Sometimes Wounds Heal with a Band-Aid

Just like lots of kids from America, wounds can heal with nothing more than a simple band-aid. You know how a small child gets a scratch or "boo-boo" and it seems like the end of the world to them, they cry but once that band-aid is on the entire world is now a better place. The below photo was taken of one of my friends while we were on a convoy. A small Iraqi girl was so excited to see us that while running up towards us she had fallen and skinned her knee.

My friend, who was carrying a medic kit, reached in and pulled out a band-aid. He washed her leg off with his bottle of water and put the band-aid on for her. She did not hesitate for a second to allow him to take care of her.

The photos below are of a little girl and her family who were walking around with buckets picking up empty ammo. I assume they were turning this in somewhere to sell as brass, it saved us time, since we have to always clean it up on our own. The area in which all these empty shells were in was an area set up for us to continue training with our weapons.

Watching the little girl and her family reminded me of kids in America on an Easter egg hunt. The older girl spoke very good English. I asked her if I could take her picture and she was happy to have me do it. I was trying to get her and the little sister to pose together, her younger sister, possibly age 3 was not as camera happy. The older girl kept reassuring her younger sister that it was alright; she would say "soldier, camera, click click". After each picture I would take, she would run up to me excited saying "Let me see, let me see". I would show her the pictures and she would smile. It made me miss my own children. I know my kids do the same thing. They always want to see the photo right after it was taken; they are so amazed at what a digital camera does.

All over Iraq on every convoy we did, small kids were everywhere. Sometimes I don't even know where they came from. They would pop up as if they came right out of the sand. They were always curious, entertaining and so happy to see us. They also wanted to sell you everything from cigarettes to fake Rolexes. I bought the watches not because I wanted a fake Rolex, but in hopes that the few dollars they wanted for them would help their family. Some of them I brought home, some of them I turned around and gave them to another Iraq kid for free so he could sell it again to some other soldier.

On one convoy, this young boy ran over to our humvee. We gave him some bottles of water. He was a persistent little guy and kept asking for more stuff. So I gave him a watch and told him to go sell it to the big guy in the humvee in front of us. Instead he ran to the other side of our humvee and tried to sell it to my buddy. My buddy kept trying to bargain with him. He would say "I'll give you two dollars" and the little boy replied with "Two Dollars! Two dollars make me holler. You pay five dollars. Ali Bubba says West Side" he kept going on with the "West Side" term and throwing up his fingers to make a "W" across his chest.

My buddy finally said "Little dude, all I have is two dollars" he instantly dropped the "West Side" and started in on "Dude, you cool. Man I need five dollars, dude... you know what I'm saying" everything he had to say was now using the words "dude and man" with it, and sort of a little surfer twang.

It was interesting to see the things he had obviously picked up from other soldiers and could quickly change his demeanor to relate to you personally at that very time. The hardest part of being in Iraq, was seeing all these misplaced children. It would sadden me to see small toddlers walking down the road in the hot sun, with no shoes, no water, and so close to the road.

I look at a lot of the photos that I took while I was in Iraq and I see all these kids and hope that someday the things I had done while I was there make a difference to better their lives in the future. In my heart I feel as if I made a difference already. I only wish I could have done more.