My Little SOC Puppets

Quote of the Day:

I had the blues because I had no shoes until

upon the street, I met a man with no feet.

These are pictures of the SOC guards. SOC stands for something but I'm not entirely sure what it is. They are from Uganda and sign up for not months but years to work here in Iraq. Only a few of them are armed with AK-47's. Which makes me nervous because I'm not sure they really know how to use them. But they do the same job as we do and get paid less than we do. I'm not sure what the economy is like in Uganda but if it's anything like Mali my heart goes out to them.

They aren't allowed as much as we are on base. No cameras no ipods or anything and I think they make maybe $800 a month but its alot more than they would make back home. In Uganda its ok to have more than one wife as long as you can afford it and men still give the father of the bride cattle in order to marry them. These are the ones that I have been around the most but I think a majority of them know who I am now even at different posts that I don't work out. One of them, Michael is his name, told me that they like me because I talk to them and I'm nice. Apparently there are alot of troops over here who don't even say a word to them. The one above is Herbert and I turned on my ipod one morning and he asked for me to play Lady Gaga and he got the biggest grin on his face and started dancin to it. It totally made my day.

This here is Victor, one of the older ones here. I think some of them thought I liked him because I asked what his name was. He actually asked me to take his picture with him posed like this. ha ha

This is my dear Emilee, I love her like a little sister, she is 22 and has been here for 2 years I think. I don't know how long for sure, but I really wish I could bring her home with me and give her a life in America. She is the cutest thing and she keeps all the boys in line. They really enjoy music and we will be searching vehicles and Emilee will start singing and its so funny. The radio broke in the search pit and they went a couple weeks without music. I decided to go and buy them one to put in the search pit and when I brought it up to them they were so excited and they all gave me hugs. They even "God Blessed" my family. A simple act like that made a huge difference to my little SOC puppets, what is pocket change to me, simple 40 bucks for a new radio is something they can't even afford to buy for themselves. I'm so glad that i've been able to meet these happy people. They are in the same if not worse situation and they always seem happy for things like a radio that we always take for granted. I will never forget my little SOC puppets