About Ramadi

Well, I misunderstood yesterday. I thought we were leaving back to Ramadi last night. Turns out we were leaving and coming back today. So, it wasn’t as bad as I first thought. I thought we were going to go back over there last night, spend the night over there, then come back later today. We left this morning and came back this afternoon. Usually it’s a two-hour trip. It took us about two hours to get there and only one hour and twenty minutes to get back.

Ramadi is like an armpit of Iraq. It reminds me of Kuwait, without so much of the sand and camels. The dirt is like a fine power type and the air is full of dust. The area is more arid then the Baghdad area even though it borders the Euphrates River. I found myself covering up my mouth and nose with a scarf which I don’t normally do. The wind was picking up every bit of dust it could find and the sky had a brown dusty haze because of it.

I wouldn’t want to be stuck there. The living conditions are a lot better here in Baghdad then they are in Ramadi. The PX wasn’t as grand as the one we have here, of course. The MWR/Recreation Center is undergoing some remodeling so it’s pretty chaotic inside. There were areas of the recreation center that were closed and parts of the place that were disorganized.