This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

Changes in Erbil, Iraq 
posted February 27, 2008

    Well, I actually did use the heater in the room in the early morning. The days here are like our April in Wisconsin. The room is tidy. There are only a few TV channels. The milk house size generator rumbles outside the building. There are no towels. But there is hot water. Breakfast was tea, round bread, a couple types of cheeses, carrot jam, and a type of sour cream. Two half hearted young attendants reluctantly cleaned up the tables. 


    - Night colors in Erbil, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    There is a new Internet cafe around the corner. Last year I had to walk a good distance to find one. Oddly, this far east is the first time Heide and I got all the Web cam, voice, and chat to work on both ends. But, we have come to expect the unexpected if it involves Iraq. Some of these computers are so full of spy ware protection I have to struggle to get my email up. One of the computers in the cafe in question just ate a prepared email post pictures and all. Yikes! 


    - Busy Erbil, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    A book store owner walked me around the corner to the sidewalk money changer who also sold cigarettes. There is no coinage in Iraq, only bills. The guy kept the small bills crumpled in a plastic trash bag. 


    - Paperwork vendor for court cases, Erbil, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -


    - Old to new Erbil, Iraq; the new giant mall is in the distance, 
        photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    I walked to the new mall which is just on the edge of the old city beneath the castle. The building is mammoth. You can view it in the "Old to New Erbil" picture. There is an escalator in the open-air front. The building is still a work in progress. The monstrosity is butted up against a large cemetery. I mean right up so you can touch the tomb stones. Some of the vendor stalls are open on a couple of the floors. I think I counted seven floors. 

    To a visitor like me, the giant mall in the middle of an ancient city which by the way is in a quasi war zone, speaks to the contradiction that is Iraq.

Bob Keith
Erbil, Iraq

This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

The Road to Erbil, Iraq - Capital of the Kurds
posted February 27, 200

    Before I left Dahuk, I stopped for a lamb, potato, and bread breakfast at a sandwich shop around the corner from the transportation street. I got some money exchanged around the next corner in the exchange basement. I could not find the guy that served me coffee there. That is not unusual. I exchanged some Dollars at yet another Assyrian's stall. They always seem to mention they are Assyrian and Christian. The ride east to Erbil cost 20,000 Dinars - about 16 Bucks. Not bad considering it will probably take a couple hours. 


    - The Citadel peaks out from the banal streets of Erbil - the capital of the Kurds, 
        photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    The car had three other passengers as well. As usual, the driver stayed around 70 miles per hour. For our enjoyment he put in an Arabic music cassette. The roads are hilly and bad - the taxis are poorly maintained. There must always be a cracked windshield to top off the presentation. At this point, you just have to resign yourself that this may be the day you die. Not at the hands of bad guys, but in a car accident. Seatbelts? ...what ever. Everybody have a smoke. 

    As he did last year, the driver veered south toward the Mosul sign. But I knew at about 24 kilometers north of that city he would turn east again. Mosul is not American or Kurd friendly. We trekked down some rural roads in the "middle world" between the Kurdish and Iraq-proper region. There were some middle-world check points - the Kurdish flag disappeared. The unmarked soldiers at these stops seemed indifferent to what they were suppose to be doing - watching for bad guys. Perhaps it is just a different checkpoint style. 


    - The desire to be so "normal," yet it is a war zone, Erbil, Iraq,  
        photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 - 

    Soon the Kurdish flag appeared again on buildings and compounds. The ride into Erbil changed from last year. The city is being built up like gang busters. Commercial airliners drift across the skyline. Erbil, or Hewler as the Kurds call it, is the capital city of the Republic of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government. It is their flagship bureaucratic city. Yet, the old city still seems for me, foreboding to enter. There is an odious castle (Citadel) on the hill in the center of town. Many of the streets are utilitarian with masses of electrical wires hanging nearly to the side walk. The store fronts in the old city beneath the castle have seen better days. The roofs are often sheets of tin. The generators roar. I am told however, they are building a monstrosity of a shopping mall near here as we speak. 


    - Generator Man; the real source of power at my hotel in Erbil, Iraq. 
    Photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    And of course, the people at the little hotel I used last year outside the wall to the castle could not seem to figure out how to log me in. I retreated to a bigger hotel I also used last year which I deemed too expensive at 30 Dollars a night. 


    - Internet cafe in Erbil, Iraq, photo of Bob by an Internet customer, February 2008 -

    There is heat in the room, a seated toilet, and an actual chair and desk. But as fate would have it, it is warm in this part of Iraq now anyway. Go figure. Be that as it may, Heide will be glad I moved to the nicer hotel.

