Deze week zal ik de engelse postings ook hier erop gooien en daar waar mogelijk een nederlandse updateje posten. Voor nederlandse postings en meer fotos kijk om de logs van Michiel en Alex en ook de site van de jongens hier.
10:15:11 PM
A completely amazing experience is the best way to describe our second day at Camp Smitty in As Samawah, Iraq. Of course I'm going to give it a try anyway :)
The day started with very little sleep. No one got to hit the sleeping bags before 3am since there was plenty to do in order to set up our 'infrastructure'. I'm planning a separate post about all the technology, since it *is* some pretty advanced stuff which enables us to broadcast live to the netherlands, VoIP with 4 phonelines which provide a local dutch dialtone and ofcourse broadband internet access. We also shoot a daily video report to the bird for dutch television, all on the same dish.
The show went off without a hitch, we interviewed several personnel, including the camp's chaplain. We also got a chance to revive my pirate radio roots by installing a 50 watt fm transmitter to broadcast our show and the stations 24 hour signal across the base. This really gives the troops here a boost since all the DJ's back home are passing on messages from loved ones. After 4 months in the sand box you can imagine how important this is for professional and emotional morale.
I also learned something very important today: context.
Ever since the war broke out I've been following the news, like anyone else, but there is a large disconnect in the BigPub press about the mission the dutch troops have here. As a part of SFIR (Stabilization Forces IRaq), they are responsible for supporting and guiding the population in rebuilding their country. An important note here is that the damage done in As Samawah (the area we are in) is mainly due to 35 years of supression by the saddam regime.
Part of the agreement we have with the dutch marines is that we have absolute freedom to ask questions and draw our own conclusions and publish/broadcast them to the world. No censoring. They have kept their word.
After the show we donned our 'body warmers' and packed our helmets along with our digital cameras and camcorders for a day trip to the dutch camp in Al Kihdr, about 25 miles from Camp Smitty.
The troops there are a part of the forces responsible for training of the ICDC, the Iraqi Civil Defense Core. In short, they train locals to maintain order in their own community. First luitenant Martijn, who is 5 years my junior took us to the barracks for a tour of the team he has been training. His pride in his work was evident, more importantly, the men he has been training were proud of their accomplishments, and it showed. BTW, our visit was unannounced and I am convinced it was bonafide. Again, I was allowed to roam freely and ask any questions, and got answers. And when there was no answer, Martijn told me so, honestly and openly, just as a teacher would do when describing progress of his/her class with colleagues.
In fact, concerned citizens reported a 'problem' while we were there. Apparently a neighbor had threatend another family with a grenade. The ICDC troops sprang into action and although the threat turned out to be benign, I was impressed with their professionalism on the job.
By now I was tired of driving through sand in a Land Rover and wanted to get off the beaten path to meet some of the folks in town. We drove into town and queued up to cross the pontoon bridge across the euphrates river to the northern side. The original bridge was [strategically] bombed in 1991.
That's when I announced I was going to walk across. No problem, I hopped out, flanked by our translator. While crossing I spoke to lots of people, all very happy with the work SFIR is doing, especially the schools, medical facilities and infrastructure. They are teaching the locals to build and maintain. A school teacher showed me photos of his class and school and complained to the troops, who had by now joined us, that the city council wasn't making enough funds available for him to draw a salary. This money comes from CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] Paul Bremer's group basically. To this I suggested that he could join the city council and help change things. This was a totally foreign concept to him. Join the city council? Huh? I guess 35 years of dictatorship does damage to the entire concept of democratic process. Lots of education needed in that area.
Observations while walking through the market streets of Al Kihdr, iraqi people are beautiful. Seriously, handsome, and the kids are adorable. And not once did anyone ask me for more than a handshake or a chat. No begging, panhandling or the like.
We were invited to take a peek at the village mosque, a special treat. We declined going all the way in, since we were pretty dirty and boot removal was a no go. The stench alone could start a riot :)
Although I've written a thousand, pictures still can beat words, so I've uploaded another batch of pictures with comments of the day's journey.
Now it's off to the showers and the sleeping bag, another show tomorrow morning followed by another trip outside the base. Wednesday btw, we'll be visiting the US troops in Tallil which should be fun.
10:03:18 PM
We're back from a full day's trip to Al Kidhr. The impressions were deep and certainly lasting. I'm going to start writing up our day, meanwhile feast your eyes on these pix from my radio co-hosts Alexander Stevens and Michiel Veenstra from this morning's live radio broadcast.
6:50:30 PM
