And they?re off? 12 July 2006
Hello colleagues and friends. ? Well, yesterday 30 of the 32 expected Iraqi librarians were on site, so the program began in earnest. There were lots of ?salaams? to go around, as many of the people who started yesterday were returnees from last summer?s program ? it felt good to see them in person and to re-establish relationships.
The day started with a general session, then broke up into the four classes. This phase has the Iraqis taking one class for the duration ? either Cataloging or Digital Libraries or Collection Development or Preservation. It looks like each class got off to a running start, as the ?buzz? was excellent!
Yours truly spent part of his day trying to sort out return flights to Iraq. I made an initial contact with each of the 3 airlines used (Iraqi Airways, Ishtar Airlines and Kurdistan Airlines), and today I hope to send them a list of all returnees per location (Basrah, Baghdad and Mosul). It may get tricky, as three of the Iraqis drove to Basrah from Baghdad and flew from there to here ? and of course now they want to fly back directly to Baghdad ? we?ll see if that works or not. This is not to mention the man who flew here from Yemen on a round-trip ticket who wants to go from here to Basrah ? doubt that will work, but?
Another part of my day was spent trying to get large denomination bills changed to smaller denomination bills (in U.A.E. dirhams) so Carla could make payment packets for each Iraqi. The first bank I went to told me ?no account, no change? ? but, I smiled and groveled a bit and got them to make some change into smaller bills. Then walked into a second bank with the same scenario ? success, but not complete success. It feels a bit strange to be walking around with large amount of money in one?s carry-case ? as you might imagine, it never leaves my sight.
We had our first crisis yesterday afternoon, as one of the participants was called and told her brother had died back in Baghdad. David did his magic (should we call him a ?jinn?), talked to airlines folks, and he got her a seat on a flight out today. I probably sound like David?s promotional manager, but he is remarkably engaging, and his personality plus his language and local knowledge skills really work for him (and for us ? ). Tonight David gets to go to a royal wedding ? let?s hope he debriefs us so we can tell all anon?
All in all, things are going well. It is a very different ?feel? this year, primarily because we are not all living together. We?re in a hotel, while the Iraqis are being housed through the good graces of UAE University in men?s and women?s dormitories. At the very least, this changes the after-class dynamic. We?ll have to get creative to find more ways to talk informally, which I?m sure we?ll do.
Well, I?m typing this before breakfast, so will close for the moment. I?ll try to report more from the Iraqi point-of-view next, assuming people will open up about everyday life there (I?ve been told a bit, but would like to hear more before I share with you). As my dear friends who read my diaries from Kuwait know, it?s work, eat, sleep ? work, eat, sleep? a hard life ? not!