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whosdavidphillips · 7 years ago

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My Trip to Iraq

2016-May-18

A blog about my travel to Iraq - Written by David Phillips

The journey to;

I flew from Winnipeg to Toronto at 10:45am on Wednesday May 18th, 2016. This is such a great time of the day to fly. You don’t need to wake up early, the airport is never too busy, and I had time to spend with the family in the morning, helping get the kids fed, dressed and ready for daycare. I hugged everyone extra hard. While I was sure I would be safe on my journey and return home in one piece, certainly the risks were higher than an average work trip or day in the field. I looked deep into Chantelle’s eyes. “I love you” I said, “I’ll come home to you, don’t worry”. With that they were off to daycare and work and I rushed back inside the house to get ready. I chose to travel with back packs. A day pack that was crammed with everything I'd need for an overseas flight and a 70L hiking pack, filled to the brim with rolled up shirts. Enough for 11 days. I hopped in a cab and headed to the airport nice and early. Avoiding as much stress on this part of my journey as I could.

The flight to Toronto was uneventful. I chatted with the person beside me who had his cottage roof go up in flames over the weekend. Not from the recent wildfires that were running rampant in Southeast Manitoba and Northwest Ontario, but from a few young, drunk neighbors shooting fireworks off at 1:00 in the morning. None of that seemed to matter. I wanted to be polite, but I didn't care, I was focused on the trip ahead. I was starting to wonder if I'd made the stupidest decision of my life. Feeling like I should maybe back out. Could I back out? I felt like I had no choice at this point. On an airplane, paid for by my company, about to board an intercontinental flight. I was stuck.

In Toronto I picked up my bag and waited for Rene. This gave me a chance to move some items around. Things I realized I didn’t need to take on the plane, and things I had in my checked luggage that I suddenly thought I might want. Rene arrived. He had far less equipment then I thought he would have. But everything was there, all the test instruments and hand tools we needed to test the Bio-safety cabinets. We line up to check in. No automated service with Austrian Air, in Toronto, we had to wait in this huge line. Finally we see the attendant for check in.

“Mr Phillips, you are traveling with Mr. Soetens?”

'Yes”, I reply, “I believe we are sitting together”?

“No, I'm sorry, there's a problem with your seats” the attendant says. I’m worried. What could that mean? Would one of us have to stay back? Would I have to navigate Vienna airport by myself? Rene knows some dutch which I was counting on for getting around.

“You’ve both been upgraded to business class”....

I couldn't keep the smile from jumping off the sides of my face. My dad has flown enough overseas for me to know, this is the only way to go! Priority lines and first class service all the way to Vienna.

We board first, priority service. The seats are amazing. A full cockpit with tables and lamps, plug ins of every kind. The seat is customizable in many ways, lumbar support, head support, full recline, and of course, full recline into a wonderfully comfortable bed. We’re offered a hot cloth and champagne as the rest of the plane boards. People scoff as they get on the plane. So many people. It was a huge plane. I don’t know what type it is. Huge. And Full. While everyone gets seated and the safety movie is showing, a chef, an actual chef, with the white fluffy hat and apron comes to take a few orders. First supper, atlantic salmon with all the trimmings and to compliment, I order a nice glass of white wine. He also takes our breakfast order, the menu is full of options. Eggs bendict, whole wheat pancakes, fruit, yogurts, eggs done any way you want, it goes on and on. I make my order and sit back to relax. It’s late for my body clock, but there are so many good movies to watch! I’m almost too excited to sleep! I finally convert my chair into a full bed and nod off. It feels like I just closed my eyes when I get a gentle rub on my shoulder. “Sir, it’s breakfast time, we’ll be landing in one hour” the attendant tells me. I sit my chair up and breakfast arrives, hot and fresh. This is the life….

