Love design!!! I just came across your blog and wanted to say that Ive really...Hadji Gallerie
Posted by Erik Rupard on May 20th, 2008
When I first arrived on Al Asad a few months ago, I was amazed to find that this military base has about a dozen stores which are run by Iraqis. These stores are known to the soldiers as “hadji” shops. The term “hadji” in Arabic refers to a holy man (sort of the Islamic equivalent of “guru”), but among the soldiers here, it is often used to refer to any and all things Iraqi. As an example, there was a controversial (and truly horrible) song which was recorded right here on Al Asad called “Hadji Girl” which tells the story of a soldier who fall in love with a local Iraqi girl, with predictably dire consequences. And on this blog a few days ago, an anonymous commenter referred to a foreign national as a “haji.”
The hadji shops are mostly clumped under and around the stadium, and have a very home-made look about them, like this:
In these shops, one will find a very friendly proprietor (usually a twenty-something Iraqi male) who is eager to serve. Items for sale in the shops range from satellite dishes (a few of my medics have bought these along with a programming package which gives them BBC channels and a few others, most in Arabic or in English with Arabic subtitles), to bootleg DVDs (poor-quality home-made camera shots of current movies, like Iron Man), to transformers, gun holders, combat boots, bikes, and cheap souvenirs. There is also a whole lot of random stuff in these store, including clearly broken/burnt-out stereos which carry sticker prices similar to what they must have cost when brand new. (Does anyone actually buy those?) One can also find strange drinks with Arabic writing on them, tobacco products, and other bits of randomness. In one of the stores, I found hundreds of silver-dollar-sized coins with the logos of American colleges pressed into them and painted. (Yes, I did look for a BYU coin, and yes, I did find one. Think about that for a moment: a Brigham Young University coin in a store run by Iraqis, on a military base in the middle-east. How did it get here? Why?)
The hadji shops only take cash, and each has a permit on the wall, stating that they have been allowed to sell their goods on post. Some soldiers love hanging out near the hadji shops, and spending their dough on the strange foreign stuff. I have yet to spend any money there, though I may buy a few things when I am getting closer to the end of my deployment.
There are a few other shops of interest on Al Asad, including an AAFES (Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the DoD-owned agency which runs the military “PX” exchange stores) “Carpet Shop.”
These carpet shops are a fixture on military bases in the middle east, and they sell authentic (or at least, authentic-looking and authentically expensive) Persian rugs which can be purchased and shipped home. I’ve yet to set foot in one of these stores.
Also on-post here is a store which sells impressive-looking and very expensive Turkish suits and other clothing, with the wonderfully generic (and wonderfully authentic foreign) name, the “Daylight Shoping Center.” I caught this picture of the “Daylight” at twilight.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Wow, Liberty Store? just today I saw that exact shop in downtown Augusta!
Thank-you for ordering the computer cartridge for me. Sorry I’m so lame. Just goes to show that if you need something done right, you have to do it your-fetching-self (even if from a war zone in the heart of the desert). We miss you more each day with every collapsing electrical device.
Have a good night honey; we love and miss you madly.
Mwah.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Big E:
My Chinese class wen to Chinatown today, it wasn’t terribly exciting but it was pretty fun and interesting. We went to a restaurant for some Dim Sum (not really a meal, people walk around with carts and you grab what you want and they mark on a little card what you got which tells the person at the register how much to charge you)we (all 9 of us) just got whatever looked interesting or exotic and we shared the bill(relatively cheap we all paid $7 each) The highlight was the chicken feet (not particularly good, but not bad either) And cow stomach-the best way that i’ve thought of to describe its texture is that it is disgustingly similar to that of those toothbrushes that have the side meant for scrubbing your tongue very chewy and hard to choke down. I reccomend however, a strange fruit called Lychee i bought a pound of it and brought it home and it is very good.
Xai Jian!
Christian
May 20th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Hi, Erik,
The shops look very similar to the Scandia Mall which was across the street from Dad’s drugstore. One shop sold very cheap, ugly furniture. The proprietor also served as the local funeral home director. The next store was a very poorly stocked dime store….hair nets, thread, strange underwear, gifts all made in Japan (the China of my youth). The third store was grocery store featuring canned goods, green bologna, and lutefisk in season. The pool hall with the blind robins was next door to the grocery store. There was a sign in the pseudo dime store suggesting everyone should “Shop Locally”. Woo Hoo! Love, Mom PS – Today is Molly’s birthday.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Mom R: I’m afraid to ask but here goes anyway: What in the world is lutefisk?
