go there to supervise the unloading of several aircraft full of 80 tonnes of switching equipment. I had arranged a convoy of 8 trucks and a dozen labourers to haul the stuff back to our warehouse in Sulaymaniya. Luckily, the transport company stepped in with an 11th hour reprieve and agreed to move it to our door. It seems like these bombings are like earthquakes, though. One happens and then there is relative calm for several weeks after. It might be that Kirkuk is the safest place in Iraq for a few weeks. I hope so, for their sake.
Have a fine day, wherever you are.
Regards,
Steve