Hard Days

The last couple of weeks have been the hardest so far. So please forgive me for not keeping you posted. Not only have we spent most of our time in the field, but the temperature has been over 125 degrees almost every day. Long days and excessive heat just does me in. Adding to my exhaustion were several problems that we had to manage to keep the students and the course on track. And, like I said before, NOTHING is easy here. So, when a problem arises, it takes all the energy you can muster to deal with it. And for me, unresolved problems eat at me, further sapping my energy and morale.

For the past three or four weeks I’ve been trying to get someone in the Iraqi Army to pay my students. Seven of them have not received a penny since the end of April. There are not banks here, no postal system and very little is automated. So, when something happens to mess up their pay, it has to be dealt with in person, with hard copy documentation. It’s excruciatingly slow and painful. This problem still hangs over me.

Then, just when I’m feeling good about the progress we’re making - training these guys to be good officers - they go and kick me right in the gut. We were getting ready to step off on a three hour (10km) road march in full combat gear the other night. The student leader reported everybody ready and I asked him if he had done his pre-combat inspection (PCI). Yes, Sadi. But something wasn’t right. I discovered that they had taken their Kevlar plates out of their body armor and stuffed their ruck sacks (back packs) with pillows instead of our combat load. Yes, I blew a 50amp fuse.

So, we had another one of those (very loud) one way conversations about integrity and officership. They just don’t get it. I told them they had played me for a fool. “Did you honestly think I would not check you? Now each of you looks like a fool.” I think they were ashamed that they had let one or two of their members talk them all into such a stupid stunt, but that does little to help me feel better about them right now. Needless to say, I’m kind of tense.

And, there are other issues but I’ll not bore you anymore. Just know that I’ve been at wits end for the past few days. Thank you for praying for me. You probably didn’t even know how effective your prayers have been. And today was a much better day.

Today I was finally able to establish a video connection with home! Yes, I got to see and chat with my beautiful family over the internet! They looked great and I was so moved. Thank God for technology. What a blessing it was to see them. And, while I was chatting with Sharon, Michael and Anna, Andrew happened to sign in from his apartment at school. I can’t tell you what this has done for my morale. I was talking to Captain K about how blessed we are to be in a combat zone and still be able to see our families via web cam. How did soldiers in earlier wars deal with the separation? Captain K said, “yea, I bet the video feed over WWII era web cams was in black and white”. He’s such a smart A_ _ sometimes, but we love him.