Little Blond Adventures in Iraq.

I would like to share with you one the most strange and exciting trips in my life. It was a trip to Iraq. After I graduated from the University I got a nice job but low - paid. Of course, I wanted something more both financially and for my personal development. Suddenly I got a call at my work. The caller had dialed a wrong number. It turned out that he was looking for a translator/interpreter. I offered him my services and after the interview they hired me. That company offered me a good salary but it would mean long- term business trips to Iraq. I was young and stupid and I agreed.

Getting to Baghdad

It was the year 2000. As there was an embargo imposed on Iraq, flights to Baghdad were not possible. The first time we got there from Syria and the second time from Jordan. I remember Damascus was crowded and dusty. We stayed there for one night.

Then we rented a GMC all- terrain car with driver and traveled for about 10 hours through the desert. I remember the arriving at the border with guarded by heavily armed soldiers. They looked quite scary.

Weather and hotels

First in Baghdad we stayed at a hotel with both Europeans and Arabs. It was July and it was extremely hot, about +45C. There was a swimming pool at the hotel so I decided to refresh myself. It was a biiiiiig mistake. There were many many men and no women. First I didn't pay attention to that but when I undressed and started to spread sun screen I was burned not by sun but by hundreds of men's eyes. In 10 minutes I made my escape.
Funny thing was that in this hot weather, you could not get sun burned. I tried to take a sun bath later in another hotel in Baghdad but even didn't get a tan.
It was extremely hot and I remember when first night I hoped for a fresh very desirable breeze but when I stepped out to the balcony from the air conditioned room I felt like I was in a sauna.
I also experienced a sand storm. It wasn't really a storm with wind, it was just sand hanging in the air making it that you couldn't see farther than a meter.

Then we moved to a European hotel where you could swim freely . But one thing impressed me. On the floor at the entrance there was a picture of American President George Bush grimacing face and you couldn't enter without stepping on it. It was made on Hussein's order.

Baghdad was a rather nice city in spite of many ruins after the last bombings in 1998 (I mean when I was there). It was a city of contrasts. The areas with beautiful and expensive houses were right next to poor districts. And I was impressed with the cars. Most cars were extremely old and didn't have windshields. Once we took a taxi and were passing along Saddam Hussein's palace. The driver whispered tssss.... and had hands together like they were in wristbands ( in the Arabic language it sounded something like kallabuchi).

I liked the food there but after being there too long I started to miss my native cuisine. Mostly they offered kebab.

Once we had dinner in a restaurant right on the river Tigris. I immediately recollected history classes from the school about the two big and important rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. Very rich Iraqi's had dinner there. The food was really delicious. The picture of that restaurant and other areas where rich people lived didn't match in my head with what I have seen before. It was like two different planets.

Basra
We also visited the port of Basra. We planned to take part in the tender for raising the vessels sunk after the bombings. I wasn't impressed at all with that city. Dirty and ruined.

Second visit

Our second visit of Iraq was through Jordan. The rules were much stricter there. Even in the airport you couldn't buy alcohol, even beer, in comparison to Iraq where alcohol was not allowed but in the restaurants you could easily order it. And most women wore purdah in Jordan. In Iraq I didn't see many women covered with niqab but for Europeans it was better to wear clothes that covered your body despite the hot weather.

We again took a GMC and got Baghdad.
We rented a nice house there in the expensive area. But it was still rather dangerous to walk on the streets alone. Once an Arab guy ran to me and tried to touch. Thank God my colleague took a stone and threw it at the guy who immediately ran away.

People

The people were rather friendly there but extremely - extremely slow. There was nothing worse than working with them especially with government bodies ( but it is in all countries i guess))). Our company planned to buy crude oil for the amount of 2 millions dollars. And our Iraqi partners brought an agreement of only a half page. Half a page!!! But I need to admit that many people spoke English there and that, of course, impressed me.

I don't think I would like to repeat that experience but it was quite an adventure. And it also helped me to find a great job later.

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