We land in Vienna and navigate to the nearest washroom to freshen up. Funny how something as simple as a washroom, is so much different in another country. All the “things” are there, sink, toilet, mirror, ect, but everything is different! I got a good tip from my folks who fly internationally often. Change of socks and underwear, and all the toiletries to freshen up. I meet back up with Rene and I manage to make our way through the dutch signage to our gate for our Erbil flight. Plenty of time to spare. I Look around the boarding area. “So who else is crazy enough to go to Iraq” I wonder? There are several very well dressed business men. Nationals I assume. Several women with small children and babies. Families. All in all, no one looked crazy. The flight is half full. Erbil Iraq is part of the Kurdistan region and we have been informed that it is much more secure and stable than the rest of Iraq. It’s a fairly normal flight, although long, and we are in coach, which takes a bit of adjustment after the flight we had previously been on. We land in Erbil and pick up our bags; for some reason have to put them through a scanner on the way out! Our equipment sets off all kinds of red flags, as usual. The security guard asks “what's in the black case”. It’s one of those Pelican hard cases that’s waterproof and expensive. The kind that you know is holding something fancy. He wants it opened. We comply. He looks inside,

“what is this?” He asks in broken English.

Rene: “it's a photometer”.

Iraqi security guard, “yes, a photometer”.... He looked like he was embarrassed, as if he should have known that. Without further ado he clears the box and we’re off. We meet our security rep who greets and briefs us on a the security situation in Erbil. The trip is planned out very carefully by our hosts from the US. A certain level of security is provided at each location as soon as we enter Iraq.

“Erbil has very very good security” he says in his Iraqi accent, “safe here”. We start driving toward our hotel. The 5-star Divan, Erbil. As we are driving, we notice walls everywhere. Every community is gated and surrounded by walls. Some are sheet metal, some are stone, brick, concrete. There are a lot of buildings in the middle of construction. Cranes hang idle over tall cement structures. The skeletons of the buildings.

“There’s lots of construction here” Rene comments.

“Yes, last year we are building many buildings,” our local national security rep says “this year is stopped. No money. This year is not good year for Kurdistan. We cross our fingers and hope that next year will be better”.

We arrive at the front of our hotel entrance. It's gorgeous from the outside. Beautiful stone, gold trim, fountains, very luxurious looking. But as everything else is, it is surrounded by thick, tall concrete walls. We drive up to the front entrance of the gate. There’s a security shack and many guards. There's a heavy steel wall that comes up from the ground about 3 feet. The wall is above the bumper of our SUV, it’s clearly designed to stop anyone from forcefully driving in, I’d bet it would even stop a tank. The security rep knows the guards. We pull up, “Salam” he says. He speaks to them briefly and we are let through. The metal knee wall is lowered into the ground and we start to drive toward the front doors. Down from the entrance gate is a guard, hiding in bushes, watching us come in. He has a large assault rifle, in hand, ready to be used. He watches us carefully as we pass. As we pull up, vallets help us out and take our luggage. Metal detectors at the front entrance give us a second assurance of security. We check in and view our rooms. They are beautiful. If you ever find yourself in Erbil, I recommend the Divan hotel! We eat at the buffet, $50 American dollars each, but it’s well worth it. We eat and sleep well that night. Heading to Baghdad the next morning. Rene and I make a plan to meet around 10:00 local time. 10:05 rolls around so I knock on his door, he’s still sleeping! 13 hours worth of sleeping for him and he’s caught up and ready to roll!!!

Arrival in Baghdad;

The plane from Erbil to Baghdad is only an hour. It's an older plane, no features, just a tray in the seat back. We were given the exit aisle row because “we’re taller”, the booking agent said. The plane was barely half full, I start to wonder… Is it only crazies on this plane? Everyone looks at you with shifty eyes. “Because we are Canadian”? Or because they are wondering just how crazy we are?! Two white guys, one old, one young, heading to Baghdad Iraq. On the plane I review for a third or fourth time the BIAP (Baghdad International Airport) entry document prepared by Garda World . This extremely thorough document describing exactly the process for airport entry off the plane, through immigration and finally through customs. It has photos of the people who will meet us in the airport. The pilot announces that we are starting the decent. We are high in the sky still and start to go into a controlled downward spiral. I start looking out the window, as if I would be able to spot incoming small arms fire, something that has been a problem in the recent past. The Iraqi security force is able to keep a small area surrounding the airport secure, so the idea is the plane flies in at or near cruising altitude, gets inside that small bubble and then spirals downward within the bubble to land. It’s a bit rough, you get a bit disoriented. Looking around, it looks like it was just us who were feeling off, everyone else seemed to be used to this kind of decent. We drop into the airport, hot and heavy. The plane parks on the taxiway and a bus comes out to pick us up. It's crammed. Standing room only. We arrive at the arrivals terminal and debark. As soon as we walk in the door, I see one of the Garda world BIAP workers is there, holding a sign with our name on it. He greets us, in English and leads us to the appropriate immigration line. He explains, “we will go through this line, present our visas and he will meet us on the other side”. When it's our turn, we present our passports. The officer glances through the pages to see where else we’ve been. Mine’s mostly empty, Rene’s is mostly full! They look at both of our visas long and hard. The officer takes my passport into a side office. He's there for a while. I’m nervous and disorented. Is this really happening? I am really trying to get into Baghdad? Finally he comes back, stamps the passport and we are on our way. We meet up with staff from the ministry of Agriculture. They are they to assist in explaining our equipment to customs. We line up and scan the bags and boxes. As usual, the aerosol generator and air compressor box and the photometer box bring the scanning line to a halt. “Sir, open this” one of the customs agents say. “What is this”? He asks.

