Diwaniya Iraq

My Company flew into Amsterdam when we deployed, but never left the airport. Baghdad was my first look at a city, actually on the ground, outside of the United States. While there, I got to know Route Irish, the Karadah Peninsula, and the Green Zone quite well. I was just as amazed at the similarities to America as I was the differences. Parts of Baghdad actually look like parts of Jacksonville Florida, or Orlando.

Outside the city, downtown, in the suburbs, and on the outskirts, Diwaniya feels like another country all the time. Downtown the bustling business congestion, with a sensory mix of basted rotisserie chicken smells, out on the sidewalk, old Arab men scrolling prayer beads in hand, traffic cops whistle-whistling at every intersection and traffic circle, together make up the componants of this old middle eastern minitropolis.

The body-veiled women in all black rushing in pairs with one hand holding close the opening at their faces, the other holding the hand of a little one, and often cargo balanced on their heads. Vehicles of all kinds including donkey carts, motorcycle-trucks, beat up orange and white Datsun taxis.

In the suburbs children are everywhere. People live in everything from adobe-like "mud huts," to multi-story buildings that resemble municipal housing projects in the states. Merchants set up goods outside their stores which function as their homes when business hours are over. Their only advertisement, the items for sale lined up outside and/or the hand painted or Quark (the original but out of date graphic design computer program) looking plastic signs.

In all areas, but particularly in the poorer parts of town, trash is thrown out to end up wherever it may. No matter the economic level of an area there are satellite dishes and low wires up everywhere. And the children, kids of all ages are everywhere, usually without parents, but not always.


In population and geography, Diwaniya, located 181 kilometers south of Baghdad, is a middle-sized Iraqi city and a good pick to gauge the state of the country. Below, in the background, is the Al Hussein Teaching Hospital, in front of that is the main Mosque in town which has a huge ornate entry with wooden doors tall enough to keep a 12 foot Muslim from ducking on the way in.


There are plenty of contradictions in the landscape, and indications of a city in the midst of huge change. Obviously the changes are the same changes the whole country of Iraq is going through. From the rule of a tyrant, to war-time, to a time of fragile peace and international grants channeled to local governments for infrastructure. Seeing the same kids who sell sodas and fallafel pitas from vehicle to vehicle in traffic later sift through trash for something valuable is not unusual here. On a road that is still being paved, a make-shift guard shack, and above it, a multi-million dollar solar powered street lighting system.
Soon, months from now, I'll be long gone from here. I'm sure I'll wonder from time to time what became of this city I passed through on a daily basis as a fly on a wall of a Humvee. I never got off the beaten path in Baghdad like I have here in this town. I'll imagine these kids growing up here as I watch news reports on Iraq and it's new government. For now, pictures and a blog.