Fitting in with the locals in Iraq
April 23, 2007 by Michael A. Romig, Baghdad, Iraq

Although I live in the green zone I interact with Iraqis every day, both at work, at local business and with our residential security team. I frequently eat in local Iraqi restaurants inside the green zone and have locals buy food and equipment outside for me when needed. I’ve done my best to pickup the local greetings and have attempted to learn Iraqi Arabic as much as I can in the relatively short time I’ve been in the country.

One thing I’ve noticed at several local restaurants and at other shops is the “discount” that emerges with loyalty and frequency to a place. There is one restaurant, very close to where I live. It’s “hidden”, like many restaurants are. You can’t see it from the road and even if you did and were looking directly at it you wouldn’t recognize it as a restaurant. All but a few of times I’ve eaten there I have been the only American in the place, all others being locals or at least Iraqi Americans working in the IZ.

I know enough of the names of the various local Iraqi dishes I like that I can order just fine, eat and pay on my own. Now the paying is the interesting thing. When I first started eating there, my meal was around $10 to $12. I paid it without thought. It’s understood we are there to help out the local business directly or indirectly when we can. I kept going back, sometimes with Americans, other times with Iraqis, but I noticed my food prices went down to $7. After a few more times, it was $5, and then the other day, I bought lunch for me and another local and it was $3.50 for my meal. The important thing to note here is that all along all of the locals were paying $3.50 for their food; it’s the fair market price inline with the wages received by local nationals. I was paying an “elevated” wage because I was a foreigner.

Now, from time to time, I still get $5 lunches at this place, but usually it’s still very inexpensive. I just have to laugh when I think about it. If you hang around long enough; in a small way you become and get treated just like everyone else.