Rene comments “this is a test instrument”.

“Test instrument?”, the Iraqi agent mumbles to himself, “ok”.

And with that, we were sent on our way! Easy. Rene commented to me that, it was the easiest customs entry he has ever had. It's harder to get out of the Toronto airport flying regionally then it was for us to enter Baghdad Iraq. Our BIAP hosts leads us to a special pick up spot. Most people are not allowed to drive up to the airport. They must take a bus to a “meeting area” outside of the final and most secure BIAP check points. Our security team drives right up to us with a white Toyota Land Cruiser that has been modified to be a certified B6 armored vehicle. A guy with a strong Scottish accent gets out.

“Good day gents” he says right away. “I’m Paul, your expat team leader. If you want to give me your bags and hop into the back of the vehicle, I’ll give you a bit of a security briefing and we’ll be off”. It's hot, bright. The driver opens the doors for us, I immediately notice the two body armor vests on the floor between the seats. We jump in, the air conditioning is powerful! Paul explains right away, “I'm not going to make you wear the body armor gents, but if you’d like, or you feel uncomfortable, you can put it on at any time”. Holy shit, I’m thinking…… What the hell are we doing here…

“Okay gents, what we’re going to do is give you gents a bit of a briefing, then head out of here and go directly into the international zone, the IZ. We’ll take you gents on a bit of a tour of the IZ and then we’ll drop you off at Dojo’s where you’ll meet Sean, my operations manager and he’ll take you from there, okay gents?”. He’s done this before…..

Paul continues, “ Now, basic security briefing here gents. The road from the BIAP to the IZ is pretty safe now. There's quite a lot of checkpoints, you’ll need your passport on you and they may want to search the vehicle. Just listen to my instructions and follow what I say. There's a medical kit in the back and I am a certified field medic. If anything happens, get as low as you can in the car and we’ll drive drive drive. If something happens to this vehicle, either my chariot vehicle at the back or the alpha vehicle at the front will pull alongside. Listen to my instructions on which side to exit, stay low, one foot on the ground and next up into the vehicle ya, and we’ll drive drive drive. If I push this button (he motions to a special button near the dash) that will signal the GW operations room that we need help and they, will send a strike force to our location. Okay gents, any questions? Are ya ready to go?”. We nod, and with that we were off. I’ll admit, there’s a bit of grin on my face that I try to hide…. This is cool….. Really cool….. Who does this kind of stuff?!

