Diving in the Red Sea

Hello Family and Friends,

How are you? I'm doing well. As I mentioned before, June was so busy with so much work. July started to calm down a little. There was still a lot of work, but I hired two staff to help me with it and they are both excellent. We laugh and we all work hard. They are really great and we are doing good work together. We currently have 13 projects up and running, some of which have been completed. We are really happy with it.

One of the communities we work in had trash everywhere, literally. It had no green spaces, no place for children to play, not even at school and very little access to clean water. We have focused a lot on this particular community and we have several projects there. We are providing playground equipment at the schools, providing water to the homes, building a park for the community, installing water pumps in the homes of over 300 widows and doing a clean up campaign to get rid of all the trash currently there and make sure it stays gone. I'm proud of the work we are doing there and hope that the long-term implications of this work will be positive. The families are very excited about having a place for their children to play. The schools are so excited about the work that we are doing with them. I am excited about the clean up project and working with the widows. We are also building a soccer park for the youth to have something to do. Now, they hang out together in the streets to chat and do whatever because they have no real distractions, but the soccer park will get a LOT of use. I am very excited to fast forward a few months to begin seeing the impact of all these projects on this community.

We had a visit from one of the VPs from headquarters and I got to go with him to this community and talk to him about the projects we are doing there and the community in general. It was pretty cool because I love talking about our projects, as you can see by the length of this blog. It was nice to be able to show off the difference being made in the community and the immediate impact some of the projects are having on community members. We are building community trash containers so that there is a place to put the trash, so that it doesn't collect in the streets anymore and as we drove through town, you could see the containers, could see people using them and could see the workers hauling away the trash. We drove through part of town that had already been cleaned and another that hadn't yet been cleaned and could really see the difference then.

Well, as most of you know, there was a series of bombings in Baghdad this month. I was in the office when the bombings happened. There were reports that it was a series of 13 bombs that exploded over a half an hour period. Two of the largest bombs targeted two government ministries. We were sitting in the office having a discussion when we heard one of the bombs. It rattled the front door. We didn't really move, just remarked that it must have been somewhat close if we were actually able to hear it. Less than 1 minute later we heard another explosion which rattled the windows and doors and startled everyone in the office. Several people went out onto the front lawn where a large white cloud of dust could be seen rising into the sky. There is speculation that terrorists are responsible, that it was politically motivated leading up to elections, that it was a sectarian attack, etc. Some of our staff was out and about, but our staff was totally fine and luckily not in the vicinity of any of the explosions. We sent them home early to be with their families. Often times when there are incidents or celebrations the government closes the roads without any announcements, so we wanted to make sure they were able to get home too. I worry about them a lot. We are pretty secure in that we limit our movement, etc., but our staff is out and about everyday living their lives, so they have a much higher risk. Plus, the attacks are usually aimed at Iraqis and are pretty rarely targeted at foreign civilians.

Shortly after the bombings, I left Baghdad for my second R&R. A good time to be able to relax. I wanted to make sure that I went someplace much closer, so that I could relax and not spend a lot of time in transit and not be all jet-lagged. : ) So I went to the Sinai peninsula in Egypt. I got a great tan, swam everyday and did A LOT of diving. The coral in the Red Sea is amazing! There are so many fish and lots of baby fish at this time of year. I even got to see a turtle. It was awesome! Egypt isn't really what I expected. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was different. The Red Sea is beautiful. It's a really deep, clear blue. And from my hotel, I could look out across the water and see the mountains of Saudi Arabia. I guess I expected both Egypt and Saudi Arabia to be big, flat deserts, maybe with some sand dunes, but I wasn't expecting rocky mountains. I don't know why, but I was really surprised. The Sinai where I was reminded me a little of Arizona. The mountains aren't as high in Sinai though, I don't think.

So I get into the cab to bring me from the town where the airport is to the town where I was staying. We stopped at the gas station to fill up the tank and the pick up truck across from us had three camels in the back! What a great intro to the Sinai. They were super cute! I got to the hotel, which is right on the water and has a dive center on site. I made sure to get into the pool the next day and take in a few rays. I headed into town and sent postcards to the couple of addresses I actually have memorized (We are way to dependent on computers and cells. I can't remember anyone's addresses or phone numbers now. So sad!) It was kind of deserted, but nice. It was the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, so there weren't a lot of people in the restaurants.

Devout Muslims fast for the month of Ramadan from sun up to sun down. Nothing is allowed to pass their lips. So not only do they fast from food, but they also don't drink anything (not even water) and smokers don't smoke. This is from sunup to sundown everyday for one month. Can you imagine working in the hot desert in the middle of summer in an industry like food service, or scuba diving, or manual labor or anything physical and still abstain from food and water?? That kind of faith and devotion is incredible to me! I don't know if I could do it. Could you?

