.Iraqi daily lives: Essam Hamoudi
The BBC News website has spoken to a range of Iraqis about their daily lives, and is publishing a series of their stories this week. Essam Hamoudi is a translator for the coalition forces in Samawa, the capital of Iraq's Muthanna Province.
His workload shrank in July 2006 when British, Australian and Japanese troops left, handing responsibility for security to local Iraqi forces. Muthanna was the first of Iraq's 18 provinces to be returned to Iraqi security control.
Samawa is a very quiet city. You could believe you were living in another country here, not Iraq.
We are mixed - we have Sunni, Shia, Christians and Jewish people all living here.
When the Iraqi forces took over in July, the security stayed at the same level. It didn't get better or worse. This is because of the people who live here, not the police.
In August, the electricity situation was bad because the power station south of Baghdad which supplied our city was hit.
But now it is wonderful, we have 22 hours of electricity a day.
After August, they started operating a power station which was built by the Coalition Provisional Authority.
This power station is inside Samawa. We are the most lucky province in Iraq, because we have our own power station.
And before the Japanese left, they installed lots of generators, which are now operated by the Iraqi government.
I have been working with the multinational forces for approximately four years now.
Currently I am working with the Australians, who are training the Iraqi army. The Australians left for their regional base in the summer and return to Samawa just twice a month now.
My job is to translate for the Iraqi logistics officer and sometimes the intelligence officer too.
We do communications between the brigades here and those in Basra. If the brigades ask for a humvee or an AK, it's supplied to our army here from Basra.
Working with the foreign forces poses no security threat for me. The coalition forces give me good money - I am a rich man!
I have my own house, my own car. I am getting married next month. I have been engaged to my fiance for four years. She is training to be a pharmacist, but hopefully she will be able to change to medicine.
Under Saddam, education was unfair. In my case, I got good marks but because I'm Shia and from the south, I couldn't go to the college I wanted. They put me in the computer science university. Fortunately I liked it and was good at it.
But my fiance did really well at school. She got very, very high marks. She tried to go to medical college.
Now because we have the new Iraqi government and it is more fair, she is going to become a doctor as she always wanted to be.
BBC
His workload shrank in July 2006 when British, Australian and Japanese troops left, handing responsibility for security to local Iraqi forces. Muthanna was the first of Iraq's 18 provinces to be returned to Iraqi security control.
Samawa is a very quiet city. You could believe you were living in another country here, not Iraq.
We are mixed - we have Sunni, Shia, Christians and Jewish people all living here.
When the Iraqi forces took over in July, the security stayed at the same level. It didn't get better or worse. This is because of the people who live here, not the police.
In August, the electricity situation was bad because the power station south of Baghdad which supplied our city was hit.
But now it is wonderful, we have 22 hours of electricity a day.
After August, they started operating a power station which was built by the Coalition Provisional Authority.
This power station is inside Samawa. We are the most lucky province in Iraq, because we have our own power station.
And before the Japanese left, they installed lots of generators, which are now operated by the Iraqi government.
I have been working with the multinational forces for approximately four years now.
Currently I am working with the Australians, who are training the Iraqi army. The Australians left for their regional base in the summer and return to Samawa just twice a month now.
My job is to translate for the Iraqi logistics officer and sometimes the intelligence officer too.
We do communications between the brigades here and those in Basra. If the brigades ask for a humvee or an AK, it's supplied to our army here from Basra.
Working with the foreign forces poses no security threat for me. The coalition forces give me good money - I am a rich man!
I have my own house, my own car. I am getting married next month. I have been engaged to my fiance for four years. She is training to be a pharmacist, but hopefully she will be able to change to medicine.
Under Saddam, education was unfair. In my case, I got good marks but because I'm Shia and from the south, I couldn't go to the college I wanted. They put me in the computer science university. Fortunately I liked it and was good at it.
But my fiance did really well at school. She got very, very high marks. She tried to go to medical college.
Now because we have the new Iraqi government and it is more fair, she is going to become a doctor as she always wanted to be.
BBC
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