Bob Keith
Erbil, Iraq

This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

Notes from Dahuk Iraq
posted February 26, 200

    There is a money changing place here - rather large - in the basement of a four story building. There are many stalls. It is here I get my Dollars exchanged. A man insisted I sit inside his cubicle and have coffee. He said in broken English he understood my interest in "seeking civilization." I did not have the heart to explain I actually look at sandwich shops and hardware stores in quasi war zones. None-the-less, he was impressed I traveled so far to see their culture. 

    I checked about a ride to my next destination as well. East of here I call the "bad lands" for travelers like me. Hardened journalists and military guys will smile. For them, up here in "the north" is a walk in the roses compared to "down south." To go east I will veer into some gray areas between the "two" Iraqs. I should fare better nerve-wise this time round. 

    That being said, I must emphasis a reality check. It is also important to remember my experiences are quick vignettes in a greater saga. Remember, I can leave and come home when I am done. The people I meet must carry on another day, this is their home. Also, understand I can move more freely and in safer regions than our military. I am just trying to identify some not so subtle nuances of my role here. People die not far from where I rather freely wander around and snap pictures. 


    - Beer Street Dahuk, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

   There is a beer street in Dahuk. One of the beer vendors is an Assyrian man I met last year. He remembered me. Like other Asian cities, products are grouped in streets and neighborhoods. A driver of mine veered over to the auto parts street to pick up a part. There are parts of every car on earth in every nook and cranny - on the roofs of buildings as well. Oil soaked, muddy, steep, and gravel alley ways dominated the quadrant. I saw the same type of streets in Viet Nam. 


    - The Kurdish symbol over looks Dahuk, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 - 

    The bad weather rolled off the mountains so I spent a good deal of the day emailing. I returned to my hotel a couple times and the chilly rain and wind bit into my face. After some mild scrambling to coordinate phone numbers I was able to do a brief recorded interview with WORT radio of Madison. Heide tells me it might make it on the radio soon and be archived at some point. I hope I can keep my directions straight. I noticed in my last dispatch that Dahuk should be noted as southeast of Zakho. Your brain starts spinning in a place like Iraq. 

Bob Keith
Dahuk, Iraq

This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

Signs of Progress in Dahuk Iraq
posted February 26, 2008

    Even though the temperatures hover around freezing, the street economy bustles in Dahuk. Areas vacant last time are built up this time. On the end of downtown they finished a bypass that was just a big hole in the ground last time. On the ride here we passed several eighteen wheelers struggling up the steep foothills. Some were carrying bags of cement and others were carrying reinforcement rods for all the new construction.


    - Small cafe in Dahuk, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith, February, 2008 -

    I found both my Internet shops. One has not changed so much. The other has gone upscale with a kerosene stove, carpeting and new computers. It may be worth noting at this point that there are workers tending to streets, garbage trucks picking up trash, and workers planting trees along the roads. I am not the one who came up with this next observation but it bears repeating, "If you are picking up the garbage; watering the flowers; there is actually glass in the windows of houses and shops; then, the war is on hold in your town." 


    - Stocked with products, street market in Dahuk, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith February, 2008 -

    I found my little hotel on Cigarette Street. They on the other hand, have not changed a bit. The room is eight bucks a night - no heat. There are plenty of blankets and 200 TV channels. Last year the sleepy clerk did not register my name and passport number in his book. The hotel police (they check hotels for bad guys) were not happy about this and dragged me out of the room at 3:00 a.m. in the morning one night. After a few cell phone calls to the border to double check on my entry into the country, I was served tea and a cigarette by the plain-cloths cops. This year I walked the same clerk through the sign-in process - actually, isn't that his job?. Perhaps then, this year I will not be rousted out of my warm bed in the middle of the night to prove I am not a bad guy.

Bob Keith
Dahuk, Iraq

This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

From Zakho to Dahuk Iraq
posted February 26, 2008

    I headed to the enormous Zahko taxi garage and found the Dahuk drivers right where they were last trip - in the best spot with a seated waiting area and snack vendors. The ride to Dahuk cost five Bucks. Not bad considering it is about 20 miles or so to the southwest through some winding roads. It is cheaper though if you ride with other people in the car. I share the ride with a couple of businessmen and a Peshmerga soldier. The driver stopped at one point after a big hill, got out, and beat the underside of the engine with a rock from the side of the road. Something was gummed up. It never ceases to amaze me that nothing goes right here, and then I am equally amazed they always squeak themselves out of a jam. 


