Kurkuk

The medic for this site is going on R&R so I got sent up here to fill in. My clinic is slower and the camp is smaller so a new medic is handling mine while I'm here. The trip up was pretty uneventful except for the Russian flight crew having to change a tire on the charter plane. Seems they had one blow out when it landed in Tikrit. We stood on the runway watching- I swear I wouldn't have been surprised if one of them had grabbed one of the others by the nose and started leading him around while yelling "Whoop, whoop, whoop" and smacking his head like the Three Stooges.

They got it changed though and we flew to BIAP and then traveled to Victory. I was really surprised by how smoothly it went; my previous experiences there had been awful as it had been crowded as hell. The last time was of course in July when the airport had been shut down by the security company going on strike. The Baghdad airport looked cleaner this time and was slightly more efficient. It could really use some updating though- the color schemes and the phone booths that look like helmets out of the movie Space Balls are pretty goofy.

Of course nothing says welcome to a new location like incoming fire and last night was no exception. I collected an hour’s worth of “Bunker bucks” (pay for sitting in a bunker after work hours) as they call it after a rocket exploded; seems there were at least two but the second didn’t explode. The EOD guys found it this morning and blew it in place. I really wish the bad guys would quit this crap.

So, in other Iraq news, I met a really nice Major here who is almost infectious with his enthusiasm working with the locals. He has an Iraqi counterpart who is apparently well liked locally and together they go about the surrounding towns and villages doing good deeds such as small scale civil engineering projects, medical checkups, handing out food and other gifts, etc. He believes it is having a positive effect as they get more tips on the bad guys and more locals seem to be interested in talking to them about how to open businesses including getting loans. With the national unemployment running over 30% putting people back to work is a prime goal here. They are also working to get the religious leaders to sit down and talk to each other.

I should be back at my site in a couple of weeks. A few weeks more and I am out of here! I’m still waiting to hear back from the admissions counselor at the school I’m trying to get into but hopefully that will go well.