There is a range of housing accommodations available to diplomats when one is posted in a foreign country.  The size and location of housing depends on a number of factors: rank at the embassy, family size, proximity to the American or international school, and sometimes, it's just the luck of the draw.  During my first diplomatic assignment in Ethiopia, I called my parents the moment I arrived at my new home and proudly proclaimed that I had just moved into the biggest house a Snipe had ever lived in.  Multiple bedrooms, high ceilings, a fire place (yes, it actually gets quite cool in the evenings in Ethiopia), servants quarters, and a garden filled the calla lilies and zinnias.  Gardening on the weekends would soon become my favorite pastime during the two years in Addis.  The floral possibilities for this weekend gardener were endless.  

Before talking more about Iraq and the work we are doing here in the province, I thought it best to shed some light on my accommodations.   I, of course, had a pretty good sense of what I was getting into with a year at a PRT located on a military base in southern Iraq.  However, I couldn't help but think: you've got a law degree, you've travelled all over the world, you make a decent salary and . . . you now live in a trailer park (not that there's anything wrong with living in a trailer park . . . ). 

PRT Muthanna one of the few PRTs in Iraq where the staff is not located in the actual province.  Our office is located in the adjacent province, Dhi Qar, on a large military base, Tallil.  Tallil Air Base, like many of the other places in Iraq where coalition forces are posted, contains a mixture of military personnel, State Department and USAID officials, civilian contractors, and third country nationals. The streets are named after streets back home in the U.S., which makes you feel like you never left home.  Well, not exactly . . . 

Living in close quarters and working with soldiers, contractors, and third country nationals is an eye-opening experience.  Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) is the main contractor that provides the living accommodations, sanitation, and food services for the residents of Tallil.  

 

(Hmmmm. Should the same company be providing sanitation and food? Don't ask that question, Snipe, you've still got eleven and half months to go.)  

 

The trailers are decent in size and are well air conditioned.  This is essential because the mercury can climb well about 120 degrees over here.  With sandstorms a constant fixture in life here, KBR is also doing a good job at keeping the air conditioning vents clean and clear.    The bathrooms, believe it or not, are cleaned multiple times each day and, while it's not home, it's pretty decent.  The showers are scrubbed clean every morning, and I'm happy to report KBR is doing a heck of job in this department (unlike Brownie's heck of a job, but I digress . . .).   

 

The food at the chow hall could be a lot better, but with food prices back in the States at an all time high, I can't really complain about three squares a day on Uncle Sam.  It is a buffet and it feels a lot like having Cable TV back in the States: 300 channels, and not one program worth watching.  No lightly-steamed green beans or snap peas, I'm afraid. Much of the food here is deep-fried, but KBR manages to serve lots of fresh fruit and salads.  I do find something to eat each night, but you may want to buy stock in Trader Joe's now because when I get back, I'm going shopping on an empty stomach.    

 

It's been said by many who have served in Iraq that, you have an opportunity to become one of four kinds of people: a monk, a chunk, a hunk, or a drunk.  Not at all worried about the "drunk" designation, and I'm an ENTJ (a strong E) so not much chance of me becoming a monk.  So it looks like my clash of the titans will be chunk vs. hunk.  (Thank goodness our flak jackets have velcro . . . ).

 

Much like a neighborhood in a big city, people are busy here in Iraq and don't often have (or take) the time to stop and chat with their neighbors.  Shared bathrooms and shared showers can quickly break down barriers, but, then again, how comfortable is anyone starting up a conversation in a shower room?  People are here for many different reasons and it's always good to keep that in mind when meeting folks in Iraq.  The State Department Foreign Service Officers I work with all have very similar motivations: they volunteered to serve in Iraq at a time when the Department (and our country) needed us most.  Most of us have followed United States' Iraq policy carefully for the past five years (or more) and are now having a chance to cut our teeth on the most pressing foreign policy challenge in a generation.  For third country nationals, however, whose allegiances lie not with the United States, but with their own governments, the reasons for being in Iraq are altogether different. 

 

The Ugandan soldier, here to provide force protection at Tallil, I spoke with this morning was in Iraq to earn money for his family back in Kampala.  End of story.  No "advancing my career," and no "I'm interested in becoming an expert in Middle East affairs."  He'd been here for 14 months and was scheduled to leave in December.  I asked him what he liked about Iraq.  His response, "Absolutely nothing.  I just want to earn my salary and return home to my family."  I told him that I had visited his country a few years ago and that the best thing about Uganda was how verdant the land was.  He smiled broadly after hearing I'd spent some time in Kampala.  We chatted about the monstrous Marabou storks that haunt the roof tops and refuse piles of Uganda, and how much he missed his children back home.       

One nice part of working on Tallil Air Base is that real estate is at a real premium.  My office is located in one of the highest rent districts on the base, as is clearly evidenced by our address. 

(Hey, it ain’t New York, but if I can make here in Iraq, I can make it anywhere.)