Last week, I spent a day visiting projects in Dahuk followed by a day of visits in Erbil. I saw lots of great projects. With construction projects, the most memorable things are the things that aren’t perfect. You’ve probably heard the phrase “good enough for government work”. When I was in Korea, we often joked that it was the land of the “not quite right”. Sometimes when I visit projects here, I think of “Iraqi good enough”.
At one school we visited in Dahuk, the contractor had recently completed a basketball court. Unfortunately, he installed the goal so that the backboard was almost even with the half circle below the free throw line. In the photo, Masuood, the Deputy in the Dahuk Office, is shooting from the line.
Masuood Shoots a Freethrow
Also at this school, the contractor installed a very popular fire extinguishing system I’ve seen at several other school projects.
Fire Buckets
How do you fix issues such as these? Easy, you put the USACE castle on the front, and that’s makes everything perfect!
Veen School in Dahuk
I spent a few days this week visiting projects in Dahuk and Erbil. COL Pfenning, my boss, is due to return to the US next month. So he is making his last visit to all of the USACE offices in GRN, which he commands. On Thursday, we had lunch with Governor Nawzad Hadi, Governor of Erbil. I was intrigued by the invitation he extended because he told us to bring our swim trunks if we were interested in swimming.
The lunch venue ended up being the Hawler Water Park. Erbil is also referred to as Hawler by most Kurds. The water park is a public park owned and operated by the government in Erbil. The main attraction is a giant pool with water slides. Fortunately for everyone around, I did not bring a pair of swim trunks.
We arrived at the park a little early. So while we were waiting for the governor to arrive, the park operator showed us his bowling alley. How many people do you know that have gone bowling while deployed to Iraq? Maybe the Army will have to take back my Hazardous Duty Pay (HDP) and Danger Pay (DP) for that day. Since I get $100 per month for HDP and $225 per month for DP, I stand to lose about $10.83 for one day. I definitely prefer the danger pay the Aussies receive!
It took me a little while to get warmed up. But I blame that on having to use an alley ball. It didn’t fit right and kept slipping off my thumb! COL Pfenning looks like he has spent some time in bowling alleys in the past. After the governor arrived, he and COL Pfenning bowled 5 more frames together. Governor Nawzad uses the brute force approach to bowling and slings the ball down the alley as hard as possible. He reminded me a lot of Jeff!
