Life For The Next Few Months

So, my life for the next few months will surely be different from that in the states. The following description of "home," sounds terrible, but it's not as bad as it seems. I'm in a little trailer and have a roommate. It's a nice room, but I had more space when i was at the Academy. As for the scenery, it's all military equipment and concrete walls about two stories tall. If it wasn't for the few times I've gone outside the compound, I'd never know that I was in Iraq. And the smell, you can never escape the smell of diesel/jp-8. There are a lot of vehicles moving around, large diesel generators provide power 24/7, and the occasional helo flying around leaves quite the exhaust trail. I guess they burn the trash at night, so the smell of burning plastic envelops the base and makes you want to cover your face as you walk to the bathroom. The smell is gone by morning, but then it's back to diesel. I guess the ground is pretty dense, because when it rains, or actually sprinkles, the dirt turns to a thick soup and it stays that way for days. Good news is that it doesn't rain all the time and the weather has been pretty nice and comfortable the last few days.

As for my job, everything is good and I was working from the first day I got on the ground here. I'm a bit overwhelmed right now with all the information I have to learn, but it will settle here in a couple weeks. Since I'm supposed to help the Iraqi police, I studied Arabic to help break the culture barrier. Apparently I didn't study hard enough because I find myself breaking into Spanish when some of the people talk to me. I have a translator, but it would be a lot nicer if I spoke the local language.

Since I'm brand new to the area I have a fresh look on things. A lot of people don't like the Iraqis, or Arab people as a whole. They're considered to be lazy, dumb, worthless, beggars, etc. I had the opportunity to get off base and walk around the local market to see where the police work. Those few minutes on the ground were awesome. In that time I had the time to "talk," and interact with the Iraqis. To laugh, joke, and shake hands with the men and children was a pretty powerful thing (We ignore the women to keep them out of trouble with their male family members). Come to find out, their just like us on a basic, human level. They don't have the work ethic or the rules that allow us to have such a high quality of life, but I'd bet they enjoy the simpler things in life that we take for granted. With the exception of the over-zelous religious fanatics, the Iraqis and Arabs as a whole are good people. So after ignoring the fanatics, but not turning a blind eye to their treachery, we'll continue helping the Iraqi people stand on their own feet and take control of their destiny. I can now honestly say I will enjoy working with these policemen and seeing their progress as the weeks and months pass. I'm sure there will be bad days, but by the end I expect to see huge gains.

Wheels Up

For all intent and purposes, I'm OCONUS (outside continental US) for the next few months. I'll be travelling and living in temporary quarters for the next week or two with the rest of my training group, so internet connections will be pretty spotty. Not sure when I'll actually arrive at my final location, but I'll do my best to let everyone know. In the mean time, take it easy and have a good weekend.

First Entry Disclaimer

So, in an effort to maintain some type of communication with friends and family, I figured I'd try blogging. I'm terrible at calling people and sending emails, so we'll see how this typing every-once-in-a-while thing goes. Please don't expect daily updates, as most of you know I'm a quiet and reserved person anyways.

As you know, I'm headed overseas shortly to train the Iraqi Police--IP for short. I'd like to say I will do a lot of training and have a huge impact on the Iraqis, but my mission will be to take care of the people left to my charge so they can carry out the training. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time with the Iraqis, but making sure my people are fully supported will keep me employed. Our goal is to advise the IP chiefs and their personnel on law and order techniques as well as good practices for operating a police station. There are plenty of important missions in the Middle East at the moment, but ensuring the Iraqis are able to provide for their own defense and security is paramount to ensuring the success of our exit strategy. In order to make forward progress we must overcome the obvious language barrier, but even more difficult are the cultural differences. From our point of view these differences are viewed as laziness, stupidity, chauvinist, etc., but whether they are or not doesn't matter. The differences are ever-present and we must find a way to connect on common ground rather than change a population that was once the center of civilization years ago. Only time will tell how effective we are...

Enough rambling for me; if you're looking to get in touch with me, feel free to send an e-mail (phone will be disconnected shortly).