40% done, 60% to go

40% done and 60% to go, almost half-way, there is light at the end of the tunnel (just the tunnel is full of dust, sand, and it's 110 degrees.) My monotony was broken up recently by a trip to a Port of Entry (or POE). I had been trying to get out to see the border, any border, since I got here and I finally got the chance. The POE I visited is called Zurbatiyah (don't worry about pronouncing it correctly, there are as many variations as there are spellings for the place, and all of them correct). For those that have not been educated in the ways of customs and border control, a POE is the place where ostensibly a country's government looks at what you are trying to bring into the country and decides 1.) if it is legal to import it and 2.) how much to charge you for importing it. This applies to people as well as goods. At Zurbatiyah, and most of the Iranian border crossings, there is little to no export traffic. In fact, for the entire time we were there, there were only vehicles and people coming in, nobody was leaving.
Anyway, I have not been to a POE in the United States, but I imagine there are probably better facilities, and we probably have things like power, sewage, and reliably clean water. Not so here in Iraq. The few buildings on the port were in rough shape, the "bathrooms" were a Dante-esque vision of hygiene gone terribly wrong, all the electricity is from generators. They have power lines, but they aren't connected to anything. Their water purification system has been broken for some time because people have been stealing parts off it, and the trash removal consists of small trash pits throughout the port where trash is buried and/or burned.
Despite all that, the people are actually doing a good job. They work all day long in the heat without complaint, and seem dedicated to their jobs. What also impressed me was the attitudes of the people entring the country. They have to stand in line for 6 or 8 hours outside, and nobody seemed angry or upset, and not an iPod or PSP in sight! Try that in America.
I don't want to paint too rosey of a picture though. Anyplace where money changes hands is an opportunity for corruption to take place, and the POE is no different. When cargo trucks enter, they are supposed to be weighed so an accurate tax can be assessed. However, the truck scales are broken. There is also a lot of produce that comes across the border that shippers want to get through customs as quickly as possible. So enter the noble customs brokers! These selfless individuals help out by estimating taxes and tarriffs, making sure shipper's paperwork is all correct, and basically trying to smooth the process of importing and exporting goods. Sounds great huh? Well, these guys end up being the ones that run the port, and they are just one or two pepperonis away from being the Mafia. They're really stealing money from the government, but they're tolerated because "that's just the way it is" and they make sure to limit the criminal activity in and around the port (IEDs and rocket attacks are bad for business). Anyway it was a good trip, and a chance to get out from behind the desk, even for a day standing in the 110 degree heat!

The sign welcoming travelers to the country. Funny, I didn't see this sign when I got off the C-130 in Baghdad!

We got to climb up one of the guard towers on the Iraq-side of the POE and got a bird's-eye view of things. On the right is inbound cargo truck traffic and under the shade structure on the left are the people (about 3,000+ per day) waiting to enter.

The "baggage boys" in this picture get money from the travelers coming in to take all the luggage and move it through the entry process. Think sky-caps in the desert. Iranian busses are not allowed into Iraq, so travelers get off their Iranian bus, go through customs, cross-load all their bags onto an Iraqi bus, and keep going. This picture also shows the broken water purification system (red barrels on left), the old restaurant on the port (right) that the U.S. advisory team made them close because of the cess-pool of sewage and trash right next to it (middle).

We got to visit a Border Fort that was right on the POE as well. (It looks like a giant sand castle)

The Iran-Iraq border, and yes, that is a real Iranian standing guard in the tower.

Here's my self-portrait on the helicopter on the way back to Baghdad. We flew pretty low and fast (had to swerve to avoid flocks of birds and someone flying a kite), so it was an exciting ride, especially me facing backwards the whole time!

A sign I hope we can all see pretty soon.

Friendly Fire Incident

Unfortunately we had a friendly fire incident here on the Victory Base Complex last night, but I'm okay. CNN has the details, so I won't go into it here, but it's something that we've talked about here before, the "what would happen if..." scenarios because literally everyone is armed all the time. It's just a shame that it did happen. Also pretty scary.
Otherwise, things here have been very "groundhog day"-like, just doing the same thing over and over again. Wake up, eat, go to work, go to the gym, work, eat, work, eat, work, sleep, repeat. I may have some news and more photos later, but not much for now.

32% done, 125 days to go

Happy May Day! It's also Labor Day here in Iraq, though I'm not sure if that means people here actually GET jobs instead of taking time off from work. Of course, that does not mean I get any time off work, the powerpoint slides must be updated, no matter the cost. Staff work is really dreary, and one of my lunch companions and I had a discussion on things. It seems like we (and I mean the military, specifically the staff to which I am currently assigned) are producing a product for the sake of the product, in this case a daily "quad chart" showing the significant events of the day. It doesn't matter that it may just be another Tuesday when nothing of any real significance occurs, I still have to fill out a quad chart. Unfortunately this leads to me having to be somewhat "creative" in determining what is quad-worthy. Sometimes the significant events of "that day" actually occurred several days ago, but I hoarded the knowledge like some sort of cerebral chipmunk (good band name, eh?), hoping to use it during an activity famine. Other times I end up making something rather insignificant into something that sounds like it needs immediate attention and the full power of the U.S. Army focused on it (not that this ever happens). In some ways, what I do can almost qualify me to work in the 24-hour news media like CNN or Fox News! Maybe a second career opportunity? Perhaps I will start tagging my quad charts with "Fair and Balanced" in hopes that saying it enough times will make it true.
Nevertheless, the days here are beginning to take on that dragging, repetitive quality now. For example, if not for the wonderful calendar Patti sent me in the last care package, I would have no idea that today really is a Friday, or is it a Thursday? Saturday? It's one endless parade of dusty sunrises, the same food at the chow hall...er, "Dining Facility"...a break to go to the gym, and back to quad charts! Anyway, the call of the office is upon me and I should return soon lest some earth-shaking happening like the "sun rose again today, in approximately the same location as yesterday" go mercifully unreported.