On the way to the IZ, Paul explains the road from the BIAP to the IZ, called the Irish road, used to be the most dangerous road in the world. Snipers would set up along the road and shoot cars containing westerners on a regular basis. IEDs along the roadside were commonplace. He says, that's all changed now, now it might be the safest road in the world. We pass our first check stop. A considerable amount of soldiers are milling about, all carrying AK-47’s. There are three or four army hummers with urban camouflage paint and large guns mounted on the top at various positions around the check stop. Our driver, who is a local national, flashes his IZ pass and we get waved on. I notice as we are driving, there are elevated cement turrets all over along the road. Some manned, with guns on tripods sticking out, some empty. We pass a large armored personnel carrier with several guns of varying sizes sticking out from different positions. A large, real deal, army tank sits by the side of the road, poised and ready to blow something big to oblivion. Another check stop. More turrets. And again, another check stop. This time we pull into a bay and turn off the car. An IED sniffing dog makes a pass around our three vehicle convoy. We are cleared to go and head into the IZ. Things feel a little more relaxed in the IZ. It’s basically a large area, probably 20 or 30 square city blocks. It backs against the ancient Euphrates river and has 6 entry points by road. All entry points are highly guarded, typically with at least two different guard stations on the way in. Iraqi security guards as well as Iraqi special forces man multiple stations on the same entry point. They don’t trust each other’s security screening. Very large, thick concrete walls surround the entire IZ upto the river. We pass various palaces, they are beautiful. These are the palaces that Saddam built while he was still in power. He spared no expense. We pass the Iraqi Prime Minister's office, British and Australian embassies. We take a drive past the US embassy. It's massive. Would be at least 4 or 5 city blocks together. It took about 3 or 4 minutes to drive from one end of the embassy to the other. “It's the biggest embassy in the world gents” Paul tells us. There are regular looking buildings in the IZ too. Every building, palace, office is surrounded by yet another fence, sometimes sheet metal, sometimes chain link with barbed wire. We also pass a hospital, “that’s where we’ll take you if you need a doctor gents”, Paul tells us. “it’s a good one, where ever we are, we’ll try to make it back here if you need medical care. You’ll be safe there.” We drive on a bit more, not many people around. Some vehicles, stray dogs, but for the most part, it’s quiet in the IZ. “Alright gents, I’ll take ya to Dojo’s”, Paul says.

We arrive at this battered metal gate with several vehicles out front. I notice what looks like a small guard shack, there's a guard there with an Ak-47. Not slung over his shoulder, but in his hands, ready to use if needed. Sean comes out to greet us. He is the Garda World operations commander. He is the one who calls the shots with our security team. Another British bloke. He has a gentle but serious face. White hair. He's checks us in and shows us around. The dojo’s compound is really nice on the inside, you’d never know it looking at it from the street. Green grass and local vegetation in the front court yard. Several well furnished sitting areas. We pass a nice court yard with a sitting area outside. He shows us the restaurant, it's a few 4 x 4 posts with a 2 x 4 frame and a tin roof. Plexi glass walls. It has nice flooring and several wood tables. There are large air conditioners stationed all over the place. It's hot. Next we cross the road into the remainder of the Dojo's compound, It’s split on both sides of the road we came in on. We see the gym, it’s a typical military type gym, weights, a treadmill, chin up bar and a punching bag. We view the meeting room and finally the pool. The pool area is lovely, wooden and tile deck, 2 lounge chairs, large trees surrounding. Sean takes us back across to the other side and to our rooms. Inside our residence building there's a nice pool table and dartboard. I open my room. It's older, outdated carpet and an older looking twin bed. It's Iraq! This is a 4 star hotel (for real, check trip advisor)! We drop our luggage and the body armor we’ve been given to hold onto. Sean tells us, “let’s meet at half two in the front and I’ll give you a quick security briefing. We drop our bags and stretch a bit. There’s a sense of calm, of safety. Not many people are able to stay in the safe confines of the IZ, let alone at a hotel with an armed guard at the front. We head out to meet Sean. He gives us a general security briefing, detailing extraction procedures should we need to flee dojo’s for safer ground. The Garda World compound is literally a 2 minute drive, at normal speeds from Dojo's. Sean tells us to freshen up and head to the briefing room for 15:45.

The detailed brief we received was from someone called “the RAM”. Risk Assessment Manager. This person knows as much as there is to know about the area and the people. It is his job to review the latest developments and make appropriate recommendations regarding safety, and the risk of tracking to the proposed area. We get a history of Iraq, information about the different religious groups, namely the Shi’a and the Sunni, and we get a lot of details about the breach of the IZ compound which happened on April 30. I’d been reading so much about this breach. It was a really big deal. A “million man march” swarmed the IZ check point gates and forced their way in. Many of these people were related to the guards. What could they do? They certainly wouldn't be shooting family members. The breach caught everyone in the IZ off guard, no one had any idea it was about to take place. These protestors broke into the PMs office and parliament buildings. They were upset at the current government's inability to bring change and their efforts to keep the IZ and themselves safe while the rest of Baghdadian’s and Iraqi’s were dying in terrorist attacks. People literally wandered the IZ with a free pass. We would later hear from one of the semi-permanent residences of Dojo that they just suddenly noticed a large number of people walking past the Dojo’s entrance, with no idea what was going on! The breach and other similar demonstrations/ actions were mostly organized by Moqtada Sadr. The RAM mentioned at the end of this presentation the high unlikelihood of something like that happening again. He chuckled a bit, It was embarrassing to the Iraqi government, showed weakness. The government just wouldn’t allow it…..

