Lunch in Al-Amariah

The Iraqis are amazingly hospitable. Recently I traveled to a location with some of our agricultural advisors to discuss the formation of a farmer's cooperative. We had about 11 sheihks attend. I was told that each of them represented from 100 - 500 people in their respective villages. Each of these were the "patriarch" of their respective villages, and very much responsible for making decisions on their behalf.

The meeting was held at the home of one sheikh, in a large room that was probably 40 ft x 15 ft. There was no air conditioning and it was around 120 degrees outside. But, he had gone out ahead of our arrival and purchased a swamp cooler. We could see that it was brand new, purchased just for the occasion of our visit. As the meeting started, a couple of young boys came around with bottled water for each of us.

We met with them and explained the idea for forming an agricultural cooperative. After some heated discussion, they decided that it was worth the risk. We then asked them to elect officers. This is a totally new concept for them....democracy in action!! It was interesting to watch them nominate and elect officers. Actually they didn't actually vote, they more or less reached consensus. It was obvious that they were enjoying the idea of having some degree of self-determination, some control over their own futures.

After the meeting, lunch was served! We never saw the women, but it was pretty obvious that some talented ladies had cooked a fantastic spread for us!! A few young guys brought in some tables, and spread plastic lace tablecloths over them. Then....the food was brought in!!! First, they came in carrying stacks of the traditional flat bread. The young guy, probably a teenager, just had these big circles of flat bread laid over his arm. He walked down both sides of the table and more or less just "flopped" a piece of bread at each place, right on top of the tablecloth. Then, someone followed him and placed a tablespoon at each place. Then they brought in trays of meat, rice and vegetables; chicken with vegetables, and bowls of tomato-okra soup.

There were no individual plates, and no chairs. We stood to eat. Each person had their own spoon, piece of bread and bowl of soup. The meat and vegetables were served "family style", you might say....only with no utensils for common serving! The tradition is to just reach in and grab with your right hand...never your left as that is the "unclean" hand. It was sure a little awkward, but one of my friends at the table brought some hand sanitizer with him and we passed it around (as inconspicuously as possible) just before eating.

So, you reach in with your right hand and grab some meat off the dish. The meat isn't cut up, it's still connected, so you just reach in and pull it off. If it resists, you have to sort of maneuver with your hand (only your right) to pull it off. We Americans decided that the best way to eat the rice was to use our spoon and dip some of the tomato-okra soup up and onto the rice (it was still in the "common" bowl)....then quickly use the spoon to spoon some of the rice onto a piece of bread, then eat it quickly before the soup ran down your arm!! I guess the Iraqis thought we were crazy!!! It must have taken all their self-control to keep from falling in the floor laughing as they watched us attempt to eat "Iraqi style"!

The meat: The meat we had was lamb, from their favorite breed of sheep, known as Awassi, also known as "fat tail" sheep. Their body conformation is a little different from the varieties that we see in the States. The fat tail sheep are so named for a reason....they develop a fairly large fat deposit at the base of their spine, just above the tail. This deposit of fat serves as an energy reserve in case they have to go without food for a few days. It's an adaptation that is very valuable in this desert country. The goats of Iraq don't possess that unique feature. So, when the Iraqis put on a big spread, and want to show you that you're getting the best they have, they cook up a "fat tail" sheep, as it's preferred over goat. And, for display, they leave this fat deposit attached to the sheep, just so you can see for yourself that you're getting the best they have!! Look closely at the picture here and you'll see this fat deposit.

After we "men" finished eating, the teenage guys came in again and picked up all the dishes. There was no way we could finish all the food that was on the table, so there was plenty of food left. They picked up the dishes, and our interpreter told us that the women and children would finish if off. That meant that the soup I left in my bowl wasn't thrown out, someone else finished it.

Well, it was quite a meal, and a real cultural experience. I hope these farmers will be able to work together, improve their production methods (more on that later) and continue to control their own destiny.

