Simple Things

Things I'm thankful for:
Skype
Good Friends
A Bible
Music
220->110 power converters
A letter from home scented with perfume
A Bed
A Heater
This computer

Things that let me know where I am:
Sand
M16 strapped to my back at all times
Boots
Accronyms
Helicopters
Strange smells
Vocal Accents / Arabic
"Call to Prayer" a million times a day
Bunkers/T-walls

Things that don't change:
My wife's smile
The feeling after a good run
A hair cut
A pat on the back
The O.R.
A cup of coffee
Music
God's Word
God

The Team Assembled

We are definitely hear and now we are in action having gone to the OR twice. It is an interesting dynamic knowin that you will be staying and living with all the people that you work with for the next 6 - 12 months. It doesn't take much to make or break a reputation. Word travels fast. There is no disguising who you are. The only true privacy is on the toilet...even there you have to bring your rifle. Above is a picture of the anaesthesia providers and me and the guy on the end is my roomate John. He's an allergist who is still searching for the reason that the army sent him to a war zone....perhaps to stomp combat allergy out where ever it may hide.

Also sometimes it feels like your private time on the port-a-john is truncated by the others waiting to have there time too.

Irony

Hands that heal and hands that kill (hopefully not)

Remembrance and Projections

I couldn't help but feel nostalgic as we loaded onto the C130, thinking to myself, "I am now in the seat of countless other braver men than myself who gave their lives for their country in previous conflicts and the last view of friendly soil was the same one I am having now."

Now hear I am with my Ipod in a grenade pouch listening to Chris Tomlin and realizing that I have more than one mission here.

Personalities

It is a very interesting phenomenon when you take 300 people out of there normal surroundings and place them miles away from home and make them work together. There are a number of different personalities that come out. There are people that are very gregarious and enjoy company. There are the people that like only small groups of people. There are people that don't like to get to know anyone. In fact I found out today that there are people that make a point of not socializing with the people with which they work and infact pride themselves at this.
I find that way of life very sad. God made humanity to live in community with one another. Even the evolutionist would support this position from a survival basis, that human species will have a bettter survival benefit when living in community. But how do you make someone realize this?

But whatever the personalities, it still remains that we all need a savior (which is a whole different topic). But whether we are gregarious or agoraphobic, we will all make it through the next 6 months and all the adventures we will have between now and then are made all the more interesting because of all these personalities.

And speaking of personalities, this morning a bunch of us competitive types ran a 5K here in Kuwait and all got T-shirts. Life is better with all these personalities.

Even in Kuwait

If ever there is a sign that the world is getting smaller it is this: a Starbucks on deployment. It is hard for me to admit it but I can't have everybody back home thinking things are terrible for me here. I can get a cup of Starbucks coffee every day if I want to.

As much as I like the sympathy from everyone back home feeling sorry for their brave soldier way out in the desert, at least for now, it's not as bad as it could be. Yes I do sleep in a cot, and yes, I use a port-a-potty for nature's call, but at least I can sit in a Starbucks with that familiar smell of fresh brewed coffee wafting through the air while skyping with my precious wife and child via wifi...Thank God for technology...What would Richard Swenson say to this scenario?

Days 2 & 3

This is my second and third full day in Kuwait. I listened to a lecture about poverty from a professor at Wheaton from Uganda. He was asked to lecture on poverty. His conclusion was that the problem was not the poverty; it was the rich people’s greed. By rich people, he meant you and me. Needless to say it was very convicting.
We did some vehicle rollover training as well. There are a few soldiers who’s morale is low as they just want to get on to our final destination. However, I try to look at it on the bright side: We ran to the training site (free aerobics class), did the rollover training (free amusement park ride), went to a briefing (watched a B rate movie), and now have the next five hours to hang out at starbucks and go to the gym (free country club membership). So really the time here is pretty nice.

Time To Start

As this is my first blog I feel the need to identify the reason or impedus for starting this blog. As I finished the last leg of my 18hr journey to the mideast, I found myself in a bus looking out the window at a nightscape of the desert in Kuwait. With David Crowder Band playing through my ipod, I realized that without Christ's sacrifice on the cross for my sins, my soul is as barren as the desert at which I was looking.

Furthermore, I realized that this little trip to the cradle of humanity would be a life changing experience for me and I wanted to document my experiences with pictures and thoughts so that I would not forget this time. Thus the origin of this blog.

I hope it looks OK cause all the words on my screen except those that I write are in arabic.