Local Flavor

The interpreters have some local contact/family or something like that and they periodically get food for cookouts. One of the guys owns a couple of restaurants in the states and is a very good chef. He and some of the others treated us to some local cooking. Rice with spices, nuts, raisins and much more. Also some grilled chicken and steak mixed in, and some vegetable/fruit salsa like mix. It was all wonderful. Mostly becuase it was spiced. I've noticed the food we get in the D-FAC has variety, but never very spicy. That was a nice change of pace. Friday being a down day for the boards we gathered for a few minutes and broke pita bread together.









You can see me here with "Harry" after enjoying some of the good food. Someone spent the time and built this small hut/hang out area. There were funny signs written on the blocks around like :
MENU
Coke $0.00
Tea $0.00
Beer $0.00

It was funny becuase there is no restaurant besides what you bring out on your own.




This picture is a little closer and shows you the seating area a little better. The interpreters are all very nice to us. They are our link to the cases and we have to trust them. Most of them live in the US and have some background/history here in Iraq. They are all contract employees and have different arrangements for pay/leave/etc. But they live on the base just like us and eat the same food and use the same bathrooms/laundry etc.

I clearly ate too much. I went back for seconds just becuase I could. My favorite was the mixture of textures with the rice, nuts, raisins, and beets in the vegetables. Yum.

Prior to the BBQ I went with Brandon to play some video games to kill the morning hours. He trounced me. I think he has played a few more times than I have. We played the college version and he picked "ranked" teams and my teams were Arkansas and Air Force (so I knew I was already starting with an up-hill battle).

Constant change with the guys from the field. We get some guys we didn't expect or they don't come in on time (days late) becuase of bad weather or guys leave early. It's becoming quite the issue to work out the schedule. Luckily that is someone else's job. I just make sure I go to the right room for the day.
Congrats to: uus2bano5 and jj for solving the trivia puzzle. There was a request for more of those. I'll have to invest a few bain cells into that.