Life as an NGO in Iraq...

I have a friend who was hired to well, I think he is re-keying Iraq. Or blowing up locks, or some such. I wrote and asked him what life was like over there and here was his response:

By an NGO:

Well, what is life like here? It's probably the best I've ever had it by myself! Aside from a few minor problems with the slow mechanisms in place for logistics here, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The laborers are srilankan or filipino, usually. No iraqi's anywhere around me. I have a big room to myself, my own shop truck, and my own shop with 1 filipino worker. I don't have to cook, clean, take out trash, wash my truck, put fuel in my truck, or do my laundry. There is a large store here- like a Wal-mart- called the PX, that has everything I could want. There are Iraqi vendors that have stores here in the camps that can get ANYTHING from in Baghdad for a little bit of nothing. There is a pizza-hut, a Burger King, Subway, and Popeyes will be here soon. Aside from that food, the dining facilities are well funded with a lot of choices each day. Sometimes, they even have steak and lobster night! .

One of the biggest gripes available is the bloody weather. It rained here for about 6 days straight and turned everything into a knee deep swamp. Very few spots mud stuck up over the mess. It was almost impossible to walk in and it stuck to everything. But, it passed. The heavy machinery moved the dirt and rocks back to where they belonged and made the roads right again. And everything is back to "normal" again.

We hear, what we just call, "Booms" everyday. Usually it is from one of 'the good guys' shooting a 'bad guy' Lately, the EOD people have been setting off controlled detonations and scaring the hell out of everybody. Course, they don't TELL you it is a controlled detonation until a minute or so AFTER they pop it off, so everybody freaked out until we got used to it. Now, everyday, about this time, we'll hear 4 of 5 really close 'booms'

The women- it's a ratio of about 50 to 1 I'd say. Then, when you only count girls that meet parameters, that number dwindles sharply. The filipino women are automatically out of the equation. Srilankan women- forget about it! Most american women are followed around constantly by several men. And, the rest... well, they must be hiding or something!

Mind you, though, that every site is not like this. Even other people on my site don't have it like this. I think I got real lucky to be here. Besides, considering the questionable quality of other jobs I've had, I think I deserve a cush assignment like this! Fair is fair, right?

Hope this was what you wanted to know. If not, maybe I could answer som more specific questions for you.

***** Sounds pretty interesting. IF anyone out there needs to earn a lot of money (a lot of money-- with your expenses paid!) , has no dependants and can pass a background check it might be the place for you....if you can stand the highly increased likelyhood of Death. You also have to consider that Paul was twice Alabama's soldier of the year before leaving the Army- so he doesn't get too upset by military regulations or organization.

Also, I drove to work today for the first time since the surgery!!!! Lets just hope I can drive home too.