Sun. Oct. 17, 2004 - Iraqi moolah moolah

Hey everybody...

So it looks like I may never get around to that massmail about my trip to Africa.  I’m sure you’re all very sorry. But I have a good excuse. I quit my job at IAP due to the fact that they are a sucky company and I couldn’t stomach working for them anymore. And a much more detailed reason, but one which those of you who don’t know the people involved won’t find very interesting.

So at any rate, before you start calling me smart and saying at last, he’s coming home!, let me disappoint you. I jumped ship and took another job elsewhere in Baghdad.  It pays loads more money, I am the boss, and the new company GBG, is run by a really swell guy who believes in treating Iraqis like people rather than indentured servants. In fact, I am pretty much the only American working here, aside from Phil the owner and his son Chris. He’s hired all Iraqis for the real work, and it is a much more fun scene. My old company is really mad at me because I’ve stolen a lot of employees who I really like from them, and they are having a lot of trouble hiring more people because everyone wants to work for me, now. Tee hee. Sometimes what goes around really does come around.

The down side of all this is that I may not be making Krampus this year, which is a bummer because a lot of cool people are going this time around. It depends on whether construction on this project is finished by then.

I will say a few things about my trip to South Africa. I had many firsts: I skydived, I cage dived with Great White Sharks, I went on Safari (Well, to be honest, it was more of a Game Park Drive, but it was pretty wild and I think it counts.) I drove on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road like the Brits do (Left handed stick shift is a real stumper until you get used to it. Not to mention the 20 times or so I caught my self driving on the correct side of the road. I only barely survived.) And those are the only firsts I can think of at the moment, but I’m sure there were more. Every day was a pretty cool experience, there.

Cape Town was really awesome. Robben island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 19 years, would have been really dull except for the tour guide who was also an ex-prisoner with Mandela himself. He was really angry about the whole Apartheid thing, and I find it really ironic that after a zillion years as a prisoner there, he chose as his profession to be stuck in the same prison and talking to complete strangers about how much it sucks to be a prisoner there. But it did make it authentic, that’s for sure.

Lesotho was cool. Really high up. Swaziland was fab. Loads of Swazis. Saw loads of animals throughout the entire time in  South Africa.

So that’s all I’ve got on that. I really don’t have much free time any more... I’m pretty much working 16 hour days, but I get to set my own pace, so it’s not so bad.

Comments

[messiestobjects]

...Man. I'm re-reading this after Phil's been indicted for Fraud and Money Laundering and Sexual Bribery... I feel like an idiot. Phil turned out to be a bad bad man. But he did always treat the Iraqis who worked for him with respect (Except when he was angry about something, oh I surely don't miss his insane temper tantrums) and he paid them well, so I will always stand by that, but that doesn't unfortunately, make me any less wrong about him. And my very smug line; "Sometimes, what goes around really does come around." is killing me! Argh, the joke's on me.