City Life

A colleague said today (Wednesday) that he and his family spent much of the previous evening making sandwiches and distributing them to motorists in Baghdad trapped in their cars as police imposed stringent roadblocks throughout the city, reacting to a series of bombings earlier in the day.


AP Photo

There was also an attack earlier in the week on a Syrian church, which was where another colleague told me he himself had been baptized.


Reuters

The German Press Agency (DPA) reported streets were in "gridlock" all of Wednesday.


Photo: Michael J. Totten

Strange. Maybe the DPA meant gridlock the previous evening. When I drove around Baghdad today, streets were busy but traffic was moving at a normal pace, and sidewalks were crowded with shoppers, more or less like the picture above. The cloudless sky was a brilliant blue, and temperatures were in the high 70s (20s celsius). Nice day, but for the memory of what had happened the day before in another part of town.

Grits and Oatmeal

Like many military and embassy employees worldwide, we get mail privileges. Good thing, too, since we can't just pop over to the Iraqi post office. Today it was like Christmas in August, everything came at once!



Now don't get me wrong -- the cafeteria here is fantastic -- especially the deserts! But there are a couple of dishes our cooks from India and Jordan don't quite get right. They do serve oatmeal, though it's a bit overcooked and soggy. And they do serve grits, but they add (horrors) sugar to it, plus it's so runny it has to be served in a bowl. Their coffee is strong, but somehow not quite the way I like it.



So I pop over for some nice Awal juice boxes and maybe some cheese from the cafeteria, which I carry back to the house. Tomorrow it's steel cut oatmeal!

Youth Job Center Launch

Clear skies and 115 degrees (in the shade). Lovely day for a trip into town to launch a youth employment center. I put on a tie and tucked it into my shirt so that it wouldn't snag on the armored vest velcro. I packed my jacket in a bag to keep the dust off during the transit.



The only serious incident of the day happened right at the beginning. There was a receiving line when we arrived. Some adorable little girls held out baskets of candy, so I took one -- the whole basket... everyone burst out laughing and very politely explained to me that I was to take just one piece of candy. I gave the basket back. All in good fun!

We first toured the youth center classrooms, trailed closely by the local press corps, including a smattering of the American press -- a reporter from the Christian Science Monitor was there. I hung out in the back, so no one paid much attention to me. This particular project I'd tasked to one of my staff, a superbly competent Iraqi, so I let him run the show -- in the next picture he's got his back to the camera and is chatting with the Minister of Trade, who had a question about loans for small businesses.



In the rear garden a huge tent had been erected, complete with air conditioning. The principals and a few key staff sat at a table on stage. A dozen young people sat in the center of the audience, and came up later to receive graduation certificates handed out by the youth center. There were other dignitaries in the audience, and family. The tent was quite full.



A constant stream of waiters distributed water and more sweets. My, they were delicious. It was nice not to be up on the stage. I snacked and took pictures. The coffee man made the rounds, wearing his bandolier (empty of munitions) dispensing slurps of very strong brew, which is a very nice custom indeed.



After the program, there were interviews for local TV. We had a simultaneous translator at the boss's elbow, but much of the conversation was in English. It was a bit raucous with simultaneous interviews right next to each other.



Since our security team made us wear full gear for the 20 minute transit to and from, it was nice to be in a car with superb air conditioning.

Memoriam

They were contract guards, mostly there to check cars and IDs at the entrances to compounds and embassies, hailing from either Peru or Uganda. Both countries have also known serious armed struggle, Uganda more recently. There was an attack in Uganda itself just a few weeks ago during the World Cup.

These guards might have been from poor families, seeking a future for their children -- the Ugandans both left behind children, not sure about the Peruvian. They might as well have been from wealthier communities, simply seeking fortune and adventure.



These three, out of thousands serving in Iraq, were all felled by a single lucky shot from a random rocket. The evening memorial service was largely led by the Ugandan community, which had formed a religious choral group singing traditional call-and-response in both English and Swahili. A Peruvian chaplain translated. Three helmets atop wooden crosses, boots and ID badges neatly lined up in front.



The dining facility where the service was held was packed, maybe 400 people, and some were turned away. There was a box at the door collecting donations for the families, which raised $8000 in addition to what would be received from the employer.

Mansaf

I asked my driver Ala'a what best to have for lunch. When in Jordan, there's really no question.