May 21st, 2008 at 5:17 am
* Quote from Garrison Keillor’s book Pontoon:
“Lutefisk is cod that has been dried in a lye solution. It looks like the desiccated cadavers of squirrels run over by trucks, but after it is soaked and reconstituted and the lye is washed out and it’s cooked, it looks more fish-related, though with lutefisk, the window of success is small. It can be tasty, but the statistics aren’t on your side. It is the hereditary delicacy of Swedes and Norwegians who serve it around the holidays, in memory of their ancestors, who ate it because they were poor. Most lutefisk is not edible by normal people. It is reminiscent of the afterbirth of a dog or the world’s largest chunk of phlegm.”
May 21st, 2008 at 5:45 am
Molly: Happy b-day plus one.
Christian: Sounds like a fun trip. I have seen the chicken feet in the grocery stores in Mexico/South Texas, but never ate any (or knew how you’d cook such a thing). I remember that they were cheap—like 29 cents a pound. I have eaten menudo, which is the Mexican soup made of cow stomach. I thought it had the consistency of clams, and not a bad flavor. A bit slimy, though. The Mexicans peel (shave?) off the rough stuff on the inside of the stomach before serving as menudo. You can buy “Goya” brand menudo in most grocery stores.
I looked up lychee in wiki and it looks pretty good.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:12 am
It all sounds pretty ‘fear factor’ to this Canadian girl. Of course, then there’s haggis.
Happy Belated birthday Molly! And Barry (a few days back).
May 21st, 2008 at 9:45 am
These are neat dad! Thanks for posting them, its cool to see stores and stuff like that. It looks so primitive. Liberty store, haha.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:35 am
Don’t forget tripe. That always looks really appetizing.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:55 am
Hi Erik,
I’ve become a daily reader, thanks!
I cringed when your anonymous buddy posted the term “haji” the other day. It seemed derogatory, if not overtly racist. The term properly refers to those who have completed a specific and sacred religious act in Islam. A Mormon equivalent might be “endowed.” Using it to refer to all Arabs, regardless of whether they have performed the Hajj, seems to mock the religion and to demean and objectify all members of society. I’ve considered this term to be a modern equivalent of “gook” or “jap,” pejorative terms used in previous wars.
And yet the way you’ve used it in your post has no pejorative intent. Can you provide any insights into the usage of this term by coalition soldiers in the Middle East?
Thanks,
Steve
May 21st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Steve,
Regarding the term “hadji” (also spelled “haji” and “hajji”), which (for readers who may not be aware) specifically refers to someone who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca:
I have not seen it used in a derogatory fashion, but remember that I am a “fobbit” who has never left the post or been involved in any real action. On post, it is used affectionately, and in front of Iraqis (though I have never heard one of them say it, which may be telling). Even in the “Hadji Girl” song, it is simply used to mean “Iraqi.” We have regular “cultural awareness” presentations foisted on us by the Army, and that term has not come up as one we should avoid. Again, though, the US Department of Defense has not always been the the arbiter of good taste and sensitivity.
So, I guess what I’m telling you is that I don’t know if it is offensive to believing Muslims to use the term an injudiciously as soldiers often do. You may be right that is is the equivalent of “gook” out here; I have only the rather insular view of one who lives in a protected area carved out of the middle of this conflict and populated only by the most scrubbed and America-loving Iraqis.
I really appreciate your thoughts on the matter. If you have any other insights, please share them here.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Speaking of weird food choices, the butcher and I at the local A&P had a nice, yet telling discussion on Head Cheese, that glorious cold cut made from the boiled and scraped whole head of a pig. Delicious. Your friend Steve Jordan seems like a perfect match for our family blog. How do you two know each other? I am assuming that Mr. Jordan is LDS.
Did you get my package yet? Love you, Mit
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:58 am
Missy,
I have not received any other package from you, sorry. Beginning to think that it may be a lost cause. They tell me that’s not terribly uncommon out here.
Steve is a friend whom I met at BYU, freshman year.
Love ya,
Erik