Prayer Beads

I have limited interactions with the people of Iraq. I do get out and meet them occasionally, but not often. And, usually, at any meeting, there are no women present, we always meet with the men. And the one thing that is consistent about those meetings is that they have their prayer beads with them, and they're usually "working" them!! I find this really fascinating. So what's with prayer beads? Wikipedia has this to say,

"Prayer beads are traditionally used to keep count of the repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions by adherents of religion. Since the beads can be fingered in an automatic manner, they allow one to keep track of how many prayers have been said with a minimal amount of conscious effort, which in turn allows greater attention to be paid to the prayers themselves.
There are three widely accepted uses for prayer beads:
Repetition of the same devotion a set (usually large) number of times. This is the earliest form of prayer beads (the Japa Mala) and the earliest Christian form (the prayer rope). This is also the type in use by the Bahá'í Faith
Repetition of several different prayers in some pattern, possibly interspersed with or accompanied by meditations.
Meditation on a series of spiritual themes, e.g. Islam."

"In Islam, prayer beads are referred to as Misbaha or Tasbih, and contain 99 beads, corresponding to the 99 Names of Allah. Sometimes only 33 beads are used, in which case one would cycle through them 3 times to equal 99. Use of the misbaha to count prayers and recitations is an evolution of Muhammad's practice of using the fingers of his right hand to keep track. While in pretty wide use today, some adherents of Wahhabism shun them as an intolerable innovation, preferring to stick to the exact method believed to have been used by Muhammad. Their use as a religious item has somewhat diminished over the years, and many use them nowadays strictly as worry beads and as status symbols. They are most commonly made of wooden beads, but also of olive seeds, ivory, amber, pearls or plastic."

I was at one of the local shops today and looked at their selection of prayer beads.....and yep they all had 33 beads, no more, no less!! And, they come in a variety of colors, including green as is shown in the photo. But, I'm still not sure what the Iraqi men that I meet are doing with their prayer beads. They might be for worry, for a show of status, or for prayer. I'll probably never know, but it is certainly interesting!!

The practice of using prayer beads is found in many different religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Bahai.

SSG Jeremy Dale Vrooman

This week I traveled out to FOB (Forward Operating Base) Warhorse, northeast of Baghdad. It's actually only 35 miles as the crow flies, but from appearances, it could be 300 miles away. It's really a desolate location, as are many of our FOBs.

We arrived around 3 pm that afternoon, and learned that at 5 pm there would be a memorial service for a soldier that had died last week. He was SSG. Jeremy D. Vrooman, originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I didn't know SSG. Vrooman, but felt compelled to attend the memorial service. You see, most of my days are spent in the relative luxury and solid security of the International Zone.....thanks to the many soldiers like SSG. Vrooman. Anytime I travel outside the International Zone, or off one of the FOBs, I'm guarded by young men just like SSG. Vrooman....young guys wearing 50 lbs of body armour, carrying backpacks of gear and their weapons. Guys sweating so much that they drink a few gallons of water every day. Young men hoping they complete today's mission without any "incidents". Young men and women just hoping to finish their tour and return home to their family.

A week earlier, SSG. Vrooman was on a patrol outside of FOB Warhorse, "clearing" some houses that were suspected of being Al Qaeda hold-outs. He was leading his patrol and was about 45 seconds ahead of the rest of his men. He walked into a house, and triggered a booby trap bomb that claimed his life. That was one of eleven homes in that area with booby traps!! By entering the house first, his actions cost him his life, but saved the lives of his men. He could have stayed back near the vehicles, after all, he was the patrol leader, the senior among his men. But, he was, as the military says "leading from the front"...not asking his men to do anything that he wouldn't do.

SSG. Jeremy D. Vrooman leaves a wife and two small children. Was his death worth the loss? Will this war leave Iraq a better place? How many more young men and women from our armed forces will die? Will we defeat terrorism? When will Iraq be able to govern and protect itself? I don't know the answers to these questions. I do know that SSG. Jeremy Vrooman deserves my honor and respect. May God bless him, his family, and all the other soldiers and civilians who have given the ultimate sacrifice to this war. Jeremy Vrooman is one of the 4,124 soldiers who have died in Iraq.

FOB Warhorse

Last week I visited FOB (Forward Operating Base) Warhorse....located northeast of Baghdad, in Diyala Province. We have 3 ag advisors working there, and I was on a visit to their location. While there we had meetings with local sheikhs regarding poultry, date palms, vegetables and honeybees. Diyala is truly an agricultural province, but it is experiencing a severe drought this year.

