Post from Iraq

Expeditionary Workforce

 

                                                                                                                       Aug. 13, 2007

 

       This job has been the most challenging of my career. I’m very tired and stressed, but it has been an invaluable experience. When you come here you pretty much are thrown in and it is up to you to “sink or swim.” You don’t have a lot of time to learn from your predecessor, and the staff of people you deal with changes constantly. You learn to be flexible, patient and more tolerant of different personalities, but I’ve made some very good friends.

       This tour – working with health projects and schools - has been much more rewarding than my last tour, when I was over police stations. Due to the security conditions, I don’t get to travel as much this time but I have now been to eight of the nine southern provinces and to every military base in those provinces. Traveling and seeing the country has been very interesting and has probably been

the highlight of my tours. Another is meeting people from all over the world. It was funny — when I returned to Oklahoma last time, I had to remind myself when I walked into a store that I didn’t have to wonder if the person spoke English or not.

       The picture below is what I’m busy working on right now. It’s one of the two new hospitals we’re building and is my largest undertaking. . . I’m also responsible for about 50 new schools, 58 primary healthcare centers (the main cause of my stress), a university renovation, an asphalt plant renovation, a new playground/park, a stone-crushing plant renovation, a new landfill, a new library and various other governmental/community buildings.

 

                                                                 Robin Parks