Cards from Kids

The second set of cards, courtesy of Ms. Matzuk's 5th grade class in Doylestown, PA

One of the favorite and fortunately repeating episodes of life here in Iraq is the multitude of cards and letters we get from school kids. The first round came from a fifth grade class in Doylestown, PA taught by Melissa, the sister of one of my colleagues back home at the civilian job (ohhh, civilian job . . . how I miss you). The set of letters, one from each child, came and I rallied the office and friends in the building to respond to each. I told Melissa that one of the kids, Sam, would even be getting a letter back from a Colonel in the Australian Army, to which Sam was reportedly very excited about, until he became worried and inquired "Will the letter be in English?"


Nate from Ms. Parker's 2nd grade class at Los Alamitos Elementary, looks like he might be a future Navy guy himself with this fine rendering of a Navy supply ship above.

And then there were the cards from Ms. Parker's 2nd grade class at Los Alamitos Elementary - each one exquisitely had crafted in crayon with festive holiday scenes (like Santa on a tank).

But Jack's card . . . well, who ever thought of replacing Santa's sleigh with a tank pulled by reindeer (except Jack)? I'm hoping that the red crayon color in front of Rudolph indicates the glow from his nose and not a casualty . . .

Here is an assotment of more cards from more kids that were put downstairs for the staff in the building to enjoy.

You are being watched!

Like most companies or organizations, the Army blocks any websites it believes are detrimental to good morale and welfare or would result in abuse of the computer system. If you try to access one, you get the beloved "Your activity is being monitored and logged for review and possible disciplinary action" message or something like that. I hope that really is the case, because whenever my buddy Josh leaves his computer unattended, I type in as many restricted sites as I can think of.

The system might be a little overactive. The satirical "Onion" newspaper is banned due to "adult/mature content" and I was given the "monitored and logged" warning when I tried to read an article about one of the last American WWI vets passing away - clearly an insidious threat to coalition forces in Iraq. Oh, but don't worry, I still get emails on my work account begging me to help Mogatu in Namibia who has $20M his late father earned but just needs my banking information to transfer it to me. I sent that right away.