filmboomer's VirtualTourist Home Page

Hello everyone! I just discovered this website that will allow me to create a journal of my trip to Kuwait to cover the upcoming war in Iraq. I will be adding photos after I buy a digital camera to replace the one that I loaned my buddy for his trip to Thailand. But for now, no images.

I was sitting with my friend and colleague, Bob Marts when the call came from my news colleague, Kevin Graf, who asked me (point-blank, as usual) "Your passport in order?"

I quipped (totally facetiously), "SURE! Although, I'll need some time for the Kuwaiti visa".

Kevin: "They'll take care of that. We leave tomorrow for the (ABC) D.C. Bureau and then to Kuwait City and Iraq".

That's how this began. My head is still swimming from the last-second attempts at organizing my life around this life-changing event. Talk about dropping everything!

So...I got my friends and family to take care of the plants and my fuzzball Tabby Harry whom I will miss terribly; stopped the paper, arranged for bill-paying, called, emailed, wrote instructions for everything and was off to the airport.

We took off Wednesday, the 5th and it looks like ABC will keep us in the war zone for 4-6 weeks and then decide what to do with us. There are many crews on the way to Qatar, Jordan, Israel, Kuwait and Turkey. I don't know which is more dangerous and scary, Israel or Kuwait but I suspect it's a toss-up.

Twenty five of us (producers, camerapersons, sound engineers and maintenance people) just finished a two-day training at the ABC Washington Bureat on everything from hazardous waste to chemical-biological-radiological attacks. We were issued a full Tyvek suit, overboots, gloves, respirators with cannisters, oral/nasal masks, Fuller's Earth (for decontaminating from a liquid chemical attack) and a "rucksack" as the Brit instructor called it, to put the gear in.

It was a cautionary course and included some very disturbing images, many of which I avoided observing by leaving the room. Makes me wonder if I'll be faced with images that...never mind. I'll "burn that bridge when I come to it" as Jimmy Buffett says.

I was signed up for a survival course in the Virginia countryside over this weekend but decided I needed the time to organize and inventory the gear (for U.S. Customs) pack and buy last-minute things for the trip. The course is teaching what to do when kidnapped, assaulted, etc. It also teaches risk assessment, conflict resolution and other survival skills. While I'm sure it's a valuable (and expensive) resource but ABC is allowing us only the weekend and then we leave Monday afternoon. It would have been maddening trying to cram so much into so little time.

Saturday evening

Some additional information for us and you:
Since we'll be working for ABC Primetime (a magazine show) we'll be doing more of the 2-camera interviews back in Kuwait, man-on-the-street interviews and features on our fighting people. Of course, if anything from Saddam gets through to Kuwait, all bets are off.

I don't anticipate any other journal downloading or photos until we arrive Tuesday evening in Kuwait, but I will really try to keep the information flow up-to-date. I see on the news that "safe rooms" are a big hit in the States (steel-shelled rooms to be hidden within a home ala the movie "Safe Room" with Jody Foster) and that the price of gold is going up. This all fits the war scenario.

Oh...I just found out that there is only ONE Internet Café in Baghdad; and that one is for government officials and other party leaders. All communications would be monitored (well, DUH!!!) so don't plan on hearing from me if we enter that zone. Until then, I see no problem logging on since there are 14 Starbucks in Kuwait City, there HAVE TO BE a bunch of I'net cafés!

Sunday night, March 9th:
This web site definitely has some limitations in capacity. I will have to open another entire page just to accommodate my verbosity.

I learned today that there are 14 Starbucks in Kuwait. Okayyyyyyyy....so where do I go with that bit of trivia? Oh yeah....there must be a bunch of internet cafés which would allow me to stay in touch.

The ONLY problem I foresee is downloading photos to my G4 Titanium Mac laptop and THEN transmitting them to this site. I'll work on it...given time. I suspect I'll be alternating between boredom and fear but hey, who the hell knows?

More after I get to Kuwait City in a day-and-a-half.

Note:

If you are having a problem accessing the journey after this, go to the home page for me, click on the word "Kuwait" in the upper right quadrant and you will be taken to the next portion