    - Taxi Garage Zakho, Iraq - phoho by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    I might mention at this point that the Peshmerga are the Kurdish Region of Iraq's army. They are primarily Kurds as far as I can tell. They run their own show for the most part. I have noticed as I trav el east their uniforms seem to change. The west Kurds and the east Kurds have fought a civil war in the not so distant past. They have now merged their two political wings into one. The Peshmerga walk amongst the people. They often carry their machine guns and pistols into shops and cafes. Their uniforms very in color and camouflage design. I suspect there is many theifdoms within the Peshmerga. Perhaps a Kurdish society expert could straighten me out on that. 

    The Peshmerga became a concern last time because the eastern Peshmerga did not understand the writing the western authorities had put in my passport. I was detained for a bit near Halabja in the far eastern area of Northern Iraq. It also seems their may be fringe elements that operate under the auspice of the Peshmerga. This is disconcerting at the many regional check points I must negotiate throughout the country. 

    As long as I continue to see the Kurdish flag I know I am in relatively safe hands. But safety is always subjective anywhere in Iraq. The Kurds want international support. So safety prowess and a timbre of security is the theme of the day. Yet, private guards, security police, and of course the Peshmerga are everywhere. It is a paradox - it is safe because they are here, yet if it is safe, why are they so urgent in numbers? It is hard to take pictures because a soldier or police officer of some order is usually within my focus. They do not really like to be photographed while on the job. 

    The Kurdish flag has a distinct yellow star that its on the red, white and green horizontal strips. It is everywhere here. The Iraqi flag is nowhere here. The Kurdish flag is even more prevalent in these cities away from the border. When I start to see the Iraqi flag on my journeys south of here I know I am getting into an area out of the Kurd's protection. The Kurd / Iraqi bo rder to the south does not seem static to me. It seems to be in a constant flux. You must be very careful in those middle world areas between north and south of Iraq. 


    - The distinct Kurdish flag, Dohuk, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    I have noticed a distinct rise in the number of soldiers and police on the streets of Dahuk this trip. I have also noticed that their vehicles have been upgraded this trip. Their vehicles seem new and streamlined. 

    As well, I have noticed a distinct rise in the number of newer cars that citizens drive. I saw a new Ford Mustang today. Some of the citizens here obviously have more cash than me. There are of course plenty of people here - probably most - of humble means. To the question of credit cards in Iraq, this year I have found a type of trade office that boasts an ATM machine and credit cards. Hopefully the electricity does not go off as you are in the middle of a transaction.

Bob Keith
Dahuk, Iraq

This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

First Day in Iraq
posted February 25, 2008
    
    The first day in Iraq was sunny and warm. I had on only a t-shirt, sweat shirt, light cargo pants, and a ball cap. The night however is cold, perhaps 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The room has no working heater. It does not matter, the electricity goes out all night. There are plenty of big blankets. It is the same hotel I used last year. It is 20 Bucks per night. The man that runs the place is kind. He has a glassed-in office with a heated lounge in case I have to retreat to the warm up. The bathroom in my room actually has a seated toilet. His son brought a tray of coffee to my door at 10 p.m. The cold blast of air hit him, he handed me the tray, smiled and ran back to his heated office. 


    - Generator in the waiting Zakho, Iraq - photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -


    - Hardware to the left; Fruit to the right; Zakho, Iraq, photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 - 

    I was here during Ramadan last year and things during the daylight hours were slow. Ramadan is the month-long Muslim holiday where eating and some other activities are not done during the day. It was also October and winter would soon be upon them. This time round the streets show the bountifulness of the border town. Spring will be here soon. There also seems to be more old buildings being used for commerce. As well, there is new construction everywhere. 


    - Zakho, Iraq - photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    As like last time, the electricity rarely works. Generators howl everywhere. The smell of diesel looms in all the nooks and crannies. Generator shops, construction equipment shops, and electrical shops line the sidewalks. No one seems too interested in the traveling American. There is a thriving street economy despite there being no banks. 


    - Zakho, Iraq with mountain backdrop, photo by Bob Keith, February, 2008 -

    The sandwich shop owner next to the money changer booth insisted I try his plate lunch. It was not too bad. I believe it was lamb with rice and vegetables. I washed it down with Coca Cola. The red Coke cans are ubiquitous here. This speaks to a bit of a health tip as well - the cans are sealed so one should assume it is safer than tap water. If you are one to worry about how food in these parts is cooked, you will languish in a day or so. You have to eat. My suggestion - have a good relationship with you medical doc back in America. 