18:15…. I’m mostly unpacked, snapping photos of myself wearing body armor and letting my family and friends know I arrived. There’s wifi and I have an international package on my phone, it has good reception. Iraq is on ATZ time, 9 hours ahead of Winnipeg. Someone knocks at the door. It's John, one of the Garda World team leaders, an equal to Paul who led us from the airport. He’s british as well! He has also knocked on Rene’s door, who’s right beside me, and Rene is in the hallway as well.

“Guys, I just want to let you know about a bit of a situation that is developing”, he says in his strong Scottish accent. “A few protesters are starting to gather at one of the check points. It's probably nothing, but if things get worse, we’ll extract you to the Garda world HQ. If you could, please pack a day bag with your personal items and have it ready”.

“A few protesters”, I comment to Rene and John, “that doesn’t sound too bad”.

“Well it's a few hundred”, John shares. But it's far less than it was last time, so we think things will be under control”. With that he's off and we get a few things packed up. About 15 minutes later, Sean arrives at our door to fill us in. He's told us the numbers have increased. Probably a thousand people. But they haven't breached the IZ yet. We are to continue to wait and see how things unfold. I let my wife know what's up via a text. I start to notice some banging noise. It sort of sounds like someone opening and closing the doors over and over again upstairs. I’m relaxed, but things are starting to get a little tense. I’m not going to overreact though. Another knock at the door. It's Rene. “Come outside a moment” he says. We exit the residence building and the noises become clear as day. “BOOM”. “Rat-tat-tat-tat”. “BOOM, BOOM”. It reminds me of a very active thunderstorm with someone shooting off fireworks at the same time. But it's not a thunder storm. It's explosions and the sound of automatic rifles shooting off. I can’t believe my ears. I sit down in the courtyard and listen. It continues with intensity. Non stop explosions (I assumed grenades) and automatic weapons. I call Chantelle. She's panicky before I even say anything. “I called your parents” she says “I could hardly tell them what was happening”.

“See if you can hear this love,” I say and hold the phone up into the air. I hold it there for about 10 seconds as the explosions and guns fire continue. As I am doing this, a semi distressed looking Sean, the ops commander, comes bursting around the corning. “Okay boys, we’re gonna go, get your things, grab your body armor.”

I’m sitting outside still. Up until that moment, I had continued to feel fairly relaxed, that quickly ended. “I gotta go babe, we’re gonna go”. She already knew what that meant. We were being extracted to the ultra secure Garda world compound.

“Okay babe be safe” she says “I love you”.

I frantically grab my body armor and bag, already packed up with everything, and Rene and I quickly make our way to the armored car already running and waiting for us, doors open. We hop in and go. I can’t remember if there was any conversation in the car. I kept looking for signs of the action. We arrive at Garda in what feels like seconds. “Okay boys, follow me” Sean says. We head passed several of the toughest looking guys I’ve ever seen. Some with rifles, some with handguns on their hips. We are taken to the GW operations command room and are seated very comfortably in front of a TV.. Cricket is playing. Rene and I look at each other and laugh a bit. “Hell of a first day” the Ops Commander says. We’re joined by a couple of British fellows who are also there working and under the protection of Garda World. We chat and talk about cricket, eat some supper and watch more TV. Things seem to be calming down outside. The Ops Commander brings out a bottle of gin.

“At times like this, I think a gin and tonic is in order” he says. One of the Brits pours everyone a stiff Gin and tonic. It's nice. Takes the edge off the situation. We are constantly trying to find out whether the IZ had been breached. I’m searching Twitter and Iraqi news. Twitter is full of photos of protectors inside the IZ but with no real way of knowing whether they were current. Around 22:00 we return to dojo’s. “No movements tomorrow guys” Sean says “there's a city wide curfew in effect and the IZ has been completely locked down and sealed”. We’ll reassess tomorrow for movements on Sunday. It's Friday today. That's significant. Friday is the start of the Muslim weekend. They gather for special prayers and often afterwards congregate in public areas. The specific one of interest is Tahrir square, near check point 1 of the IZ. Protestors are easily able to cross a bridge from there and head towards the IZ. Rene and I make a plan to meet for breakfast and call it a night. That's day one in Baghdad.

