Meeting a few locals

It seems that everything interesting happens at a range. The other day I was at the range and had a chance to interact with some locals. There were some families of Bedouins that were there waiting for us to finish firing our weapons. Each time we would stop for a break entire families would run to our firing positions and frantically gather up the expended brass casings from our ammo. I am told that they take what they find and melt the metal down to make jewelry and various other goods. Now that I think about it, you can buy candle stick holders and ashtrays in our camp PX that are made of brass that is probably recycled from our own ammo.

The children were really cute and smiled a lot. One boy who must have been five or six was wearing a desert camo army cap that had sergeant rank on it. It must have been given to him by a soldier who was passing through. Another girl in her teens wore a boonie hat and had an American flag sewn on her shoulder.

Every time a person would find a live round (i.e. a bullet that that had not been fired) they would bring it over to us. Every now and then I'd say "hello" or "thank you" in Arabic. Instantly the eyes of the person I was talking to would light up and they would begin speaking rabidly, thinking I understood their language. It felt really good to actually use a few of the Arabic phrases I have been practicing, and I’m looking forward to conversing with locals often (with what little I know) during this deployment.