Bob Keith
Zakho, Iraq

This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

Getting into Iraq
posted February 25, 2008

    We headed to the Iraqi border around noon. My driver sped past the miles of waiting supply trucks about sixty-five miles per hour. He stopped for a moment to put a liter soda bottle of gas in his car. He was riding on empty. He threw the bottle in the back and then of course, lite up a cigarette and offered one to me one. I passed and just rolled down the window. Dust flew and dirt covered everything. 

    The Turkish guards were at lunch. My driver kept going into buildings to bother them and get the correct stamps on our passports. All the time, with a cigarette in his mouth. At some point we picked up a young traveler to also take across. He seemed about 18 years old - maybe a worker. On at least two occasions, irritated officials sent us back to get re-stamped, claiming some glitch - the price of interrupting lunch. 
    
    As expected, there was an auto fee that needed to be paid. Another twenty dollars. I waited with bated breath for the next new fee different from last year. I did not have to wait long. The driver pulled into the no-man's-land gas station and I had to fill up his car for 50 Dollars. This year I did not have to stop at the doctor's trailer for a count-the-fingers-and-toes exam. Perhaps he too was at lunch. Last year's exam cost one Dollar. So I saved a Buck this year. 

    The Turks seemed glad to see me. But of course it has been suggested the American government gave a wink and a nod to their recent invasion of Iraq. On the other side, unlike the happy greeting I got last time, the Iraqi Kurds on the other hand, were cold this year. I had to wait a half hour while their plain cloths police sized me up. The second visit in 18 month worried them as well. They did serve us all tea while we waited. 

    At some point we lost the young man who had tagged along. He had g otten across - he vanished into the mass of trucks and border buildings. The stern-faced passport cop gave me my passport back and said, "Don't go to Mosul." When I looked up to shake his hand he had already turned and left. A guard outside who had been watching the minor drama of what to do with the only American within miles, inspected my bag apologetically and looked over his shoulder to the office and them shook my hand and said, "Welcome my friend." My driver nodded but did not crack a smile. His job was almost done. 

    I checked the final entry stamp. Last year they stamped the wrong date which got me detained later in that trip. Fool me once... 

    A bit into Iraq we stopped at a taxi garage. It will no doubt be one of the most legitimate ones I use on this whole trip. As usual, all the drivers had to weigh in on getting the American on down the road. It was decided a Kurd about 60 years old and in full Kurdish dress and head gear would do the job. He insisted on giving me a round-the-town tour of Zakho. We passed the old stone bridge all the pre-Saddam tour books talk about but no one can find. The five mile ride cost another 10 dollars. 

    The whole ordeal from Silopi, Turkey to Zakho, Iraq took about an hour and a half. For 140 Dollars I have left for sure, what Americans might call one of the strangest countries on earth. And with that same nominal fee as well, I have in turn entered perhaps, one of the most dangerous countries on earth. 

Bob Keith
Zakho, Iraq

This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

Near the border of Iraq
posted February 24, 2008

    I left a bag with the hotel in Midyat and hopped a mini-van toward Silopi, Turkey - the last town before entering Iraq. As with last time, I was bounced into three different vans during the 50 mile rural trek to the border. The van stops a numerous side roads to load and off load riders. The landscape to Iraq is foreboding. I am reminded of phrases like moonscape and zero scape. Mount Ararat is up the way somewhere. Snow covered rock peaks monopolize the horizon. In Wisconsin, we would definitely call these mountains. The occasional goat grazes along the road. 

    In dusty Silopi there is a gaggle of drivers waiting to ferry travelers across the border. A young man sitting in the van next to me insists he knows the best man for the job. He introduces me to a tall skinny Kurd. I suspect they have never met before. The Kurd is the "fixer," the man who will take me the five miles past the hundreds of waiting supply trucks, down the pothole filled road to the border. He will negotiate our way through numerous checkpoints and bureaucratic red tape. I know at any point I could be turned back or detained. The driver not only has me to worry about, he may pick up stragglers along the way. Walking across the border is forbidden. He must also present papers to allow himself and his car to enter Iraq. I shake his hand - the deal is done. There is no time for driver-shopping. For 60 Dollars he promises he can get me across. The price has gone up 20 Dollars from last trip. I know from experience more fees will be tacked on along the way. 

    No one at the taxi area seems concerned the Turks have just invaded Iraq. The driver takes my passport to show his taxi boss. I hope he comes back. While I wait for him to appease his boss, I write down these observations. If I am lucky today, in an hour, I will be in Zakho, Iraq. 