One a mission one day, we visited a group of Iraqi farmers and discussed the possibility of forming an agricultural cooperative which could help them reduce costs and improve marketing. It was an interesting discussion, and they quickly selected some from among the attendees to serve as officers. All this is still very new to the Iraqis........they're not accustomed to making their own decisions about many of the things that we take for granted. It was good to see them adopt these basic tenets of democracy!

On the return trip to FOB Warhorse, one of the vehicles in our convoy broke down, and it was the one in which I was riding!! Murphy's Law!! We were just driving down the road at a normal speed and the engine just quit. Turned out that it had lost the coolant, and overheated....probably ruined the engine. There were 3 more vehicles in our convoy, so they assumed protective positions around ours, and we sat there for about 90 minutes before they could get another vehicle out there to pick us up! It was about 2 pm and must have been 120 degrees...outside. We tried not to think what it might be inside!! But really, it wasn't too bad. They opened the hatches for some air movement, and we had plenty of water that we kept drinking. I had a bandana with me and kept it wet for a little cooling around my neck, which felt very good! After they picked us up in another vehicle, we traveled down the road for a few minutes with the hatch open, and the dust started rolling in!!! That's why I quickly put my bandana over my face.

Dubai

I recently attended a conference in Dubai. What a place! After nearly a year in Iraq, it was sure nice to see an Arabic country that "works"! I'm sure other Arab countries work, too, I just haven't spent time in any other than Iraq.

Of course, I guess that's not really true. The people who work in Dubai are not the natives....but people from India, Pakistan, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc. The people of Dubai are so wealthy (oil money) that few of them work. Restaurant workers, construction workers, policemen, hotel staff, retailers, etc. are all foreigners!!! It is really a weird place in that regard.

Not to mention the construction and the fact that everything is new!!! As I stepped outside of the hotel, there were 7 construction cranes within a block or two!!! I heard that Dubai has the 2nd largest population of construction cranes of anywhere in the world, except China. I'm not sure how they count that, but I'm not going to argue!!! There were a lot of cranes. And, construction work went pretty much 24/7!!! There were 2 buildings under construction adjacent to my hotel, and I heard construction noise during the night!! Luckily, they must have been prohibited from using the jackhammers that I heard during the day!!!

I took the usual "tourist" trip....the Desert Safari. It consisted of riding around some sand dunes in a Toyoto Land Cruiser for about an hour and a half....stopping to see a pen of camels, and eating a traditional dinner at a little "village" in the desert. Oh, there were shops there, and they had a belly-dancer (who didn't appear to be Arabic)! It was a fun trip.

Back to Work

I've been out of touch for a while...sorry about that. After returning from my last R&R (and the great wedding for our daughter and new son), I just didn't post anything. But, I've been back at work for some few weeks and back "on the road" now.

Today finds me in Ramadi in the province of Anbar. This is the site of the "awakening" movement, in which some of the local Iraqi leaders saw that following the insurgency (al qaeda) was leading to a downward spiral for their province and families. So, they decided to work with the American and coalition forces...... to work for the future. They banded together to help coalition forces defeat al qaeda. It came at a great price to these leaders. A number of them have been murdered, or had family members murdered. Yet, they press ahead, hoping and building for a better Iraq....a better future for their children. You have to admire them!! Would I have the courage to walk in their shoes?

On this trip, I'm accompanying our videographer. His duty is to capture some of our people working, showing the good jobs they're doing with the Iraqis and helping to rebuild agriculture here in Anbar Province. This is the first of several stops for this project. I think it will produce a nice video. I'm looking forward to the finished product.

Right now, we're sitting around waiting for a helicopter flight out. However, flights are currently under a "weather hold"....delayed because of dust. It hasn't been windy, but just a slight breeze. I guess this dust is so fine that the slightest breeze can stir it up!!! So, we've finished with the video taping part of this trip, and are just waiting for the dust to settle so we can get out of here and on to our next assignment. That's just one of the constraints that impact work here in Iraq!!

More from our next stop, and some pictures, too!!!