It's a Little Dusty Out Today

We had another dust storm today, about our third in the last ten days or so. The dust storms are pretty common lately and I'm starting to hate the scratchy eyes, nose barnacles, and morning ritual of hacking up clods of dirt. These pictures will show you the evolution of today's storm. This is probably the worst we've had yet.

It starts out with a little breeze and a yellow haze.

It turned a little green and weird out...

then it turned orange outside. It gets worse though...

This was at 2pm today. It looks like we are on Mars.

Qatar R&R part 2

We are in our third Dust Storm this week, so there's not a lot to do on base right now, so I figured I'd finish up the Qatar trip blogging.

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'Twas nice to spend the time in Qatar, but the layout of the base made it necessary to ride the bus a lot.I spent a lot of time sitting at bus stops...wondering if the next bus was the right one to get on. Of course I always picked the wrong bus, going the long way to where we wanted.

Day 2 - Brad and I took an off-base water sports trip. It was a day trip in a Dhow in the Persian Gulf where we went to a remote spot to swim, jet ski, and tube. It included a great lunch and was a fun time. This is a picture of the marina area and the Dhow boats.

The water was a little cold, but was worth the effort to say I'd swam in the Persian Gulf. There were others that got in the water too, but not many.

We had a couple jet skis...a lot of fun. I need one of these!!! I also enjoyed being dragged behind a jet boat at high speed in an inner tube until I took a nasty spill and ripped my shorts to shreds.

Lunch was the typical Arabic/ Indian grill assortment. Grilled kabobs, fresh fruits, LOTS of rice, pita bread, hummus and all that. I could eat like this all the time...it was delicious.
The Islamic Cultural Center in Doha, Qatar on our way back into the marina.

Doha skyline...and me, trying to have at least one picture of me smiling.

More Doha.This is one of the buildings in downtown Doha...interesting architecture. We all speculated that Michael Jackson lives inside the round thing, especially with as venerated he is in this part of the world. We joked that he's the commanding General of the Qatari Army...you ever notice how he wears some sort of military rank?? And Qatar (or Bahrain) is his second home. Just something to make you go "hmmm". Notice all the unfinished construction. That's a problem for this area. Qatar, Bahrain, and Dubai (UAE) have all spent billions on construction, trying to make their countries a destination for international trade and travel. This area has been hit just as hard by the economic slump and have put the brakes on construction. They have a glut of excess office and retail space with no demand. And with the cost of oil falling hard, they are having a hard time making ends meet around here. They have a very lavish and opulent lifestyle (the Qataris)...this is unsustainable under the current (realistic) conditions.

Nice panoramic from out on the gulf where we swam and such. You can click on it and see more detail if you like.

Me getting into an "Amnesty Box." It's a place to put any contraband you may have acquired while out in town.

R&R in Qatar ~ part 1

I had the opportunity to take a 4-day pass to Qatar for R&R. The trip was fun, but not without it's drama. The time in Qatar was way better than being in Iraq, but the travel arrangements almost made it not worth the efforts! Brad was my "Battle Buddy" for R&R, the two of us going together. We work together and decided to go on the trip together - and not talk about work at all! It was very nice.




We were supposed to leave on a Sunday evening. We showed up at the passenger terminal and waited 2 hours and then were told the flight was cancelled and to check back in 24 hours. We awkwardly went to work the next day, explaining to everyone that our flight was cancelled...we were supposed to be gone - nobody wanted us at work, not even us. We went back to the terminal on Monday evening - no flights. Tuesday evening at 8pm, we were booked for the 10pm flight...got pushed to midnight...then 2am. We were in a dust storm and figured the air field would be closed all night, so we decided to take our chances and go back to our rooms, get some sleep, and try again in the morning. Luckily, we had a duty person keep an eye on the flight for us and we were notified at 1:15am that the plane was on the runway loading and we better hurry if we were going to make it. So we jumped out of bed and drove as fast as we could to the terminal again and made it to the ramp just in time.
Here's us in the night vision lighting on the C130. Not a lot of luxury on these but we were happy to be getting out of Al Asad!!! We arrived at Qatar and were informed that we couldn't take any pictures of anything on or near the base while there...so no pix of the Qatar Air Base. But I can tell you it looked like every other base around here...light brown/tan buildings and sand everywhere, with fences and concrete barricade walls around everything.

We got into the R&R Base, Camp As Saleyiah, around 9am and were herded around like cattle for the in-processing. We then got to our room and caught a quick nap until noon. We spent the first day trying to relax and get our bearings of the area, got a quick massage at the spa and ate some fine chow. We hung out in the USO area and Brad was having some beers (3 per day limit), and we wanted some nachos and salsa...it turned out to be Doritos and salsa. We couldn't get over how some cultures interpret our food!!! And these Doritos had a weird cheesy-paprika flavor or something.
The second day (actually our first day of R&R , day 1), we took a shopping tour of Doha City, visiting all the important markets. First stop was the camel market. Very sad, and funny at the same time. These camels are raised and sold for meat and leather. Not racing, milk, or spit or anything - just meat and leather.