Bob Keith
Silopi, Turkey

This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

Final prep and staging for Iraq
posted February 24, 2008

    Today was a day to regroup in quiet Midyat, Turkey and review my plan to enter Iraq. I will leave a bag at my hotel. I will enter Iraq with only one small duffel bag. There are convenient areas in Northern Iraq where multiple bags are fine, but there are just as many remote areas where too many bags are a burden. 

    A handful of things are essential for a trip like this: Passport; cash; international cell phone; digital camera with computer cable; paper towels; and, a flash light. Everything else can be scrounged up on the road if needed. 

    Turkey seems to save its international impact moves and then pull them out all at the same time - and it would seem, while I am in-country as well. Their president just approved a lifting of a ban on head scarfs in universities. Even though Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, they have tried to implement a sec ular culture for decades. This move is seen by some as a trend toward slipping back to a more Islamic society. 


    - Syria looms down the hill. Heading left on the pic, Iraq is just on the horizon.
  It is here on both trips that I paused - even hesitated - before going into Iraq.  
  Photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    Turkey has also apparently sent a sizable military force into Kurdish Northern Iraq in the last couple days. There is no sign of activity where I am at here near the border. The mountains in Northern Iraq are like any other mountains - vast and complicated to navigate. Suffice it to say then, somewhere north of me, the Turks are in Iraq. You would not know they have done anything by the mood here. But, this region of the world has been at war off and on for centuries. People apparently are not easily jolted into taking notice. This action by Turkey speaks to how delicate our American situation is with the region. Both Turkey and the Kurds of Iraq are our allies. 

    Someone asked on the GazetteXtra blog if you can use credit cards in Turkey. The answer is yes. But, expect to find fewer shops and hotels that use them the farther east you go and the remoter the areas are. Forget about ATM or credit cards in Iraq. Iraq does not have a banking system for the public that is visible. Last trip I had to go to street money-changers - very biblical so to speak. I went to a bank once and they shooed me to a jewelry store next door to get some Iraqi Dinar. 

    Just one last footnote on money. The dollar has fallen significantly to both the Iraqi Dinar and the Turkish Lira since my last visit to the region. In October of 2006 I could get approximately 1.50 Turkish Lira to one Dollar. Now you get 1.17 Lira. In October of 2006 I got approximately 1500 Iraqi Dinar to one Dollar. I hear now it is more like 1200 to the Dollar. This is troubling considering as I mentioned, Iraq does not really even have a viable banking system that I could see. 

Bob Keith
Midyat, Turkey

 This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II.  I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated.  The real-time journey was posted  by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.

Preparing for Iraq
posted February 23, 2008

    I bid my Assyrian friend goodbye until I retrace my steps later in the trip and just about froze my hands walking to the bus garage in Mardin. I have moved down the road to the east to a town called Midyat, Turkey. It is about 60 miles from Iraq. There are two Midyats. East Midyat which I am in, and Midyat proper. There was one Turkish check point on the way but they just flagged the van through. The way these van rides are done is you just holler up to the driver and hope he stops where you want - in my case in front of my hotel. 

    At some point I changed my wrist watch to Turkish time. It is eight hours ahead of Janesville time here. 

    I am in the Internet shop in the basement of a building a block down from my hotel. I must wear four layers on top and sweat pants under my cargo pants. I have had my stocking cap on for the whole trip. Today is no exception. There is no heat in here. It is probably 25 degrees Fahrenheit out side. They do however have a five foot by five foot big screen TV in an open area by the door to watch soccer. A couple light bulbs hang from cords in the seating area of bent metal and leaning plastic chairs. Full ash trays are everywhere. All I need is fingerless gloves and Charles Dickens meets George Orwell - Midyat, Turkey version. 


    - The quiet streets of Midyat, Turkey; an ideal staging location, 
       photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -

    Midyat is my staging place to rest and prepare to enter Iraq. My hotel is a palace compared to the Internet shop. The beds are soft. The blankets are warm. The towels are clean. The room is heated. There are TV channels from every country in Europe and the Middle East. The rooms are colorful and the room doors actually lock. The water is cold, but the breakfast of Yentl soup and thin bread makes up for it. There is always coffee and tea.

    I will stay here a day or so to regroup, rest, and tie up any loose ends before I enter Iraq. The people in the shops and hotel are nice and remember me from last trip. Midyat has an old Europe timbre to it. The streets are coble stone. A donky pulling a cart can be seen every so often. A variety of small shops line my patient street. There are a couple of welcoming cafes nearby. There is an absence of soldiers and police. No one seems to be in too big a hurry. It is easy to forget there is a war down the road a bit. 

Bob Keith
Midyat, Turkey