Friends!

In addition to a couple other Americans, I work with a fairly large Iraqi staff. Some of those people I only speak to on the phone, others work in my office every day. They're an interesting group of people. Although the majority of them are middle-aged, there are also a few 20-somethings. I haven't learned everyone's name yet, and I won't publish their names here, but I thought I'd share a little about the ones I do know.

S was a captain in Saddam's military. When we went to the Green Zone the other day, he pointed out a building he wanted me to notice. In halting English he told me "That's where I worked for Saddam. I was captain!" Although S is hardly pro-Saddam, he likes to remind people that he was a major military figure. His wife and 5-year-old daughter live a few hundred miles from here, and he misses them constantly. Although he has a college degree, he's still taking classes, this time to earn a degree in Hebrew. He doesn't think this will have any practical application, but he's always wanted to learn.

M was a pilot (though I'm not sure if he flew commercially or militarily). He loves his job now (which involves a lot of risk-assessment work), but he says he misses flying.

K was a driver for an Egyptian company before the war. His son is a security officer who patrols a Baghdad home with an AK-47. K speaks very little English, but he loves to try. He thinks American civilians are totally fascinating and likes news about sports stars.

D is the person here that I've become closest to. She's the only female in the house with solid English skills, which she earned studying English literature in college. Now she's 25 and living with her cousin, her cousin's husband and their four children. She hates it there because it's so crowded, but her parents (both artists) moved a few hundred miles away and she has nowhere else to live. She's very chatty, loves pretty things (the cursor on her laptop is a rose) and is crazy about YouTube. She loves talking about how beautiful I am, although she's strikingly gorgeous. She's whip-smart, too.

SA rules the roost. He's worked here since the war started, is clearly brilliant, and is so good at what he does. Although he was also an English major in college, he learned the bulk of his English (which he speaks flawlessly, slang and all) from American movies. For several years, his job was to translate Hollywood films from English to Arabic for Saddam--I kid you not, Saddam told SA what he wanted to see, SA made it happen. Consequently, he's seen everything, and he can recite a ridiculous number of movie quotes because he's translated it all. He's a frequent customer of Baghdad's market for bootleg films, and currently sitting on his desk are several movies currently being shown in theaters. He seems a tad uncomfortable talking to women, but once you get him engaged he'll go.