Well I have been active in the past few days. The first was when we went to a Iraqi primary school to help with some needed repairs. It seemed that some of the doors and windows were damaged and broken. We did managed to replace one door and completely re-framed at the same time. But because all of the other doors where metal and built into the building they could not be replaced. We did manage to get some of the windows replaced too. But that is not what made it different this time.
The place that we went too was in a urban environment with the buildings very close to each other. That also meant that there where more people there. Another thing is that none of there where Iraqi army or police. Of course the streets where very busy it being mid day. We where greeted instantly by the kids, who all if which asked for us to give them everything we hand on, from eye wear to gloves. Because of the amount of kids there one or two got away with grabbing stuff off of my vest. I lost a chem. light, lighter and some cigarettes. It was becoming apparent how different that the urban areas where to the rural areas.
The school was gated by brick wall that had some plaster put on it. We had a guy stay in front of the gate to prevent the kids from coming into the school. But to be honest I think that they where more scared of the headmaster and teachers there then of us. The first door we looked at had damages around the door knob and looked like all it would take was a nice kick to break it done. And this was the headmasters office. We turned a 30 minute job in to one that took at least three hours because we kept adding stuff. It is a nice door and all but we are not exactly on TV. To fully understand the dept that went into this door, try to imagine Tool Time in Iraq. Yea it was that bad, but the only difference was that the product was nice and worked.
While we where working, the headmaster asked if we could take a look at another school to see what we could do to help it. The thing that he did not tell us at the start was that someone had put a IED and detonated inside one of the classroom/office rooms. The neighboring rooms had taken such damage that they too where not safely usable. You could see the scaring from where the blast had originated and the area of visible effect was 0-25 feet. There was now way we could do the job and told him to see if he can get a contractor to do the repairs. One thing we asked about the blast was that was this done because it was a girl school. He disagreed saying that the terrorists do not want people to learn on their own.
One topic that came up several times was that the headmaster wanted to see if we could do some projects that would help bring sports to the kids. It was obvious that the boys played soccer, but the girls only played basket ball. But one problem seems to be that the parents are reluctant to have their kids from taking part. I think the headmaster wants to have something of a school team, but because there is money issues it is hard to find people to help out that are not getting paid for their time. But that is one thing that the headmaster wanted because he thought sports are a vital part of a childhood development.
Back at the school, we have a grand total of one door and 5 windows. We could not do much with them because the frames were metal and the hinges where built into the frame. But they where grateful for what work we did do. One of the teachers gave out Iraq cola, which reminded me more of Pepsi. I did have a chance to wonder around with the platoon camera and got some shots of the classrooms. One other teachers was more then happy to show me around. The classrooms where sparse compared to a American counterparts. They did have drawing and coloring from different students there . They would also take paper mashie as use it as a makeshift wall paper to brighten the room up. Some of the things that I noticed; A Dale Hernheart NASCAR paper put on backwards, (it is kind of interesting to seethe word vroom backwards) and a poster of fruits and vegetables in English, a basic diagram of the human how the blood give oxygen to the body in Arabic.
Back out onto the streets with a good majority of the kids still there I over to see what some of our guys in our unit where looking at. Seems that there was a guy there that was rebuilding a small engine and had been doing that for over 20 years. He spoke Spanish and that is how we got most of the information. Now back to the kids. I felt that I was ready to try to deal with them. (It is sure different then talking to Iraqi army guys, police and the older population in general.) I was trying to use what small amount of Arabic I know and that seemed to attract more people. One of my guys looked at me as if to say “ good luck with that”. So I am talking an out of the blue there was this older man that came up behind one of the kids and literally drags him off by his ear. I was not sure what to say to that. By that time I figured I head in to see what was going on. Also everyone had gone inside and neglected to tell me.
We made some plans on what would could do and seem about some things that we where not sure about. One of the last few things that we did before we left was drop off a lot to toys and give some medicine to the teachers. Some of the games that we gave out I have no idea how to play, let alone explain in a different language. With that we made our leave.
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