Important Email from Ramos

Please don't forget to pray for Steve as you pray for the troops. If any of you have any advice, please feel free to comment. The comments come to my e-mail.
Thank you,
De'on

Email 1

That radio show sounds cool. Look at you go!! I'm in a small village near the Turkey/Iraqi border. I'm trying to make these forays onto the internet short because I'm using the satellite phone to do it, and it's expensive. It's pretty cold here at night, and it's desolate. I mean as far as people. Just small villages. I'm realizing that this whole part of the world is a tenderbox just simmering over varying degrees of heat. It's going to blow huge soon. You know, even though most people were friendly in Kuwait, you could feel their dislike for Americans. There was a front desk clerk at the hotel who was a little shit to me. He's about 20 or so, and talked to me with such frickin arrogance. On the day I left, I let him have it. He was being a shit, so I said "you really hate Americans, don't you?" I'll write more about that exchange later. The Arabs have a way of injecting a lot of sarcasm when they address you as "sir." And they say it a lot. I've run into Kurds here, and I expect to run into a whole lot more the closer I get to the Iraqi border. The ones I met I felt genuinely feel like they are our allies. They do have some hesitation in trusting us though. The ones I spoke to said it's not easy for them to take our word because they feel we betrayed them in the early 90s. They were told to rebel against Saddam, and when they did, they said the Americans stood by and watched Saddam kill them. They said they were told we would support them if they rebelled. But they said they are hopeful that we will fight with them this time and support them. I listen and don't offer any opinions, only that world politics are difficult for us peons to understand. I created this little pictorial tribute to Aaron. I don't need the internet to do it, and it needs a lot of fine-tuning. I think I'll change the music to it. I've attached it to this e-mail, so let me know what you think. It's pretty basic, so I want to fix it up before I put it on the blog. You're doing great on the blog. I'm sorry that it's been dumped on you. I'll try to pick up more of the slack. Americans have no idea how much violence there is over here. It blows my mind. Also, please don't worry about me. I say that because of what I'm going to tell you next. The group of people I came to Turkey with aren't doing humanitarian work. I'm so naive, and it's a huge lesson for me. This is a dangerous part of the world, and I have to consider that some people aren't what they say they are. I took them for their word and just jumped on board. These people, I found out, support the insurgents. They didn't know that I speak Spanish, and two of them were speaking Italian, which is so similar to Spanish that I can follow it pretty well. I don't know what they're plans were for me, but I separated from them in Istanbul. I know it sounds crazy. But it is crazy!!! Gosh, I can't believe I just went along when they told me they were humanitarian workers. As far as I can figure they are people of Arab descent who lived or spent a great deal of their growing up years in Europe. I'm guessing because they were fluent in other languages besides Arabic. So, don't worry about me. I'm kind of on my own right now, interviewing people. I had a chance to walk away from that group of "humanitarian workers" so I took it. Unfortunately, my camera was in a small bag close to a few of them, so I had to leave it. But that's OK. I'd rather lose a camera than stick with them and find out they had "plans" for me. I told you that Aaron and angels are watching over me. I must be the only American traipsing around this part of Turkey!! Well, God is with me. _________________________________________________________________
Email 2


I'm thinking I'll head back to Istanbul in a day or two. I feel really stupid about what happened because I was so naive about those people. I didn't even think about checking on them to see if they really were with a legitimate organization. I just invited myself. But I realize now, they were making it possible for me to invite myself. They were talking to me in a way that I would ask if I could go with them and possibly write a story. I'm embarrassed that I did such a stupid thing. I guess the scales are falling from my eyes about the violence here. It's smoldering. After awhile, you become sensitive to the currents. Even Kuwait. It seems safe, but I was beginning to see behavior that was odd. It's a place, at least I believe it is, where dangerous people go to do business. There they can get supplies, meet with contacts from other countries, etc. I wonder how many Arab companies are funding the insurgents. I mean, come on. The insurgents have to be supplied with huge sums of money to do what they do. Where do they get it? Where do they get their supplies? I'm shocked to know that the insurgents have so many supporters from people who seem ordinary. I know now that I was set up to meet those "humanitarian workers." It won't happen again. Please don't worry about me. I'm feeling pretty good, and maybe I'm just stupid beyond belief, but I trust that God is protecting me. And Aaron. And angels. So I'm good. It doesn't mean that I should go looking for insurgents to interview. I'm going to get off here for a bit cause it's expensive. I plan to get out of here tomorrow probably.