Dec. 31- Another fun day in Kuwait. Every moment is an interesting educational
experience, both learning and teaching.  I was barely out of my tent, when a
young LT stopped to question me about the disconnect between my hat and my rank. 
(As I indicated, this is an ongoing source of confusion for others and amusement
to me.)  I told him that I was a Jewish chaplain, and he showed me the bookmark
he was studying as a sort of morning devotion as he walked.  It was from a
Christian religious supplies shop, and had a number of names of God
transliterated from the Hebrew and with references in the Tanakh.  I was able to
share a bit of insight about each one.

Got into the DFAC, and saw a sailor with a kippa- turns out he's the lay leader
at Ali Al Salem, so I had a conversation with him about the challenges he faces-
mostly, insufficient participation in his services.  If we're still here Friday
night, we'll certainly attend.  I hope not to be!

After breakfast we boarded the bus to Camp Arifjan once again, and got here in
time for lunch and to change into civilian clothes.  We traveled with the local
chaplain assistant, the Area Support Group Chaplain, and the Army (COL) Priest
into Kuwait City, where we brought some humanitarian supplies, especially rice,
to the local Protestant Church.  We saw, and photographed, the Catholic
Cathedral and the Grand Mosque, albeit from a moving vehicle.  It was
interesting to see the extravagant Kuwaiti homes the oil money buys, and the
men's and women's attire in the streets.

By the way, we were the only two people on this bus this morning- I don't know
about SFC Cohen, but I felt very important having two armed guards accompanying
us and another escort vehicle with two more "shooters."

The Protestant community has one compound where they hold a broad variety of
services.  They are not in need of the aid provided.  There are many TCN's- Third Country Nationals,

who work in Kuwait.  They are sometimes abused, and flee to places they feel may

be safe.  Those places can't always sustain them, so we give aid to the

churches which gets it to those who are caring for these individuals


  A special treat was a stop at a local
restaurant for some very good Turkish coffee and dinner to go. 

Camp Arifjan is divided into various areas, which they call "zones", and we got
back in time to get to "Zone Six" to check out the shops there.  (Or so we
thought.)  Being the small world that it is, we not only ran into the Rabbi
there, looking for a gift for his wife, but the female Jewish COL we had met
yesterday.  She rode the shuttle back to Zone One with us, we loaded up our
stuff, and went to wait for the 1700 bus, thinking it would be nice to be home a
bit earlier.  (My roommates (I guess I should say tentmates) were worried about
me last night!- I had never even met them but they saw all my stuff there and no
me.)

Anyway, at about 1645 SFC Cohen decided to double-check the bus schedule, and,
lo and behold, the bus was actually at 1600- the next one is not till 2100. 
Oops- another late night.  Bottom line is that we can do the same things here-
check email, eat, make phone calls, smoke cigars, as we can there.  I just feel
bad because my choices are either to turn on the overhead light when I get back
to the tent and potentially wake whoever is in there, or try to grope my way
with an inadequate flashlight. 

I think I'll go pick up some more AAA batteries. . .