So I was supposed to fly out of Basra on Skylink on Sept. 2 so I could catch my flight to the states from Kuwait on Sept. 4. Keep in mind, flights out of Iraq go to Dubai and Amman on Mondays and Wednesdays, and they used to go to Kuwait on Monday, Wedsnesday and Friday and pretty much only one flight per day. So on Monday, there is one flight to Amman and one flight to Dubai. Also Jupiter airlines flies to Dubai on Thursdays, so there are not a lot of options. However, starting on August 7, the ICAA, International Civil Aviation Association Representatives in Iraq grounded Skylink. Why? Well I guess this happens every six months or so, that the ICAA guys want bribes and each time they want a bigger bribe, so finally Skylink put it’s foot down. They were in limbo until yesterday when the office in Baghdad announced that all flights were cancelled indefinately. Well since Skylink is the only airline offering flights to Kuwait, that posed a problem for me.

So, I was going to travel by car over the border and then I found out that in order to get out of Iraq I had to be a resident or have been in the country less than 10 days. So then I started looking at military flights, there is military flight on Tuesdays and I decided fine I would do that, but then my colleague brought up the fact of how do you get through passport control, you can but your not a priority so it can take 24 hours to get into the country. And they make you wait in a tent. So after running around yesterday afternoon and figuring all this out, I’m now rebooking my ticket through Amman. I was originally going to fly through Amman, but I couldn’t get the extra days approved in Amman. Craziness.

So after all the stress of trying to figure out how to get out of Basra, this morning I got locked out of my hutch. Maybe Iraq is trying to tell me something.

So today I went into Basra again. The city looks sort of neglected and there are a lot of empty buildings which contrasts with the street full of cars. It is rare to see women as you are driving along. Today there were a couple of women completely veiled, so eye slits, complete black over the face, begging. They look like faceless black ghosts.

On the drive in we pass by several checkpoints, I’m always wearing a hijab and I always look down or away from the guard when we go through the checkpoint. Right now it is Ramadan so all good Muslims are fasting from sun up to sun down.

Whenever I’m driving into Basra I have to sit in the back seat, women don’t usually sit in the front, even if there are only two passengers the woman will ride in the back, the exception to this seems to be trucks. The other day I saw a woman riding shotgun in a truck. But for the most part when you are driving through Basra you see men driving, I have not once seen a woman at the wheel and women when you see them are in the back seat.

We drive by a park that has green bushes and brown grass and then there always seem to be lines of cars for different things not sure what. Little boys often walk between the cars selling tissues mainly sometimes candy. Most women that you do see are dressed completely in black. As you enter into Basra you see the slums and it is amazing what people can make into a home.

The main roads are in fairly good shape and as you drive along there are stores operating, what is funny to me is that they sell furniture out in the open. So you’ll be driving by and there is all this furniture just sitting out in the dust.

Basra is the second largest city in Iraq, 3 million, next to Baghdad, yet none of the bigwigs come here to visit and there aren’t any really tall buildings, probably due too the years of war, they make or made too good of targets.

Life in Basra on the FOB (that is forward operating base) is a very isolated and a little bit like being in jail. Most people who aren’t PSDs, personal security details, either spend most of their time in their hutch or in their office, because right now it is too hot to be outside. When you do go outside on the B & B there is no one around at all. The main time you see people is at mealtimes. It is possible to go an entire day without seeing another soul.

Last week I got off the FOB twice and into the Basra office. The first trip was to train our newest employee on reporting. I spent the night and in the morning the shower wasn’t working so I had to lay down in the bathtub and try and get clean with the trickle that was coming out. The second time was to meet with the vice president of Operations who was visiting from Portland, Oregon, we were talking about where I’m going next. Most likely the Congo or Sudan. It’s not like Mercy Corps works in really fun places.

At the beginning of August I went to Oxford for a training on building the capacity of NGOs. I was supposed to return to Basra on Monday, August 10, however, I was in Kuwait and the only way to get to Basra from Kuwait is Skylink and I was stuck in Kuwait as they canceled flight after flight. It turns out the Iraqi government says that Skylink owes them 15 million in back taxes. I ended up having to fly to Amman, stay the night there and fly into Basra from there. To date they haven’t had any flights to Kuwait, but I’m hoping it is resolved this week so I can fly out of here for my home leave. I’m scheduled to fly Skylink on Sept. 3. Keep your fingers crossed.

Recently we have some new comers to the B & B Jacqueline from Australia who is a lawyer working on oil and natural gas and Shaun who is with RTI International and working on local governance. We occasionally get together to hang out. I also hang out with Kim and Jen who I met at church they are with the Red Bull National Guard and I usually meet up with them once a week for lunch or dinner, church or something.

We continue to have IDF incoming direct fire, the last round was on Monday the 17th, the alarm didn’t even go off, but it hit close enough to shake my hutch. The good news is I’ve moved and I’m now under hard cover so I no longer have to run for the bunker, because I have cement over my head and I’m surrounded by Hescos filled with sand. They look a little bit like those round bales of hay.

So that is about it for life in Basra right now.