11/08/06

The last two days have been sunny, crisp fall days. The ground is again dry, as the water we received was consumed down into it like a dry sponge.

I watch what little news I can catch on the SAT TV here telling of so many people and countries, (even with our elections), at odds.

Then...I look around this tent...at this very moment we have folks from Nepal, Phillippines, Macedonia, Bosnia, the UK, Mexico, Albania, Panama, Canada, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iraq, and of course U.S.A. Different politics, different religious beliefs, yet THEY ARE ALL GETTING ALONG GREAT!!

Playing pool, ping pong, watching sports, sitting and laughing, greeting each other with hugs and handshakes.

The world is in this tent...no one has a foot on their throat to to behave this way, they just do, and everyone seems happy. I look around and it just makes my heart happy...and wish everywhere could be like this.

I hear stories from these other countries. How you can be killed for the slightest thing, (or what seems the slightest thing to me being from the U.S.) , or how their neighboring countries are constantly invading them, bombing them, killing men, women, and children just out trying to make a better life for themselves, basically just causing strife...
...and in our country we get upset because people are just trying to sneak in our country to work. It makes you really think.

I was talking to an interpreter who actually was born and raised here in Mosul. He wanted me to take a picture to send to his family, but he couldn't have any soldiers, or anything identifying points of reference so you could tell where he was. I asked him why, and he replied that his family thinks he is in Canada. He is 20 minutes from his family.

However, he can't see them, or even let them know what he is doing for us for fear he will endanger not just himself, but his family. The bad guys would surely kill them (and him), if they found out...My God what torment this must be for him.

Just got the word Rumsfeld is out. And not too shocking, the soldiers seem very, very happy, even smiling when I ask them if they have heard.

With elections yesterday do you think that had anything to do with it...seems the voice of the American people can reach out from every valley, every mountaintop, every small and large city to reach Washington's ears when they want it to.

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet"...Abraham Lincoln knew what he was talking about with those words...