Bored in Baghdad

Since my friend and driver Mazin is enrolled at the University of Baghdad (he's studying French), I've lost my mobility, so I'm spending alot of time in my hotel room. I thought it would be good for me ... time to clean up the files on my computer, organizer my pictures, start creating a presentation that can make sense of the eight months I've spent in the Middle East ... even time to study Arabic. But I've a pathological lazy streak when I'm stuck in one place for too long. I was able to visit the house by the river where I used to stay tonight ... the river's low right now ... and tomorrow a friend will drive me back to the Ministry of Environment.

I don't have high expectations of the Ministry ... I'm trying to get a) the results of the Tigris River Project water samples (you'd think this would be easy to get since I organized the whole thing) and b) a current list of Iraqi Environmental NGOs (which they gave me once before just for the asking). Iraq was a closed society under Saddam and it's still a closed society. So silly but I guess (grudgingly) to be expected.