Day two is spent relaxing, there's nothing else we can do. We are not allowed to travel outside the IZ for work and we are not allowed to leave Dojo’s compound. We hit the pool late morning. It's wonderful. Hot whether +38C, cool water. Rene and I read and chat for a few hours. We head in for lunch and do it all over again in the afternoon. When we’re not at the pool, i’m catching up on work. Rene's watching TV. Sean arrives at some point in the early evening and tells us we will be allowed to go to the CVL (central veterinary lab) tomorrow. This is good news. We prepare our equipment. The CVL houses the majority of our work. I take some time to review the GW reconnaissance info package. GW will not travel anywhere without first sending a reconnaissance team to get a lay of the land and an assessment of both the security measures in place, and the ability of the facility to defend itself. Each night, I had been setting my alarm at 3:00 AM to wake up and video call the kids before they went off to daycare. Rene and I hit the hay in good time. Pick up is at 08:30.

Day three. We load the armored Toyota Land Cruiser with our equipment, and the security team helps us into our body armor. I was a bit surprised that we were going to be wearing body armor while traveling, but maybe I shouldn’t have been. John takes us out on this trip, he's the ex pat and security detail leader. We have three vehicles. An alpha vehicle in the front, us in the middle and the chariot vehicle bringing up the rear. They are all B60 armor Toyota Land Cruisers. We get another briefing. He talks about the potential for another protest to start today. We will only allow 4 hours at this site. We need to be back at Dojo's should any protests start later in the day. We start driving, John explains to us the traffic rules… “There are no rules”, he says. “Everyone does what they want and drives where they want. There is one working traffic light in Baghdad.” I watch as the alpha vehicle skillfully pulls into traffic. He takes command of the road, he angles himself so as to block the flow for us and the chariot vehicle to enter. It's incredible to see. Cars everywhere, no order, no rules. People squeeze 4 cars into 3 painted lanes. Somehow though, we navigate through unscathed. At one point a large van tries to cut us off, I watch John shoot the driver the meanest, dirtiest look I have ever seen. If looks could kill, this car would have exploded. The driver of the van stops and signals us in, as if he had a choice. People stare at us as we drive. I’m sure we draw all kinds of attention. Not sure that's a good thing. I ask John what the locals drive. “Do those who can afford an armor car buy them”?

“No he says, it's actually illegal for nationals to own armored vehicles”.

That seems off. These people, if they had the means to afford it, still couldn't get safe vehicles to travel in? I'm starting to see the bigger picture here. That cause for the protests. They aren't allowed in the ultra safe IZ, they aren't allowed to own armored cars. They have to shop at markets and use cafes which carry the highest risks of bombings.

We arrive at the CVL and are greeted by the director, Basem. He is very happy to have us. He insists on us going into his office. I’ll later learn that this is common and is a sign of mutual respect, an office meeting prior to any work. It's large and very nice, couches and chairs run along each side leading up toward his desk. He offers coffee, tea and cookies. Something I read before coming to Iraq was that you must never refuse an offer outright. Iraqis are very generous people and it would be rude to do so. “You come to my house for dinner tonight” he says.

“Well we’ll see how the day goes, our security team will only let us out for 4 hours today” Rene says. In fact we should get working soon”. The power cuts out. This happens all the time in Iraq. The power grids can't handle the load. Only the IZ is safe from the rolling power outages. No one panics, it's normal! It comes back on about 15 seconds later. With that, we get started. No less than 15 lab staff join us to watch. People are taking pictures of everything we do. I write in my notebook “Scanlaf Mars 1200”, the name of the bio cabinet we are testing. Someone pops in and takes a picture of that! This continues throughout. We continue testing, Rene talks about proper lab techniques and bio cabinet use. We start to push our time there. I can see John is starting to get worried. He’s pacing a bit and getting antsy.

“It's time to go” he sternly tells me in his Scottish accent. I frantically start packing up equipment, not sure what to expect outside of the secure lab compound. We rush. The director wants us to stay for lunch. “What kind of wine do you prefer Mr. David” he asks.

