War Stories

What it looks like if you open your eyes during a sandstorm

It doesn't matter if you are wearing a uniform, a badge, speak a foreign language, or if your black, asian or caucasian, we are all the same. People generally like the same type of things and eat various, but edible food and it all comes down to the most important thing ingestible item: water. In the desert, if you don't drink water, you will die. In the jungles of south-east asia, if you don't drink water, you will die. Death is a irrefutable fact of life. But, what makes cultures different here is the value of life. In America, life is precious, every single person counts for something. Although over here in Kuwait, life is "considered" precious, but it doesn't seem to be.

I have heard in the news that a dead body was lying on the side of the road and visible for several days before authorities decided to clean it up. Kuwaitis don't really care about third-country nationals (TCN's). They are immigrants from other countries seeking work, sort of similar to Mexicans crossing the American border to seek a better life(sorry for the analogy, but it's true). When I leave the confines of the base, most of the population I see are Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankian, or Philipino. If they die, nobody seems to care. There is a lot of poverty here. I notice that there is a lot of sheep herders and camel herders. But I have also seen some clean places in Kuwait City which resemble what San Diego looks like.

Camel hiding behind sign
It is interesting to see wild camels and seeing baby camels running alongside their mother. There's no other place in the world where I would see this type of stuff.

War Stories
Some of the people that I am working with have been here more than once. And they are more than happy to share their war stories with me. The soil I'm standing on was once occupied by the Iraqi army in the early 90s until the U.S. Military pushed them all out. Land cruising missiles used to attack random targets in Kuwait and soldiers were peeing their pants while stationed here about 2 years ago, an senior hospital corpsman recalls. Many say, "I've been to Iraq." "There are explosions and gunfire still being heard across the border." "I've seen the statue of Saddam being taken down." "If I had invested in Kuwaiti Dinars, I'd be rich." All kinds of stories. Very interesting stories, I wish I can write them all and publish, but thankfully, they aren't my stories to tell. Although I haven't seen the face of war, I still hear the thundering explosions here and there.