Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Love and kindness

The fellowship of mankind in such tragedy and despair...

My buddy is a grade school teacher in the ghetto of Cincinnati. He just sent me such an uplifting story about a drug dealer who killed another right in front of the home of his prized pupils. You could say, poor kids for growing up under such hardship or you can rejoice that the children have parents who love and cares about them and walks them to school everyday and volunteers at the school to make sure their child grows up to be the best that they can be. Hurray! Plus in the bonus round....another dead drug dealer!

Here on the base... I was so fortunate to come across a welcomed kindness. The women here have gone out of their way to make me feel welcomed. I know them all. The last base, it was a race to be top mom. Here there's no such thing. We all have our own space, small as it might be and we watch out for one another. There are only a handful of us here, but it's a great feeling to know if you need to go to dinner, someone will always go with you- even if they already ate. And the guys make sure you never have to walk alone through the dark streets where evil lurks, (ANA= Afghan National Army who kidnap and sell you for fresh underwear...well, they should, who needs sex with women when there's a nice willing FN nearby). The base is fairly safe, but I like to think of it as living in Palmer Park. You can't go near the perimeter or outside the gate and careful of the strays that sneak through...but other than that, you're OK. But the bottom line is when things are as bad as you can't imagine, a ray of light shines through and I've met some of the best, caring people in the world!

Point in fact, my friend who went to another base was under attack. Her partner left her! Not very EMS like...repeat after me: NEVER LEAVE YOUR PARTNER BEHIND!!!  And when she was shitting her pants an amazing thing happened... a man unknown to her at the time, appeared and promised not to leave her. He explained about being in the war in Bosnia and he stayed by her side throughout the mortars. He even took her to a safer spot...as the bunker blew up behind them. I like to think that Angels walk among us and he most definitely was one of them. Hope they hook up...she needs a good guy!

I am almost always upbeat, but I think my dad dropped me on my head when I was a baby...that's the story my family tells me right after they pass me the shrimp, (I'm allergic to seafood, but they always forget....so we have it every Christmas- LOL!!!! ). It really amazes me how loving and kind people can be in the middle of a war. You rarely see selfish, centered, out for themselves kind of people. It makes me feel warm and just like being at home with my own family. I'm done with the jokes for now....

Love you Fam!!

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