“Well, red I suppose, but Basem, our security force is telling us, we must go, we have to listen to them, they are the boss “. I tell our contact.

Rene and I get back into the body armor and load the vehicle. We get moving quickly. John points out groups of people starting to gather together. “This is the kind of thing we watch for” he says. We get back to Dojo's in good time and go for lunch. It's about 13:30 when we are back. After lunch we realize….. It's hot….. we better head to the pool! What choice do we have really?!!! No protests end up taking place. This is a good thing, it means we'll be allowed out the next day.

Day 4. We return to the CVL and get working right away. Taking the same drive twice in a row, you really start to take notice of the city along this route. There are many beautiful large homes, several large buildings. Ministry building we are told. We pass a market, it’s what you’d expect, things just scattered about everywhere. Old parts salvaged from cars and trucks. A lot of places sell air conditioners. For the most part, the buildings we see are intact, not blown to bits with debris everywhere as you see on the news. But, it’s clear, the people are tired, distressed. Some people move frantically, as if their actions may help guard their life. Some people lazily swagger through the markets, as if they don’t have a worry about what might happen. This is life in Iraq for many. And for many, it’s a great city with many things to offer. The staff at the CVL seem like they are happy. They have a good job in a secure facility. There are men and women working side by side. Everyone is so friendly. One Iraqi lady takes a shine to me. She reminds me of the “large” jolly Nun in Sister Act, but a middle eastern version. At one point in the day she asks if I’m married, I think she’s trying to set me up with her daughter! I chuckle! She wants a picture of us! Rene and I work away hard and fast. Anything that can be done off site is left, such as reporting. We want to maximize our time there and we work efficiently. We split up at one point with the equipment. Are we letting our guard down? We don’t think so. The facility is safe and there are a couple GW guards for each of us. Things go well, we do more than we were assigned to do. Everyone is happy. Basem has a gift for us before we go. A traditional Iraqi scarf. “when you’re fishing you put it on your back “ he says and shows us how to hold the scarf and wear it. He folds it corner to corner and drapes it over Rene’s shoulders like a cape.

“And when it's hot you put it on your head. Very good for keeping your warm in cold Canada.” He takes the “cape” off of Rene’s shoulders and drapes it in the same way over his head. One of the younger lab workers whom I hit it off with helps put my scarf on my head in the way you’d commonly see Middle Eastern headscarves worn wrapped around men’s heads. We’re honoured. We return to Dojo’s around 14:40 and head for lunch. “I guess we better hit the pool again Rene” I say.

Day 5 we travel to Al Nahrain medical college. It's located in a mostly Sha’i area of town. While the school is well protected, sha’i areas are very dangerous to be in. We pull up to security and are denied entry. We must wait for some director to come down and let us in. “maybe 5 to 10 minutes” the local national team rep says. Paul turns to us and says “that's half an hour in Iraqi terms”. We wait. And wait. We start to get nervous. We are sitting in a three vehicle, armored convoy on the side of a busy roadway. It's a hospital as well as school so cars are pulling up and dropping people off continually. We start to get really worried, any of these cars could have a UVIED (under vehicle improvised explosive device). Sitting in one place for too long can be very dangerous. Anyone driving by, or who sees us could call someone about “VIP’s in armored cars” on the side of the road. The phone rings for the ops commander, Paul. Just at the same moment, local national team leader, who is our representative to the Iraqis comes to the door of our SUV. The escort is here. We are good to go, we can enter. Thank goodness. We find out a day later that the phone call was the operations Center telling us to get the hell out of there. They track all the vehicles with gps while we are away and they had seen that we were just sitting on the side of the road for too long. They wanted us to evacuate the area immediately. I'm glad we gained entry to the college though. We go through and test the equipment there, total failures. Nothing is working right. We tour the campus, it's beautiful. Life is present. Young adults are everywhere. Kids with stethoscopes, people in lab jackets. Baghdad is not in ruins, it's alive and thriving. At least in this location. We drive home and get lunch. At this point, we are on a roll, it's +44C, time to hit the pool :)

