3:10 to kirkuk pt.2

if this were an episode of my life... i'd have a "previously on kevin" bit at the beginning of this blog. but instead... just read the blog below.

so after my first jog through northern iraq... i took about two days off and then if was on the road again. the mission this time: to document the opening of a substation in my favorite province, sulaymaniyah. then it would be back to kirkuk for the progress on the provincial construction center (oooo exciting kevin please go on) and the pipeline exclusion zone.



for those of you wondering where all these strange far off lands are... here's a map.




back to my story...

i'm in sulaymaniyah for this grand opening with a ribbon cutting, speeches, doves released and the sacrifice of a sheep. if you just raised an eye brow and read that last piece out loud... you're in the same boat i was in. unfortunately we missed that part but i was interested to see this whole sacrifice thing, plus i was curious how many more volts the substation would deliver with spilt sheep's blood on there. it must help conduct electricity or something. what do i know... i rely on eweb to overcharge me to turn on my lights.

anyway, i get there and there had to be a dozen video cameras and twice as many still cameras. this was some event. since we were on time... we were late. which meant no time for micing the podium and i had to elbow my way into the pyrana pool of journalists. they were all crowded in and one guy, who even had a bodyguard, had free reign to walk wherever he wanted, which usually ended up in front of all of the rest of us. it's a good thing i have some patience because i was ready to throw some elbows. after the chaos was over and the dust had settled i took a tour of the site. it's set to power more than 40-thousand homes. impressive... most impressive.

later, we went out to lunch with some of the mucky mucks of sulaymaniyah at a four star restaurant. it was great. lamp kabobs, hummus galore, dill cucumber sauce and my favorite... flat bread! i was in heaven. i almost forgot where i was when they started pouring wine... but then the hooah soldier voice in my bowels sprang to life and reminded me that we can fight over here... but there sure won't be any drinking going on. it was a great time.

the provincial construction center was the next stop... but i won't bore you with that. it's almost done... and it will help things. enough said.

the pipeline exclusion zone is actually pretty cool in concept... but trying to get video of people working or doing anything was near impossible. iraqis along there work a 10am to 3:30pm schedule with a lunch. not bad for a day's "work." once it's done it should help prevent theft and attacks on the oil here. one of the engineers said the project cost about $30 million dollars... but once complete, they're be able to make more than that in one day of uninterrupted oil flow.

so there's part two. as with most sequels it was probably a let down and relied more on it's graphics than on actual story. i'll try to write a prequel at some point that will have me as a hyper little kid with unfathomable powers. i'll annoy you and have a random jamaican dude ruin the whole thing.