An email from Brad - 1-14-09 Well, I find myself wanting to share more about my time here. Hope you don't mind more random thoughts,I hope this reaches you in the best of times and that you are all well and happy. In one of my previous letters I said that I had come to terms with the fact that dust was just going to be on everything and I was just going to have to deal with it. The next day it rained...yep! So you know what happens when a ton of dust gets wet....yep, MUD! Lots and lots of mud. They have some very angry looking Iraq's going around with a huge vacuum truck and they suck up all the mud puddles. Mud....the other dust.
The burn pit has not shifted in a few days so it has been nice to not smell that putrid death smell. I will hate that smell for the rest of my life.
We got in some boxes from Girl Scouts. They were Valentine's that they decorated. They are super cute and say nice things in them like.."We love and miss you guys" Love Emma, and things like that. You can tell who the really lonely guys are by how they just sit with their back against the wall and read them over and over. We wish we could thank them but they don't want us to have the addresses of little girls. It is a sad world when a soldier in Iraq is dangerous to a Girl Scout in the US in my opinion.
We also got in some boxes of home made cookies. Wow, have you ever seen on the discovery channel when they show the sharks eating. It was kind of like that just with big smiles and laughs. About 2000 cookies gone in a few hours. I hope these letters don't sound too negative. There are a bunch on nice things here as well. One of them is laundry! You take it to a drop point and they weigh it and tag it. 72 hours later you come back it is all bagged up and clean and folded. Nice! Also, we have our own ping/pong table in the bay. I have not had time to play it but I will make time in the near future as I get better at my job.
I have found out that the weather seems to control the aggressive acts that happen. Bad weather is a bad time to be out. It is nice when it's sunny and clear and the wind is calm. Good time to be out side! (The Iraqi's use the dust as an advantage to attack, they run a better risk of attacking and fleeing).
I have had the opportunity to meet many people from other countries. We seem to get along very well as we are all non-natives to this country. I have a friend named Neil and he is from Nepal. He was recruited when his family was robbed of $5000.00 by the government before it was fired and he faced the possibility of being homeless. In his country he makes about $60.00 a month. Here he is making $760.00 a month. He has already gotten his 5k back and will work here till 2010 so he can live well when he gets home. He is often homesick and wishes he could go home now. He is a Hindu and misses the cow that the village has. He showed me pictures of the cow and it is very cute for a cow. He assures me it is a god and told me he would get 25 to life if he was to injure it. I assured him that if I ever visit that I would be very kind to the cow. It is interesting to visit with the various people here. They all have amazing stories as to why they are here and as you can guess they are mostly related to supporting family and needing income. They all are grateful for the "American War" and like their jobs. It is nice to work with such sort of happy people.
We also have a number of American workers here. They make about $50.00 an hour and keep it tax free. They live like we do and take the same risk we do so they seem like brothers in the effort and we get along well with them. There is another group of workers, the guys from outside the gate and they work with armed guards and barbed wire around them (these are "unprocessed" Iraqi's who come in for day labor). They have no cell phones, pagers, cameras, GPS devices, thumb drives on them and are just as likely to be hurt as we are. We don't talk to them but they always wave. I wave and smile back.
I love seeing all the planes that come in unless they are flying over my pod when I am sleeping. It is amazing to see the military machine in motion. Really amazing how much we get done in a shift. I find myself reflecting on if we could just use all this stuff to help the world in poverty.... well you know the answer to that. Sad.
I am considering going to the hospital and volunteering soon. You have to commit to it for a time and I am still not sure about my time. Also, after working 12-13 hours it is just nice to lock myself in my little pod and watch a DVD on the computer. Then drift off to sleep. I am just not ready for what I will be forced to see. I will keep you posted on/if I go do it.
I have not seen the Camel Spiders. It is cold right now so they are not out as much. I guess if you move sand bags around then they are on you. I don't really want a 6-12 inch spider that can run 10 MPH angry at me so no sand bag moving for this guy. We do have lots of small bugs, mice and baby birds around. Would be nice to see a dog or a cat sometime.
I have started my DVD project. I am asking people for them in the cases and not rated above "R" be sent to me. I am going to put them in the work centers so we can watch them on breaks and down time. Mollie has already found 40 of them for me to get started and I am hoping that others will mail them to me or give them to Mollie so I can share them here. If you find DVD's you won't mind never seeing again then please send them my way. Well, hope you enjoy hearing about life in Iraq,Miss you all so much,-Brad/Dad
---------From Mollie----------
Thank you all who have emailed / wrote Brad letters!! Nicole, Ellin and my family have all been super supportive this week. I appreciate all of you who have called me and made time to check in on me. I feel so supported!!!
DVD count: 46 mailed
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