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.