Cool Night, Rainy Day

Again I am amazed by the weather he in Iraq. Current temperature is 44 degrees with winds up to 10-15 miles an hour. Our thermometer says the same as what's online, but personally I think its a lot more windy than that. But hey I'm not gonna argue with the Weather Channel. I have some great pictures of the moon from tonight. My goal while I am here for the most part is to find some beauty in all this madness. I think that if I can focus more on the good of what is going on rather than the bad it will make my time pass by a lil smoother. To answer a couple of questions that have been asked of late, no I have not heard the booms.... And in all honesty I would like you to take your focus away from that style of thinking. I can not stress enough how the News is making things much worse than it really is. I urge you NOT to watch the news in regards to Iraq unless absolutely necessary and trust me when it becomes necessary I plan to be flying over the Atlantic half way home.

Anyway I want to talk about what I learned before I came to IRAQ. I learned the the average Iraqi family only lives on one dollar a day. That cellular service was banned by Saddam and the penalty if caught with a cell phone was death. Saddam didn't think of his people as people at all, but more like stray dogs to be dealt with. I find the mood here to be very grim and I pray for understanding of this situation. One thing is for certain my time here has made me appreciate everything about my life in the states. From running water to electricity and even the ability to drive down the street without having to dodge bullets and bombs (haven't had to personally). I have been reading a blog from a girl that lives here in Baghdad. I am amazed at what her and her family is able to go through on a regular basis. I will include a link to her site at the bottom of my post so that you may read what she has to say. But for now I will leave you with a quote from her site.

Riverbend: "It's amazing how as things get worse, you begin to require less and less. We have a saying for that in Iraq, "Ili yishoof il mawt, yirdha bil iskhooneh." Which means, "If you see death, you settle for a fever." We've given up on democracy, security and even electricity. Just bring back the water."

On a lighter note I want to thank Nastalgia (lol) for giving me employment when the rest of the city forgot about me. I was humbled by the work I had to do and also came closer to an understanding of the saying by any means necessary. That doesn't just apply to the defense of ones family, but it also implies that it is important for a man to do what ever it takes to make his family thrive. Which again makes my decision to come here easier than most would think. I have been blessed and I am continuously being blessed and will not forget that no matter what. A lot of people say that I am brave for being here, but some times it has nothing to do with bravery, but more with necessity. I was brought up to never fail so when I was faced with a compromising position of failure I truly believed I had no other choice. I only gave one person the power of attorney over me. Not to be a burden, but as a show of good faith and saying "I know I'm not doing all that I can, but I want to and I am trying. I know what I am doing isn't good enough so this is my plan do you approve?"

Only my One True Love, My GOD Send, my continuous blessing could have kept me from coming here. I know this was a heavy burden for you I didn't mean for it to be. As a matter of fact I was sure you would simply say don't go its not worth it and we would try a lil bit harder to make ends meet. But because GOD blessed you with a giving spirit you gave me the chance to do what I really and truly wanted to do on what some might say was "My Next Big Adventure" (several people said that actually). That is why I plan on giving you the moon the stars, the sky and that lays before us. The funny thing is all you ask for is peace. Sorry to go off on a tangent, but anyway Nastalgia (lol) even though I wasn't gettin paid a whole lot it helped a great deal. And in light of what I have seen here things could have been worse. A dollar a day versus 8 an hour isn't too bad at all. I often think about that Custodial Engineering (janitor basically) job that I held for a couple of months. We have a young Iraqi that comes here everyday (with the exception of Friday Muslim holy day) to clean up after us dirty Americans. To come here with risk of life and to witness what amenities we have at our disposal when he himself may not even have running water back home. 15 dollars a day is his pay for slaving over us while any one of us her make that amount in less than 5 minutes (less than that even). So thank you very much for you kind generosity and I look forward to repaying a debt. That goes for you as well uncle DT, because if it wasn't for you and your generosity I wouldn't be where I am today. I owe you more than I owe anyone (with the exception of Mrs. Dubs). For the past ten years all that I have learned and gained and even lost were lessons learned and only possible by the giving of your house, food, transportation and conversation (didn't mean for those last 2 to rhyme). To those I owe debts to you will be rewarded more than you can ever know I will see to it.

For now I give my love as collateral till I see you again in 2 months. :) (coming to the midway pint of this journey)

A giving spirit is a life debt that lasts forever
Like roots of an Oak tree they stretch long and far
Blessing everything it touches into the debts of ones soul
Changing the face of the Earth by just being kind
Molding others to mend others and to bless others
I feel as if I will be in debt for a life time to a great many souls.
For that I am grateful and more importantly Blessed.
For as long as I am in debt I give of my spirit freely.

Take care peeps,
Love you
KP

BTW (By The Way for those that aren't aware) Check out Riverbends Weblog it is very good reading, probably better than my I would even say. Just click here BAGHDAD BURNING.

Laters