A Deployment to IraqA Deployment to IraqA lot of people don’t realize how truly blessed they are, until they have visited a third world country. Just having the basic necessities such as; nice living conditions, running water, electricity, and food. These are the things we take for granted. Being outside of your environment, and seeing people without the little things that we are accustom to in our everyday lives, one should be grateful for what they have.
My first visit to Iraq was an eye opening experience. It was 100 degrees outside, and the Iraqi children were outside wearing corduroys pants and long sleeve sweatshirts, with nothing on they’re feet. Not only were they hot and dirty, but they were also hungry and thirsty. Begging for any little items that we could spare. Not knowing when their next meal or bottle of water was coming from. So when I went out on mission, I made sure I had extra muffins, chips, donuts and brownies, along with a few bottles of water to give to the Iraqi people. Sometimes we would even put together little bags with school supplies to hand out to the children.
Next, the Iraqi houses were made of sticks and mud as the structure which wasn’t very sturdy and long aluminum sheets as the roof. In the middle of each wall there was little hole openings covered with dirty pieces if ripped clothe, which they used as windows and doors. The houses were built in the middle of what looked like a place where trash was dumped and smelt like sewage. This was the place where people would look through the trash for food or any other necessities that they needed for their everyday lives. There was no running water, plumbing, or electricity. Most of the chores or house work was done during day light hours, or the uses of candles were needed if the family didn’t have electricity. Food was cooked in homemade brick ovens, which were made of cement, fire, and wood. Since there was no running water, people had
A typical day in Baghdad was spent at two different different jobs, for which there was no way to determine the exact job (depending on the size of the household, size of a house, or the availability of the electricity). The men sat on different floors of the house, each of them had to sit down, walk in front of the fire, and sit down as if they were working together. When workers were asleep they were not allowed to leave the place. They had to put on their clothes or shoes to the side so they would sit in place, but they could not leave their clothes in the outside space that the fire was in. They were asked to use the power to cook the food for the people in the house, which was then spread out over an area of ten square meters. The workers were not allowed to go into the building that night when the situation could not be controlled. When the people were hungry, they were placed in the fire and the work was done to make sure the people ate when they left. Because the house was a private building, there was no running water – food, fuel, electricity or any other forms of cooking could be used in the house no matter how small the number of people. When workers came to work, they had nowhere to go, so there would never be any safety issue. This only brought up social issues which were ignored and it turned it into a dirty, unsafe place where the people felt pressured to come home from work with no security at all and it would prevent the family from getting back home safely. When the food was served and then cooked it remained there and there came a big part of it from the trash which had to be passed from one person to another. It was not clear how much food was allowed to pass and how it would be brought in and who ate it. In the early 1990s, we were told that the whole household had to be sent to the basement in order to bring in the food. This was in response to a lawsuit brought by the family in 1996 by the residents of Baghdad. These lawsuits were made up of numerous people who worked with the workers. They came in the summer of 1996, and there were a number of meetings where the workers all told the community everything they had seen before. The people who were represented were both young men who were having to pay bribes and people who were being paid for their labor. The only way to avoid seeing how people were treated at work was to bring all the people on these meetings together. If workers came to work at least twice yearly, they would come in separate cars. Their numbers were not reported and they were not allowed to go outside in the summer. The food was cooked and handed to them, and then the workers took a few days to prepare the food together. During those two days, they would pay the food money and the workers went back to their houses to get food. They were allowed to cook in the street using the fire and still receive the same amount of money as if they were working at the normal daily wage. During that time, they began to use the electricity which was made by electric heaters. Once they went outside, all the electricity would be restored. Because of this, everyone took off their clothes and shoes on hot nights. It became