Day 6, if things go well, our last day of work. We travel to the holy city of Karbala. Driving on the highway seemed a bit risky. There are cars and large trucks everywhere. But we sail safely through and into the medical labs. The landscape was beautiful. Sort of a desert tundra. No areas of just sand, the way this area is portrayed on “Three Kings”. There are palm trees and small shrubs everywhere. Lots of people on the side of the road, cleaning and selling Carp. Kids, ahead of every check stop, selling water. At one point we see a small shack/ booth set up on the side of the road with raw meat carcases hanging up for sale. Just sitting there, in the heat of the sun…. We easily gain entry to the hospital. It’s a secure site but it is also a public hospital. We go in through the back entrance and park. We have to head through a very busy lab area. Women in full black and brown Burka’s everywhere. We squeeze through un-scathed. The unit we test there is damaged beyond repair. The staff has used a propane burner inside for sterilizing their inoculation loops, a big no no in a bio cabinet. They have melted the airflow probe, something critical for operation. I do everything I can, but I can‘t pass the unit or even get it working. We pack up and start to head home. We are called into the hospital director's office. Again, we don’t have too much of a choice, we must go. We are served chia, a traditional Iraqi sweet tea. They talk about touring us around Karbala, to some of the Holy sites. We’d love to see this while we were there, but our security team immediately declines on our behalf. They want us to go to another hospital to check another unit. We want to. After all, we are there to help. While we have charged a good amount for this trip, we are there to help, not make money. Our team again, declines. Maybe they are right. Would someone be there to kidnap us? Who knows. Probably not, but best be safe. My neck is killing me. 4 hours of driving wearing body armor will do that to you! On our drive home, we are quiet, looking at the sites of the roadway. Suddenly we hear a very loud BANG. I jump, Rene jumps, the vehicles swerves slightly and we look out the windshield to see whats happening. Our ex pat security lead didn’t jump, he grabbed his rifle and is ready to use it. The driver too, driving with one hand on the wheel and one hand on his rifle which still sits between the center console and his seat. We all look out the window trying to asses what’s happened… The truck driving beside us has blown a tire. The ex pat leader puts his gun down. “That’ll wake you up gents, nothing to worry about”. I’m done…. I’m tired, exhausted. In Iraq, you must always be alert. Always on. You must be watching, listening, thinking at all times, even sleeping is only half relaxing. It’s time to get out of Baghdad. This is the one and only day, I don’t hit the pool. Rene goes. But there is too much work for me to do. Either way, I am happy, we depart Baghdad tomorrow. We get the last two tickets on the plane.

Leaving Baghdad;

We have an early pick up. 06:15. Body armor, 3 cars again. Heavy security check points. We see humvees and tanks everywhere. Soldiers and sandbags, turrets outfitted with guns on tripods. Very heavily armed. Things are at a high alert level after the second breach of the IZ while we were there. At one point we have to leave the vehicles. The doors are left open, trunk and hood are opened also. Dogs come around to check for explosives. We get back in. At the next checkpoint we have to take our bags to an x ray scanner. They go through and we get back in the car. The airport is still a 10 minute drive away but they want to stop anyone dangerous from getting even close to the BIAP. It's smooth sailing after this. We chose to use the vip terminal which has really comfortable seats and breakfast. They take our luggage and put it through. They escort us to the gate and we get to bypass the lines. VIP’s!! It's nice. We board and land in Erbil again, about 60 minutes later. We have a long 5 hour layover. There one shop to sit at. After security, there is again just one cafe to sit down at. The time goes slowly. Finally we board the plane and head for Vienna. 4 hours. Once we arrive we drop our carry on luggage at the airport hotel and Rene and I head to downtown Vienna. We wander the downtown area looking at old buildings. It's wonderful. We are relaxed. We can let our guard down a bit. We have schnitzel and beers outdoors. It's so peaceful and safe in public. While we never felt unsafe in Iraq, there is certain calm about being back in normal civilization. We take the second last train of the night back and hit the hay. The next morning breakfast is incredible. Anything you could want. We board the plane for Toronto. It's a 9 hour flight. We are at the very back of the plane. I guess you can't complain when you switch flights 24 hours before it departs. I'm just happy to get getting home. Period. And two days early at that. After Toronto, 2 and a half more flight hours and i’ll be home. I can’t wait to see the kids! I can wait to hold Chantelle.

What An experience. I almost miss it already. I think I might want to go back….

David Phillips

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