So I was able to find some friends at the dive center. Like I said, the coral there was amazing! It's apparently been growing for thousands of years and was huge. Also, one of the dive sites we went to had been dived by Jacques Couteau. It was pretty awesome! At another dive site, we saw lots of fish and a turtle. Once we even rode camels for a little over an hour to a secluded dive site in a bedouin village. So many people commented on how uncomfortable it was to ride the camels, but the whole time I was thinking that it was actually really pretty comfortable. More comfortable than riding horses. Course, by the time we got to the dive site I got off the camel and found walking upright difficult because my lower back was in so much pain. Sigh...I'm getting old. : )

Do you ever have those moments and time stops for a few seconds and you feel totally at peace and completely content? The sun and the water always tend to do it for me. You know...sunsets, the ocean...rivers. We were riding back to the hotel on the camels. The sun was setting over the mountains making the blue of the Red Sea even more instense and making the sun spread in a fat, magenta line from the shore. The rocking of the camel was soothing and the waves were splashing against the rock. I had just been diving and seeing some of the most amazing coral ever and I was tan and relaxed and in a new country and new culture. It was a few moments of perfect happiness that I was able to enjoy. I think sometimes you notice it even more when you are on your own because you have no choice but to focus on your environment. I always prefer traveling with family or friends, but then I find that I am focused on being together and having fun hanging out, that I don't take time to "stop and smell the roses" as it were. Anyway....maybe you have no idea what I am talking about. But I find as I am getting older, my memory is already sliding downhill and those few perfect moments of remembered perfect happiness stick out boldly in my memory.

Anyhoo.....back to the grind. I really hope all is well with you and hope that you will remember to keep in touch. You should have my email. Come on....send a few lines about what's up with you. Pleeeaaassee! Pretty please with cherries on top? : )

Keep in touch! Lots of Love! Enjoy the pictures! Kisses. hee hee hee

Love,

Jill

Summer in Baghdad

Hello Family and Friends,

I hope all is well with you wherever you may be. Things are going well in Baghdad. I'm afraid this is going to be a long one. But what do you expect, when I haven't written for about 3 months or so. So....when last we left off, Jill was on her way to her first R&R. I had a great time in Costa Rica with my stepsister, Christol, my niece, Kylie and my friend, Hector. We hung out in San Jose, we flew to the west coast where we went scuba diving, swimming, boogie-boarding and got massages. We ate delicious food and enjoyed the beach. On the third day, we headed inland to the rainforests of Monteverde, where we laughed through a canopy tour, learned all about Costa Rican insects, bats, etc. and enjoyed the rainy season in Costa Rica. It was a great vacation!!

Well, you may have read about the not so pleasant trip back to Baghdad, but in the end, I got my luggage and I made it back on time, so all is well that ends well, although I would still avoid traveling American Airlines at any cost. Anyhoooo, when I got back to the office, I waded right into all kinds of things to get done. June was an incredibly busy month and I was working 16 hour days. I was trying to get my programs up and running and monitoring the ones that were running and was trying to find staff to hire. I have finally hired two staff members who are both amazing and fun. We laugh a lot together, but they are very hard workers and we have gotten a lot done. We have 9 programs up and running in Baghdad and will start 4 more in the next couple weeks. I really like our projects and think that we are getting good work accomplished. We are working with families who have been displaced by violence or families who are vulnerable economically or women who've lost their husbands. We have done three distributions of non-food items, such as water filters, cooking utensils and hygiene bags. We are currently running a women's literacy program through a local partner. In addition to learning to read and write Arabic and learning basic mathematics, the women are also exposed to workshops on first aid, women's health issues, women's rights, etc. It is very exciting. We are also working with youth to explore alternatives to violence. I am really enjoying being in Baghdad and my work here. I love the heat, although I may be the only one. We moved into a new office, which is beautiful and I love, love, love my room. It has windows, which is very exciting!

On June 30th, the US troops pulled out of major cities and into their posts. The cities were handed over to Iraqi Army and Police. Baghdad was in celebration for several days and the police vehicles were decorated for the occasion. There were a few extra security incidents in the city leading up to the handover, but things have been relatively calm since. While we are cautious and travel carefully, I feel safe here and am very fond of Baghdad. I love our staff. They are great people and we have a lot of fun together and we all work hard together.

The duststorms have been pretty bad in June and July. Sometimes the dust gets so bad you can barely see. It's looks a lot like a very foggy day, only it's a very fine dust in the air, like baby powder or something. Sometimes it's white, sometimes it's orange. Not long ago we had a bad orange duststorm for two or three days in a row. The windows were glowing orange where the sun reflected off the orange dust. This photo was taken during the day...not at sunset....just keep that in mind. It's pretty amazing. I have never seen anything like it. Planes are grounded during these duststorms and no one can get in or out. When you go outside, it's a little hard to breathe. I started caughing after just a few minutes outside. A colleague went outside in dress shoes for about two minutes and came in looking like he drug his shoes in the sand.

There is a kitten hanging around the house, so of course I give her a little food now and then. I sometimes heat up some milk and have taken to petting her. She's pretty cute! When we first got here she was all skinny and pathetic looking and didn't have a lot of energy. We named her Meskina, which means "poor thing" in Arabic. She's perked up quite a bit with the food, milk, and loving she gets. The expats feed her, the watchmen feed her, the landlady feeds her. She's a happy fat cat now. How cute is she??

Well, I suppose that is about it. I have just been work, work, working. The handover was interesting and the duststorms have been an incredible thing to see. Other than that....not much to tell. Please keep in touch. Don't forget....I love hearing what's going on with you too! This way, when I get back home, people don't say, "Haven't you heard this story? Where have you been?" : )

Lots of Love and Misses!! Jill