Colosseum

Originally uploaded by The Toze

I got an early start and decided to do the open air bus. I got off at the third stop, the Collosseum at around 9:15 a.m. and then was in the Collosseum until 11:00 a.m. and the Roman Forum from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. I had been planning on making it to three other monuments that day, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

I got back on the bus and thought I would get off at stop six and walk to Pantheon and make my way towards the Trevi Fountain and the finish at the Spanish Steps. But they never stopped at stop 6. I asked the woman about it and she said, “Yes we did in a very snotty tone.” Liar, they did not, because there was no one to pick up.

But it worked out, I got off at Trevi Fountain, it was awash with tourists, but beautiful and then there was a little pathway to the Pantheon. What I first thought was the Pantheon was a huge disappointment, thank goodness it wasn’t actually it. The Pantheon is also beautiful but awash with tourists. It was a pagan temple converted to a Christian temple. After the Pantheon, I had to make my way past the Trevi Foundatain again. On my way back I tripped on a cobblestone and sent crashing to the ground, these two very nice Italian women helped me up, but man I was embarrassed. I basically tripped over nothing. I was going to call it a day, saying to myself, “If you go to the Spanish Steps you’ll be over doing it.” But I saw the sign for the Spanish Steps and had to go. They were beautiful too, but also infested with tourists. I didn’t climb them that would have been really overdoing it.

I limped back to the bus stop from the Spanish Steps and was very close to the Termini Station where I had started this morning when I saw a vendor selling bags. I needed a bag that I could fill with ham and cheese to take back to Iraq. So I limped over there and paid 5 Euros for the perfect bag. Then I limped back to the hostel.

Trying to decided whether or not to limp out to a recommend restaurant for dinner.

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I had planned on returning to St. Peter’s Basilica to see the Pope this morning, but when my roommate’s alarm

St. Peter's foot years of wear from tourists touching it for good luck

went off and I couldn’t drag my ass out of bed, so I started reading the book Pam had loaned me “The Golden Compass.” I then went back to bed and woke up around noon to an insistent pounding. The maid was pounding on the door, because they had changed the code. I yelled, “No me quiero levante.” I don’t want to get up in Spanish. “Je ne veut pas quitter le lit.” I don’t want to get out of bed. Finally I dragged my sore butt out of bed, actually my sore body and opened the door, the manager was there with the maid and she was pissed.

I crawled back into bed and finished reading the book. At 3:00 p.m. I finally roused myself to shower and go across the street for coffee and spaghetti carbonara, YUM! I then limped down to the main Metro station Termini to check out trains to Florence and a hop on hop off bus tour to all the main sites, which I think maybe the solution to being a gimp in Rome. I’ll let you know. It’s gonna be an early night and an early morning.

My feet are killing me. This is definitely a walking city and if you are a gimp you are in big trouble.

Perseus, slayer of Medusa

I started out by navigating the Metro. It was Vatican Museum, St. Peter’s Basilica and Cistine Chapel Day. I got off one stop before the Vatican stop to try out the best pasteria in Rome, Faggalini. Do it on Vatican Day. Get off the metro one stop before the Vatican Lepanto, as soon as you exit the metro turn right go about three block until you see Faggalini on the left. I was the only tourist there.

I spent five hours at the Vatican museum. Highlights were a replica of Michelangelo’s Pietra; the original is at St. Peter’s Basilica, painting my Salvador Dali and Rhodan’s
The Thinker and of course the Cistine Chapel. Tours were 45 Euros so I opted against, also I could read the Italian signs so that helped. But if I were to do it again I would do the audio tour. Another fun thing to do is buy postcards and mail them from the Vatican Post Office. I recommend that if you go through a gallery you like you purchase a postcard from the nearest shop you hit, because the shops throughout the museum offer different things.

After I made it through the museum, I headed over to St. Peter’s Basilica. I spent a half an hour trying to rest my feet and playing with a puppy, a baby golden retriever, named Durido. I then headed to St. Peter’s Basilica which is actually a church and where all the Popes are buried. Just as you pass security on the right is the Swiss Guard that guards the offices, if you want tickets to see the Pope you can walk up the stairs and ask the guards, they are free.

The actual statue of La Pieta by Michelangelo is to the right as you first enter, behind bullet proof glass because of an incident in 1979, where a man claiming he was the real Christ tried to damage the statue with a hammer.

The Basilica is beautiful, I was there for about two hours, while I was there mass started and I also spent about 45 minutes talking to a young man from New Jersey who is one year away from taking his vows. His name is Nick, he wasn’t even raised Catholic, but he has found his calling. It was nice just talking to American. He said that he would pray for me and as I was walking out I felt very peaceful.

Repent ye sinners

I barely made it back to the hostel, it was a painful trip, the pads on my feet were completely worn out and every step was excruciatingly painful, but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other until I reached the hostel. I took off my boots changed clothes and made it downstairs for a glass of wine, then I went out to dinner with a couple from Australia, Pam and Cam. After dinner it was all I could do to crawl into bed. I had a new roommate when I entered the room, Rebecca also from Australia, we talked until about 11:00 p.m.

I was headed out for my R & R in Rome and at the security check at the Suli airport when they went through my bags we had a tampon incident. Muslim women do not use tampons in the Middle East. My assistant when I first came to Kuwait had five children, but had never seen a tampon.

When I go through the airport, even without my wheelchair, the driver, who I’ll call O never lets me get out of the car. He makes everyone come to me. I guess it makes him feel like he is helping so I humor him. I know it seems odd that I would put up with it, but he is a very sweet man.

