one year

Alot can happen in a year. Your life as it is now can be completely different, unrecognizable to you, a year from now. A year ago today I got on a plane headed for Fort Jackson in South Carolina. I was leaving everything I had up to that point - my job, my house, my beautiful wife - and getting on a plane to somewhere I didn't want to go, to start on a series of adventures I didn't want to experience. I had no idea what lay ahead of me, and I was just praying to get through the next week, let alone the next year. Yet, here I am today, a year later, thinking on all that has happened since that day, and hopefully no worse for the wear because of it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the challenges I consistently face here is cultural pressure. As the person in charge of construction projects, many of the Iraqi's have taken a special interest in me. It seems that at least 75% of them have a brother/uncle/cousin in the construction business, and who better to get their relative a job then the guy in charge of the construction where they work?

It's a fairly simple process. I write a scope of work to describe in detail what kind of work I want done. I then send that out to contractors asking for an estimate on how much they can get the job done for. After taking all estimates, I forward that to our contracting center, and they write the legal language and officially award the work to the lowest bidder. The problem with having so many of Iraqi's interested in getting their relatives work is that, should their cousin get the work, the people who didn't get the work get pissed off. Then I am open to be questioned about playing favorites, taking gifts, etc. It's not like the oppurtunity isn't there, either. I have had my fair share of "gift" offerings, but I knew what they really were, and I usually spend about 15 minutes refusing them. It's hard turning down some of these "gifts"! In their culture though, they don't see the problem. If it were up to them, their brother's cousin's uncle would be getting the first shot at all the projects. Why? Because he's family. Makes sense, when you think about it. It's just not ethical.

So I have to look like the bad guy. I've never even sent a request for a bid to someone's relative that I work with, and it hasn't made me a popular guy. Here's the thing though -I don't care. Well, its not that I don't care but . . . yea I don't care. I didn't ask for this. All I want is to get back to my normal life - my house, my job, my beautiful wife. The last thing I need is to have someone question my ethics and have this nightmare extended because I am part of some investigation. So I don't even chance it. Your brother owns a construction business? Awesome! I wont give him any work, but I'll be sure to let the other project officers know that your he's an option.

I was never good at popularity contests anyway.