Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Feliz Navidad,

Not much is going on down here, but then again, I tend to downplay things a bit. I'm currently fesiding in El Salvador. It's just CPT Christie, SSG Mosher, SGT Morales, and me down here right now. Steve and Steve are still down in Soto Cano, Honduras and will be joining us on the 27th. It is hotter than all get out here. I'm dripping with sweat just sitting and reading in the shade of our GP large. They had a pretty nice Christmas dinner...all our food is cooked by contracted Salvadorian cooks. Had some turkey and steak. It was mighty tasty. The conditions we're living in are not as bad as I thought they would be. We have a mobile AAFES trailer here that opens and closes at its own conveinence, a huge tent to live in, electricity, and as soon as we can aquire some coaxil cable, we'll have cable. We've been able to sign out some straight-to-video movies. There's a reason that they were STV flicks, but it was better than the blue channel, the snow channel, and the ants racing channel which were our other options.

Yesterday we had our first mission. We drove out into the country side for about an hour. Let me tell ya, the drivers here are insane. They have a 'pass when and where and how you want to' rule here. Hey, whatever works for them.The pickup truck is the favorite mode of transportation here. I would have never guessed you can get up to fifteen people standing up in the back of one of those things moving at 50 kph. Quite a few people walking on the sides of the roads. Must be the ones who fell out.

Anyway, on to the mission. After 15k of road so bumpy that makes the NC road system feel like you are rolling over a sheet of ice. We arrived in a town that you thought only existed on bad TV movies and mititary urban warefare training sites. The town store was the nicest looking and best built structure in the town. The toilet there was a brick 'stump' that drained into the river that flowed behind it. The church, when I first saw it, I persievied it to be a nativity scene. All it was was a stable with a two wooden planks nailed together in the middle placed at the top of the roof. The words Jesus y Maria were hand written across the cross's arms. I handed out candy to the children and our supported unit handed out balls, dolls, toy trucks, and water pistols. What a great gift to give to the children of a war torn country. Merry Chistmas. Merry Christmas.

We started playing Christmas music over our brand new 800 watt loudspeaker system. It was done with best intentions. I have a feeling the that even if the townsfolk understood english, the song 'White Christmas' would be lost on them. We then moved on to Manheim Steam Roller, witch went over jsut as well. Eventually, we moved on to latin music. It wasn't Christmas music, but its what the people wanted to hear. Better luck next time.

It was a sad place. I was thinking that, the worst conditions I've ever been in, would have still looked like luxury to them. None of the children wore shoes, and most of them were doing labor that some full grown Americans would balk at. I meet a 70 year old woman who had broke her arm two days ago. She had fallen off of a bus while transporting clean water in a 7 gallon jug from the closest 'civilized' town. Morales told her that she should leave that work to the young. she said somebody had to do it.

Well, I hope you have all had a pleasent holiday, and I miss you all. They're saying we'll be out of El Salvador by 22Jan99 and would be going back to Honduras until 12Feb99. I should be home by then. I'll try to E-mail about once a week. I love and miss you all.

Merry Christmas,
Kurt