Another Post

For the past few days everyone that I have talked to has asked that I write something new. I never thought of myself to be much of a writer. I had some moments high school and college, but most of the time writing was accompanied by procrastination, tea, and late nights. Except for those rare occasions, I’m limited in my inspiration to things that I have seen or experienced directly. Most things I do I don’t think are very interesting myself, so I don’t expect anyone else to find them interesting. The demand for things I write has really surprised me, so I’ll try to think of something interesting.

One of the Pentagon’s benchmarks for progress in Iraq has been the establishment of large number of Joint Security Stations (JSS) in and around the Capital. These JSS’s are scattered and have US and Iraqi soldiers living and working together close to the civilian population. My unit’s job is to make sure that our JSS has all the supplies that it needs. In doing so, we’ve hard to carry some strange loads between here and there, but mostly just normal stuff. On Sunday’s mission there were two other stops in the local area. I love to get out and see what the country looks like, but I speak very little Arabic. At both stops we were giving out something very valuable, so many of the locals were glad to see us.

On Monday I decided to start of the month of October and the end of daylight savings time right. I spent the majority of my time awake cleaning everything I owned. I went through all the stuff I no longer needed, gave away things and reorganized my locker and space. I call it space because I don’t have my own room. My space measures about 5’x8’ and is dominated by my bunk bed. I have the bottom bunk and my rucksack has the top. I’ve made a nightstand out plywood and a plastic 3 drawer cart. On the night stand is my little lamp, the best 10 dollars I’ve spent in Iraq. Next my bed is another bunk, with only a poncho liner between us. Two feet from the other side of the bed is a poncho and the other edge of my space. So after working all day yesterday I was able to get everything clean, organized and in it’s place. So of course, I went to the CP this afternoon and found a large box from my wife. Now I have to find a place for all that stuff. Or eat it faster. She sent Reese’s, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

To most Americans who read this, it would seem very Spartan and harsh living conditions, but every time that I go out to see how the Iraqis are living, I am grateful for everything that I have. Whenever I go out near the Iraqis, they all ask for water. In the summer I thought it was because they were thirsty, but as I read the news and thought about it, I realized that they all want our bottled water because their tap water isn’t even fit to drink. I read in the news a few weeks ago that there is a Cholera epidemic in Baghdad because of it.