Working with my boys! Putting up formwork and mixing mortar.
With 1000s upon 1000s of people from all over the world, hanging out in Iraq, you may be wondering where I fit into the picture (And I’m only assuming this because you’re reading my blog).
The Army Corps of Engineers over sees construction all over Iraq—on and off bases. In fact, the smaller, more remote bases have mostly if not ALL their projects outside the wire. This equates to projects FOR the Iraqi people. I’m located at Camp Victory in the Gulf Region Central (GRC) area. It’s the largest base, and as troop numbers decrease, the smaller bases will begin to close shop and migrate their people out of Iraq or into GRC. Another words, I’m located at the Flagpole.
Victory is so large there are actually two offices to cover the work (we’re just conveniently located in the same building). I work for Victory South Residence Office (VRSO) and the other is Victory Resident Office (VRO).
I do not know the exact number of projects my office is responsible for, but I’m guessing it’s in the range of 30-45. The ones on base are usually bigger dollar amounts since their usually for the military and have a lot of “requirements”. However, the majority of our projects are outside the wire, less money but, in my opinion, the most important projects. These projects include building schools, police stations, hospitals, roads, bridges, sewage treatment facilities, infrastructure for public sewage, etc. Baghdad is located on the Tigris River. This same river that was use for drinking water, was (is) also used for bathing, washing clothes, and disposing of “waste.” Imagine a population of 6.5 million people doing this everyday, and the pollutants caused by 6.5 million people everyday. The Corps has worked with the military to set up public sewage lines and treatment facilities for a lot of Baghdad to help clean their water.
The canals that run through Victory (that I discussed in my last blog) are also connected to the Tigris. There are water and waste water treatment plants on base as well that feed back into the Tigris, which also helps to send cleaner water back out than what came in.
The way our office is set up is that we have Americans and Local Nationals (Iraqis) working side by side. The Local Nationals do most of the oversight for the projects outside the wire because it’s safer for them. The Americans will help to manage the projects, we can’t not go out to the jobsite on a daily basis. So, since it is safe for the Iraqis to travel outside the wire (most live a normal life in Baghdad), they are the eyes and the ears on those projects. And in my opinion, these are the most important projects since these are the rebuilding of Iraq (the schools, hospitals, police stations etc), and theses Local Nationals are the real heroes. As I said, most of them do not live here on base, but instead travel in to Camp Victory from outside when nessacy for work. This is almost everyday. They keep their badges hidden—in their shoes, pants anywhere out of site-- until they arrive at the gate. They take different routes from time to time so their activities don’t draw attention, and most keep their job secret even from their families and friends. Waleed, for example, the project engineer for my projects, (I can use his name because Waleed is the “Mike” of Iraq – good luck finding which Waleed I’m talking about!) told me that his family knows he is a civil engineer working for a construction company, but he is vague with any details that would give away WHO he works for. His family lives a normal life, and he will not tell anyone who he works for in his family (and his) best interest.
My projects, as you probably guessed, are on base. But, it’s still interesting to say the least. There are some American contractors over here, but a lot of the work is done by Iraqi contractors. And unfortunately, most of the better qualified contractors won’t work on military bases because the security checks to get their workers on the base is, well, thorough to say the least. Every single day, thousands of Iraqis come on base to work. Every single one has to get their badge scanned, retinas scanned, fingers scanned, multiple IDs checked, etc. No cell phones, no cameras allowed. They even leave their car at the gate parking lot and an armed escort takes the crew to their project site. They may get to the gate at 7am and not actually get THROUGH the gate until 9 or 10am. And then they need to leave by 3 or 330pm because it can take a few hours to get back through security at the end of the day as well. And they all have to be out by 6pm. So they work 10-3 with an hour lunch. 4-5 hour days. Again, we don’t get the best contracting companies because they don’t want to spend the time or expense to get every single worker through the gate just work a few hours and come back out.
And personally, I don’t blame them. The Iraqi contractors don’t pay their laborers for time spent waiting at the gate, which often limits them to a 4-5 hour paid day. I know if I had the option of going through a 3 hour rigourous security check every day, work half a day and then spend 2-3 more hours going through security AGAIN--in a 120 degree heat--every. single. day. OR!!
work outside, get paid twice as much because days are twice as long and NOT be under investigation everyday of my life—I’d choose the latter!
Wouldn’t you?
Wouldn’t you?
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