We then went to the City Center Mall. It's a huge western style mall with 350 stores, movie theater, ice skating rink, and all that.

Here you can see Brad in front of a Starbucks...they're EVERYWHERE!!! But more ridiculous are the little Sheiks that walked all over the place. We'll see plenty more of them, but the Qatari people are all sheiks and they don't have any occupations. The country is 25% Qatari - and 75% others (Filipino, Indian, Sri Lankan, etc) to do all the work running shops and services. The Qatari citizens are entirely supported by the state selling oil and they do nothing to contribute to society other than shopping and consuming things. You'll see more of them in "R&R part 2".

We stopped by the "big clam" in the middle of town. Doha is known for it's pearl trade.

We went to the "Old Souqs", meaning "Old Shops." It was an ancient market area with all kinds of trade...nuts, spices, tools, jewelry, bootleg DVDs, etc. We stopped into this Falconry shop where they sell all the latest in falcon gear and fashions. There was a nice lunch counter we stopped by to see what was on the menu...We read the first line and kept walking! Fortunately, the tour came with an excellent lunch at the best Indian Buffet we've ever had. I'll post more soon.

That's What She Said

There are a few among us who are always waiting to pounce with a "That's what she said" joke. We were walking through a camp and saw this sign over a row of dumpsters (indicating don't put wood in the dumpsters), and everyone rang out with a "that's what she said" in unison. It was hilarious. Almost as funny as when we walked over to the sign and someone had already written that at the bottom.
So this is Billy "Woody" Woodward. I gave him the nickname "Big Wood"...he really likes the name... but nobody else gets it! I'm going to miss these guys one day!

Here's a cake they had on display on Inauguration Day at the DFAC. We didn't get to eat it, but it looked nice.

Another Cake.

Me getting into an altercation with one of my contractors. I wear the white Cowboy Hard Hat on job sites now...the Iraqi's love it!
The altercation is over his wiring on the back side of the building...he says "I do a good job for you LT." I get a lot of head nodding and smiles when I try to hold people to the contracts, but things are often different where the rubber hits the road. I've had Iraqi's try to use junk they found on the side of the road in their buildings, and then invoice it for thousands of dollars.

Japan construction will be at the other end of the spectrum...I'm going to be so spoiled there with the highly professional Japanese construction firms. I can't wait!!

Well, I'm going to try to take some R&R in Qatar this week. I get a 4 day pass but haven't been able to get off the base yet...I'll post as soon as I get there.

Groundhog Day

It's been a while since I last blogged. I've been extremely busy, but the reason is mostly because nothing new or interesting has been going on lately. Actually, it has been just like the Bill Murray movie, "Groundhog Day." I wake up at the same time every morning (6:50am) without an alarm clock. My body just gets up. I hop out of bed, grab clean clothes and my shower bag, and head over to the shower trailer. I use the same shower stall each morning, take a shower for maybe 5 minutes, then I use the same sink each morning to shave. The same people are in there at the same times each morning, and we usually say the same things to each other every morning. The conversation is usually something along the lines of "how's it going?" and "Today's the fourth Monday this week (Thursday)."

That's about it.

I'm staying busy with work, and I have plenty of time to run...getting in about 30 miles per week right now. I get a lot more sleep than I would back home too, but I miss Meredith and the kids a lot. Aside from work, I am keeping busy planning for our PCS move to Japan in June. I think we're all looking forward to the adventure of Sasebo. I just need to finish this "adventure" first!

I promise to load some pictures of some of my favorite runs around here, and different things we're doing to maintain sanity in the long days and constant work pace. Thanks for reading about me, I'd love to know who's checking in. My email is travismortimer@gmail.com

And by the way, you should check out Meredith's new blog layout. It looks like a scrapbook page and is really nice. Not to mention the pictures of the kids she manages to get are absolutely adorable. I love you all.

Outside the Wire

I went on a little trip o n Monday "Outside the Wire," meaning off the base or outside the protective wire. I had to go to Haditha Dam for an inspection of a fence project for the Iraqi Ministry of Irrigation, Ministry of Electricity, and the Iraqi Army. The project was for an Iraqi company to install a 6 mile long security fence around the Haditha Dam area.
I have included a few photos of the trip to show some of the highlights. This is my view from the back seat. We had a private security firm provide transportation to/from the job sites. We ride in heavily armored Toyota Land cruisers. It's not quite as safe as a tactical vehicle, but we are also a much smaller target and less annoying presence to the Iraqi folks in these vehicles, and they're alot more comfortable than a tactical vehicle.

