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As a power infrastructure program manager for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), I'm working to restore power to Baghdad. I'm in Iraq as a contract hire on the USAID staff, but I was placed here through IRG, a consultancy based in Washington, which holds the personnel-services contract for the USAID's Iraq mission.

I currently oversee two power infrastructure projects with a scope of roughly $200 million, one of which is being executed by Bechtel National -- the same company responsible for the Hoover Dam, the Channel Tunnel, and Boston's Big Dig -- and the other performed by a U.S. Air Force contractor. The objectives of these projects are, respectively, to improve the efficiency of the Baghdad-area electric grid and to provide stand-alone power generation to potable water-treatment plants that service central Iraq.

TYPICAL DAY
6:30 a.m. -- I leave my housing trailer and sprint to a nearby gym, which is well furnished with free weights and cardiovascular equipment. I prefer to exercise in the morning, a carryover from my military service, and in this place it's a great way to start the day feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

8 a.m. -- I catch a ride from my living area to the Al Rasheed hotel, where I wolf down some oatmeal and egg whites before walking across the street to the building where I work, flashing my Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) ID card to the sergeant before entering.

8:30 a.m. -- The daily infrastructure meeting: Activity managers report project statuses and upcoming actions to the USAID Infrastructure Manager, who is my boss. I present the status of a contractor bid solicitation that I'm overseeing and the issues that should be resolved at a separate meeting this afternoon.

9:00 a.m. -- Time for a project meeting at one of the Iraqi ministry buildings. Baghdad traffic can be heavy this time of morning. Today's meeting is a kickoff for my newly assigned project, a $100 million Bechtel initiative to improve the Baghdad distribution grid. We meet the Iraqi district managers and discuss the basic scope of work, which is to repair or replace 24 substations and 14 feeder stations responsible for distributing electricity in Baghdad.

12:30 p.m. -- I return to my office building and head upstairs to collect my partner in crime: a grizzled generation startup manager from Texas. We stroll across the street to the hotel's cafeteria to discuss Iraqi office politics over the day's fare. The chicken is delicious. The meatloaf is not.

1:30 p.m. -- I ask Ilham, our Iraqi administrative assistant, if a conference room is available for my 2 p.m. contractor meeting. She is amused by my garbled Arabic, gives me a quick lesson in written Arabic, and tells me in her fluent English that she will reserve a room for me. (I learned to write and speak basic Arabic as an Army officer in Saudi Arabia.)

2:00 p.m. - I meet with representatives from one of the general-services contractors and head downstairs to a conference room. We review the technical scope and terms of work for power generation to the potable water-treatment sites in the greater Baghdad area, and determine that a subcontractor bid solicitation is ready to begin. The manager leaves me with a flash-memory stick containing the specifications for the generator-control system. I return upstairs to secure solicitation approval from the government contracting officer.

3:30 p.m. -- I submit an advance request for a security escort to the main water-treatment plant in Baghdad, where a large turbine generator will return to service in two days. This generator and its on-site twin power the site that provides 60% of the potable water supply to 5.5 million inhabitants in the Baghdad area. I try to make regular visits to observe progress at my project sites.

3:45 p.m. -- E-mail check. As a member of the USAID mission, I'm on the distribution list for a number of daily notices, reports, and news articles on all sectors of reconstruction and development. It's encouraging to see that we are making progress.

5:30 p.m. -- I meet with the power-program manager from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers support office, and we drive over to the CPA office -- Saddam Hussein's former presidential palace -- to attend the tri-weekly CPA Electricity Ministry meeting.

6:00 p.m. -- Representatives from the various Corps of Engineers groups, Bechtel, BearingPoint, CJTF-7 (military), and several offices of the CPA report on the status of the power reconstruction effort. After the meeting, I discuss the background of my Bechtel distribution grid project with one of the CPA program managers.

7:30 p.m. -- Dinner in the palace, at the dining facility managed by KBR, a division of Halliburton, for the U.S. Defense Dept.: spaghetti and meatballs. I sit down at an open table with some CPA Finance Ministry employees, who are discussing the U.S. dollar/Iraqi dinar exchange rate, which is approximately 1,400 dinars per U.S. dollar.

8:00 p.m. -- Back at my office building to check e-mail again. The contractor has written to confirm that the bid solicitation is under way. The Bechtel distribution-grid project manager has found some inconsistencies in scope between what the Iraqi Electricity Ministry wants and what the CPA is requesting. We'll meet tomorrow morning to discuss a plan for resolution.

9:00 p.m. -- There's a small piano in a storage room downstairs. I close the door and belt out my poor rendition of several two-part inventions and a French suite minuet by Bach. In this environment, quality private time is a scarce but necessary commodity.

9:30 p.m. -- Buses and carpools are available, but I find it relaxing to walk at night. I pass some barbed wire and an armored personnel carrier on the way to my trailer compound.

10:00 p.m. -- Back at my trailer. I fall asleep while reading an outdated copy of BusinessWeek.

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