Bugging Out

Baghdad.

If all goes well, phones and internet will be turned on at Baghdad U. as of next Saturday, so that we can finish troubleshooting before the fall quarter begins.

Things were quiet last night, except for another football victory interlude—largely thanks to a curfew preventing movement between the most troubled districts and the rest of the city. However, with the very noisy national congress in session, discretion is the better part of valor. It’s back to Amman for me, for now.

Fierce Fighting, Fierce Hope

Baghdad.
Email up, but Blogger’s been down all day. Fierce fighting near the Medical College. Windows rattling on and off for three days. Mortars falling in residential neighborhoods everywhere. Security guards posted everywhere. Daytime curfews have shut down transportation between city districts.

But good news nevertheless: things are reported as quiet in Mosul. More work has managed to limp along, and I’m told that back at Stony brook the Grayson library sort is nearly complete. I cannot describe the courage exhibited every day, day after day, by those around me. There is great hope and promise in this country yet.

Good News and Threats to Fruit

Baghdad
A New York Times piece today, commenting on the government shut-down of Al-Jezira reporters, was headlined something to the effect “no bad news allowed.” Now, of course, the Times was addressing appropriate concerns that free press not be suppressed. But I must question the very substance of the headline. No bad news? From Iraq?

My impression is that there has been very little except bad news reported from Iraq. This despite concerted and often successful efforts by a great many citizens to calm things down and move life onto a—if not normal, than at least hopeful—footing. The utter failure to report any of the good news has been demoralizing for a lot of people—most of them Iraqi; and a dedicated few of other nationalities--who have not had a day’s respite in over a year. They’d like a little credit for what they have accomplished.

So, I’m not going to deliver bad news today. I’ll leave that to the wire services. Even without Al-Jezira, I am sure they’ll find plenty. I’m going to give credit where credit is due, and concentrate on some good news.

Yesterday evening, after the office closed, I went grocery shopping. This may sound utterly mundane. It was. That’s the point. No-one harassed me. No-one closed the door. No-one nervously thanked me for my custom, then requested quietly that I not come back. I made my selections from well-stocked shelves, paid predictably high-ish prices for imported items, and predictably dirt-cheap prices for local commodities, then went on my way. Nothing at all out-of-the-ordinary happened.

Next stop was a roadside fruit stand. Much haggling ensued over a watermelon the size of New Jersey. Insistence (on our part) that it not be cut for a sample. The melon is cut nonetheless, with a knife worthy of a bad b-movie. Now that it is cut, we don’t want it. Now that it is cut, we must take it. A price is named worthy of a Brentwood organic grocer. For an unwanted, uncut melon? Never! We buy elsewhere. Mundane. Again. Despite much brandishing of melon knives, only fruit was threatened, and in the end we bought two monstrous melons for about $1.00 each.

Of course, you are hoping for archaeology news, mundane or otherwise. Much of the past several days has been mundane indeed, spent reviewing invoices for equipment orders, making final decisions about placement of things like flatbed scanners and fax machines, and figuring out what, if anything, we are to do about the leaky roof at Mosul. As at home, it somehow takes the combined decision-making skills of at four Ph.D.s, the CEO, an IT chief, a senior civil engineer, a security chief (travel to, from, and within Mosul is dicey), a systems integrator, a budget analyst, and a secretary to accomplish this. (And these are only those of whom I am aware). But accomplished it is: installation at Baghdad U., Inshallah, is to be finished this week, and work will start in earnest at Mosul U. in the next several days.

Other good news is USAID’s donation of a used 4WD vehicle for the duration. We must first figure out how to pick it up from an undisclosed location, but it is destined for Baghdad U., so that they can get out to their field school at Sippar.

Library Engineering

Baghdad

I completed an inspection walk-through at the Baghdad U. Dept. of Archaeology with our civil engineers. They had done a stunning job of masonry reconstruction, reglazing, security grills, insulation, air-conditioning montage, wiring, reading room tables, and cramming as many book cases as the rooms are ever likely to hold, but the librarian is clearly overwhelmed by the reconstruction.

She had not made ay orderly plan for transitioning books from old to new shelving. Rather, books were piled in haphazard mountains in the adjacent room, with hundreds of disbound pages scattered about the floor. Further, no effort had been made to clean the library area before re-sorting. Everything--shelving, books, desk surfaces--is covered with a thick layer of construction dust mixed with stirred-up ash and soot--of which she complained, showing her be-grimed hands. When I enquired after the vacuum cleaners, she realized that she was allowed to get one out of the stores and use it.

She seemed shocked to learn that new books were en route, and seemed uninformed of their nature or quantity. I promised to supply a copy of the list. I informed her that they would arrive with catalogue cards. That pleased her very much. She also surprised to learn that there was money for book-binding, though we discussed this at the last two meetings. She said that she would prefer to get books sorted into the new shelves before selecting books for binding.

She was dissatisfied with the new library shelving, disliking the color, shelf spacing (too few shelves per case, and not moveable), and construction material (she wanted steel; we custom-built wood in order to “buy Iraq”). I ordered that the supplied shelving be stabilized for safety by bolting to the walls or floors, and pledged that if shelf space proved insufficient we would have it reconstructed.

I am going to let them get on with it a bit, but I want to set up a meeting specifically deal with Library issues. Clearly she has prepared none of the promised reports, will not be ready to receive shipped books, and will not be ready for Fall classes--and this is without even addressing the issue of on-line cataloguing training for her. We need to appoint someone here that can provide close supervision of this, and give her the support she needs to do her job well. She is trying, but for her our gift imposes a tremendous burdon of work and responsibility.