So, he brings the lady who searches the luggage out to the SUV. I hear her unzipping all the compartments, then I hear this crinkling noise and she and the driver talking. I look back. O holds up one of my tampons that she has ripped open and says “What is this?” I’m annoyed because her curiosity has ruined a perfectly good tampon, which by the way you can’t buy anywhere in Iraq and there is only one place in Kuwait you can buy them, I haven’t seen them anywhere in Egypt and I’m not sure about Jordan.

I look at her in complete disgust and I say “It’s a tampon for when a women bleeds every month.” She nods and puts the ruined tampon back in my bag.

Yesterday around 12:30 p.m. I was down in another town two hours South of Suli, when the Deputy Country Director received information about an explosion in Suli.

First all expatriate staff were accounted for.

Second, we were all restricted to the compound for 24 hours.

Third they started gathering information about the explosion.

A building of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was destroyed. Initially they suspected terrorists, but it turns out to be a gas explosion.

Nine people were injured.

Five cars were destroyed.

No deaths.

Five houses were partially demolished.

So, when I first arrived at the end of September I was able to purchase tonic water, but we are now going on our seventh week without tonic water, none of the stores have it and haven’t had it until the end of September.

Two other things that we currently can’t get are salted butter and cheese. I think that is because they are imported from Turkey and Iraq is currently having border squirmishes in the North with Turkey.  On October 9, right around when the cheese started disappearing Turkey’s top political and military leaders issued a statement authorizing troops to cross the Iraq border to eliminate separatist Kurdish rebel camps in the northern region.

The best cheese you can get here is called Tek Sut, it is mozerellaish. Not very good, but the best you can get here and o.k. for cooking.  The Kurds probably don’t care about whether or not they can buy Turkish cheese, maybe if Turkey made better cheese the rebels wouldn’t be so ready to attack across the border.

To read more about Iraq/Turkey relations check out this article.

Why we won!

We have all been anxious about the election results and at times I was worried that Obama would not pull it out. Prior to the election it seemed that the majority of Iraqi’s that I spoke to wanted Obama to win. But they were mainly people with disabilities. I learned that Obama had won as I was walking out of the house. At first I was not convinced and I said, “I’ll believe it when McCain concedes.” But then the country director said there was no doubt. As I entered the MC office the guards and drivers had the TV on the election result.  They were clapping and congratulating me on Obama’s win.  I raised my right arm in the air and yelled “Woooo hooo! Obama!” and they all started clapping. The majority of our national staff in Suli are Kurdish Iraqis, most of them are fairly well educated and they speak Kurdish, Arabic and English. The drivers and guards mainly speak Kurdish, very little English and only some speak Arabic.  My roommate says that her staff seemed indifferent, but happy for Americans.  When I asked them about it they wouldn’t say whether they were glad or indifferent, but the general consensus was that change is good. And that is what they said, “Change is good.”  I think they were happy because all of the expats were happy and the Americans in particular.  Well except one.  We have a visiting consultant for South Carolina and when Tash came in all happy and asked him about it he avoided the question. But the rest of us were happy.

Later that day I received an e-mail from one of my national staff in the South, asking me how I felt about the election. I told him I was happy and asked him who he had been rooting for, “McCain,” he typed. When I asked him why he said that he was afraid under Obama that the Americans would pull out of Iraq, which the majority of Iraqis believe will result in increased violence and possible civil war. It was interesting though, we had visitors from HQ one of them a woman who works in D.C. in government relations asked them what message they wanted her to take back to Washington.  Every single person in the room 40 of them spoke, most of them complained about the American troops and the havoc they had wrecked.  But when the regional director got up and asked, “How many of you want American to  leave Iraq? Raise your hand,” he stuck his hand in the air and slowly looked around the room.  There was an uncomfortable silence for several minutes, but not one single hand went up.

Later when I was talking with the participants about the incident, I told them they were a bunch of whiners.  That they had the opportunity to get a message to the American government and they wasted it whining and telling personal stories.  “Why?” they asked. “What would you have said?”  “I would have said tell your lawmakers that there are more than 2 million PWDs in Iraq and we need programs and money that is directed to help us.”

They looked at me astounded.  I told them that when you have an opportunity to speak to someone who can make a difference you should waste your time whining about your “sufferings” as they like to refer to them.  You have a limited amount of time, you have to tell them how they can help you, concisely.  Well there’s a problem, you ask an Iraqi his name he gives you his life story and a concise Iraqi is an oxymoron.  But I also told them if you want to interact with other cultures it’s a compromise.

So I think the South was hoping for McCain, at least the peace loving people, who knows what the Iraqi government was hoping for, they are sitting on 79 billion dollars of oil reserves and still getting a huge chuck of money from American tax dollars.  You ask why are we supporting such a rich country, because the Iraqi government can’t implement.  They argue over the smallest details like where to put a new school.  They are in a quagmire bogged down inefficient and ineffective.  So the good news is that if and when democracy takes root they already have the bureaucracy down.  The Kurds I think have a wait and see attitude.  They have dealt with a lot, but the Kurdish area is fairly secure apart from areas that are in dispute e.g. whether or not they belong to the Kurdish Regional Government, or the Iraqi Government. So if the South goes to hell in a handbasket they will have another border to defend and most likely Internally Displaced People (IDPs).

I know that voting for Obama might be putting myself out of a job, but as an American it was my responsiblity.

Go OBAMA!