First Lunch

This is how it looks in a restaurant, served nicely in two bowls, where you scoop sauce and meat bit by bit into the bowl of rice, very similar to how one might eat this in a West African restaurant. At home, however, it's served communally on a big platter, more like this:


Traditional Mansaf Presentation

According to Wikipedia: "The lamb is cooked in a broth made with a fermented then dried yogurt-like product called jameed, and served on a large platter with a layer of flatbread (markook or shrak) topped with rice and then meat, garnished with almonds and pine nuts, parsley and then sauce poured over all."

The meat fell off the bone, wonderfully tender. The soup was tangy from the yogurt, but also creamy with butter. There's a bit more about this dish here, prominently on a Government of Jordan website -- they take this very seriously.

My first meal in Jordan. Superb!

Ghana has Gone -- to the Finals!!

There was something poignant about being in Nigeria during their ignominious defeat by Ghana at the Cup of African Nations semifinals. The match was played in Luanda, Angola.


Restaurant patrons in Abuja airport intensely watch televised Ghana-Nigeria match.

We watched from the airport in Abuja while waiting for a flight to Lagos. All nonessential activity in the airport was shut down for the match. All eyes were on the TV sets that each shopkeeper and office had brought in for the event.





Headlines in one local newspaper screamed "Ghana must Go!" which was the slogan Nigerians used many years ago when they evicted Ghanaian citizens from their territory.



It is also the name that some Nigerians and Ghanaians still give to the plastic woven sacks sewn into bags and used to carry large loads of clothing. Those were the bags used by many unhappy Ghanaians as they boarded flights (if they were lucky) or overloaded vans (if they were not lucky) to depart Nigeria.


Ghana striker in white battles two Nigerians in Cup of Nations match.

Ghanaians still remember, and so the win over Nigeria this time around must have been particularly sweet. Ghana now takes on Egypt in the finals. All this sets up the World Cup in South Africa in June, where Ghana has also won a spot in arguably one of the world's most widely watched sporting events. Ghana will represent Africa in the World Cup no matter what happens in this weekend's final with Egypt in Angola.

Accragio Basses

Rehearsal for Accragio this evening at my home, first for me of 2010, though the group met a couple of times in my absence. The 2010 repertoire is online in case you'd like to join us.



The empty seat just beyond the first bass singer is my seat -- abandoned to shoot a quick video!

It's a rehearsal. Check back in a couple of months once we figure it out... :)

Modern Airports

My flight arrived Accra's Kotoka International Airport on Saturday from Amsterdam on time, and passage through immigration took about 5 minutes, the officer offering me a "welcome back sir" when he noticed the residence permit in my passport.



In the arrival hall, I figured my bags would take awhile. I'd carried with me quite a few spare parts for my little sailboat, including a pole about 7 feet long that I'd packaged, with the help of a good friend in Washington, inside a plastic pipe sealed at both ends with tape. No way that pipe would fit on the conveyor, so I inquired and learned that "bulk hold" items would be delivered soon.

There was an announcement, and my name was mentioned. At the information desk I was told that one of my two checked bags had not made the flight, but would be delivered the next day. I guessed that the pipe didn't make it, but I guessed wrong when a young man walked up to me with the pipe on his shoulder. A form had already been filled out for me, so I signed and was through customs and out to the car 5 minutes later.



The next afternoon, Sunday, I received a call from a woman who identified herself as Faustina. She said the bag was on the flight, but I should call her cell phone that evening to confirm. When I called, she said she'd seen the bag and it was awaiting pickup.



On Monday I drove to the airport, about 15 minutes from my home. A baggage claim official walked me back to the storage room, and indeed the bag was there. Another form, and then a customs official came to interview me, asking for my passport, which I'd neglected to bring. "Well sir, you really should bring your passport next time." She checked my ID, glanced quickly at my bag, and encouraged me to have a good day.



Back at the house, I discovered that all three bottles of wine had arrived in the bag, unbroken, along with additional boat parts and everything else. The bag had not been locked. Of course there are lots of shops in Accra that sell all kinds of wine from all over the world, including some pretty nice ones from France, so even if the wine had been lost, I could have easily replaced it. But this was special wine I'd just purchased while on holiday with my mother in Saulieu. I was indeed having a very good day.