From the back seat, you can see my partner, Bob. he's an Engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers. You can see the view from inside is limited. The black circle is the little armored port hole for us to shoot out of if needed. The ballistic glass is several inches thick.

This is the view going into the Iraqi Camp Haditha. US forces recently turned over all responsibilities to the Iraqi Army and they now run this camp entirely. We waited 45 minutes to meet with the ranking officer of the camp, an Iraqi Major, because he was still sleeping when we got there at 10am. We conducted our inspection while he "gathered himself".

The whole area had a lot of men just standing around watching traffic drive by. Unemployment is very high in this region of Iraq (Al Anbar Province). Unfortunately, all this lingering around makes everyone look suspicious to us.

This was a really neat monument we passed near the Haditha area. The region is proud of their power generation at the Dam. It is nice to see civic pride every now and then, even if it is Saddam propaganda.
A view of the Haditha Dam as we approach. Nothing special here. It's a HUGE dam of about 5 miles long and about 40 meters high, but the water depth on the other side is only a few meters. Most of the pictures are taken from inside the vehicle because the security team was hyper sensative to the threat. I didn't feel threatened, but we had to stay inside the armor unless necessary to get out. It's just precaution...I know my wife appreciates it, but I didn't feel the need to stay so hunkered down. We only received a couple rounds of small arms fire the whole trip...just kidding about that last one!
Driving through the face of the dam on ground level, downstream side.
The view from afar. Even with a big shallow lake of water, it's still the desert out here.

We inspected the fence and found plenty of problems, and we met with the Major at the camp. The whole thing was not a big deal, but fun to get off the base for a while. I didn't get any pictures of the meeting only because it would be inappropriate to shoot photos while negotiating things, and also because appearing in photos with Americans can make Iraqis more of a target.
Here's a nice shot of the drive back to the base. Some one's front porch where they're skinning and butchering a cow. There were lots of houses like this where people were out front killing goats or sheep.

We stopped to check on a construction site of a school house in Baghdadi, the little town outside the base here (not to be confused with Baghdad).

A typical small roadside mosque in Baghdadi.

Houses along the road.
Sheep herding along the route. It was pretty common to see flocks of sheep running around with a little goat herder/ shepherd type of person. It was always obvious that the shepherds were very concerned about their sheep getting run over by the trucks! You could see the worry in their eyes every time we drove by a flock.

The trip ended without incident, and I will get more pictures of interesting stuff next time I go out. I'm hoping to go to the hospital project, or another school project, where I can mingle with local folks. There's a lot of good work going on here. I'm glad to be a part of it.

No Photographs Allowed

Today is New Year's Day. For the most part it was quiet because we were on somewhat of a "holiday routine." I started my day off by sleeping in until 7am, and stayed in bed until 8. It was NICE!!! I got 10 hours of sleep...who says deployment is rough?

So I took my time getting around, went for a run to start the year off right, and a cold wind started blowing in. The wind kept coming, and by noon the temperature dropped 20 degrees and we had a dust storm on us. It wasn't a full blown storm, but extremely dusty with less than 1/4 mile visibility. It was an "orange out" kind of day. I didn't get any pictures today but figured I'd show you some of the things I'm probably not supposed to show you.

A photo of an area on base.

This is the kind of day we had once the dust cloud came in. Just another day at the south side dump. I'm almost finished with a project building two trash incinerators that will mitigate this open pit burning. Not popular, probably shouldn't have shown you that.

Here we have a photo of an abandoned MIG. They are everywhere, littering the base as a reminder of the base's former occupants.

An Iraqi toilet. Pretty nasty only because there's no pee-trap to keep the sewer gases from coming out of the sewer. It's just an old-timey squat hole. The hose is an advance on the traditional alternatives. There are some buildings that still have the old toilets. All my projects include updating to "western style" toilets. By "western" we mean they come with a 10 gallon hat and bottle of BBQ sauce!

I really miss everyone, and I enjoy hearing from you all. Feel free to drop me an email at travismortimer@gmail.com if you get the chance. I'll have more photos coming soon. Happy New Year, and I can't wait to come home.

Christmas As Usual Around Here

Christmas day has come and gone here at Al Asad, and I have to say that I'm glad to be working on towards January already. Time is dragging right now so we're trying to keep busy with things that distract.

For the Holidays, Mike and I decorated a little tree we received in the mail (pictured below). It is a humble tree, but festive enough for us.

The day was nice, the air crisp and clear. On Christmas day, I was able to go for a nice 5 mile run, catch some sleep, watch "It's a Wonderful Life" TWICE, attend a "Christmas Pageant" at the Chapel,and then I ate at Burger King for dinner!

Work didn't stop at a few of my job sites. A K-Span being built by Iraqis...their first structure of this type for us. Their actually doing better than expected.

We had a great sunset, nice and crisp. This is my front door on the far right. Exciting, huh??