The Green Zone - Week One

Well I have settled in a little, albeit I am sharing a temporary room with 5 other people. It's a cramped room with three bunk beds and barely enough room to change clothes. I should be assigned my own room in the next few days.

The building is like a dorm but they call it the Barracks. We have a common shower area and there is no living area to speak of. I really want my own room and not be assigned to the barracks. I have only been sleeping in that room since there is no room so I stay at the office longer to avoid my room. ...Yeah it's that bad. But hopefully it will get better.

The people here are friendly and seem to like where they are. There are been some incoming mortars since I've been here. It's a little unnerving but from what I understand, they are sent from 3-6 miles away and they are trying to target specific places like the embassies, warehouses and who knows what else. But their target areas vary wildly and as long as you take cover when the alarm goes off, you should be okay. I guess we'll see.

There are several checkpoints to get into specific compounds, like from where we live and where we work and other places. Security is everywhere. The IZ is also home to several thousand Iraqis. There are apartments, villas and other homes in the IZ that belong to Iraqis. But it's nothing like the U.S. The apartments are run-down and the villas are constructed entirely of concrete except for the roofs. The paved roads have a lot of wear and tear form miitary vehicles, bombs, mortars, heavy machinery, etc. Some street lights work but it can get dark for being in the middle of a city of millions. Traffic laws are non-existent. There are stop signs and round-abouts but no working stop lights. The speed bumps are brutal but exist to slow potentially threatening vehicles.

You have to make sure you ahve the right badge to enter the compounds. Each one is run by a specific entity. There are many countries represented. Many companies. I'll get more of a feel for things I' sure. So far I like it compared to the camp I was at. at least there are sidewalks, streets and shuttles.

Riding the Rhino

Okay the rhino sucks. Picture a Winnebago, only a small one, that has been completely gutted and only contains very hard padded seats...like theones at a football or baseball stadium. No seatbelts, no place for luggage. Armored and really tiny windows with 6 inch glass. And that's not even the worst part.

We travel overnight and the times are never set for security purposes. It's pretty scary. We travel in a heavily armed convoy in the pitch black. It is totally disorienting, bewildering and frightening. We have to travel through the "red zone" to get to the Green Zone, or International Zone (IZ) as it is now referred to. Our luggage goes separately in an 18 wheeler.

So as we wait at the depot, we don't know when the convoy arrives, we have to fight to stay awake, because I have been told that sometimes it can be as late as 5:00 am. Crazy. I am still beat. It's gonna take some time to recover. I have the rest of the day off to sleep and get situated.

But it was brutal.

New Job in the Green Zone

The Green Zone is in downtown Baghdad. It is roughly a 2 kilometer by 2 kilometer area that is heavily fortified and has heavily guarded checkpoints to enter. The Green Zone is a military term which means relative safe area.

So I applied for and accepted a position in Baghdad. I transfer in a few days. I'm pretty excited to see another part of Iraq, new people, new job, new living conditions, new everything. I hear good things since it is actually in a proper city and not just a large camp with lots of rocks. We'll see when I get there.

I am doing research on what to expect and what there is in the Green Zone. I won't know anyone there and I have to travel by Rhino, whatever that is. I still have lots of questions. In the meantime, I have to pack, sell and give away all of my stuff. I'm probably going to end up shipping several footlockers to my new destination and try to travel light. Traveling with heavy baggage is not the greatest because there is always rocks or other terrain which are not very luggage-friendly.

I'll miss this place and the people I have met. It has been a quaint and mostly quiet place but I am looking forwarad to what lies ahead.