INTERVIEW WITH ANA CARVAJAL

Ana Carvajal is a single mother of four. Her second oldest son, Alejandro, is serving with the 4^th Armored Division in Tikrik, Iraq. Ana grew up on Nicaragua and experienced war first hand in the land of her birth. She and her children frequently visit Nicaragua and her children are fully bi-cultural.

Ana: Alejandro has been in Iraq for a year, since February, 2003. He was wounded in the arm during an ambush and was flown to Germany for treatment, then spent a few weeks on his military base in Texas before being sent back to Tikrit. During the time he was in the States, he came home for two days.

The first I heard of his wounding was when I received an email from him stating, �� fine. I� still in one piece. Don� worry.�

I told my daughter I didn� like the sound of that email. What does he mean, �� still in one piece? Don� worry?�Later, he wrote that he was injured and wasn� able to write until the injury healed. Two things surprised me: first, the military said nothing to me about his injury. What if I� wanted to visit my son while he convalesced? What if he� been badly hurt and unable to contact me for months? Shouldn� parents know their children are hurt? Why the secrecy? Why does the injured person have to break the news weeks only after they�e gone through surgery? This especially scares me as I� hearing that the military is bringing the wounded and the dead back into this country in the dead of night, out of sight of the media and concerned people. Why? What are they hiding?

The second thing that surprised me was the number of morphine pills Alejandro was given. At the time he visited me he was not experiencing much pain yet he had 100 morphine pills. Plus, the medication he� already been given in the hospitals. I�e taught my kids not to take medication unless its absolutely necessary, and not to take medication from other people � even from me�ithout checking the labels first. I tell them that Nature is a great healer if given the opportunity. Alejandro and I flushed those 100 pills down the toilet.

My son joined the military because he thought he could get better opportunities through the military. I disagreed with that notion but the military recruiters paint a glorious picture of the benefits of military life: low interest loans for homes, free college education. I told him he could have all of those things without going into the military if he worked hard at college and just stuck with it.

Alejandro phones sometimes and asks about his brothers and his sister. Are they doing well? Are they disciplined and going to school? I tell him yes because this is the way I brought them up. But now, my youngest son is in college and he is saying that college is �oring,�that he� not �oing�anything.

I� not sure exactly how Alejandro is keeping his spirits up, as he doesn� tell me everything. Twice I�e heard in his voice that he� very down: the first time was when that helicopter was shot down and four soldiers were killed. That got to him. The second time was when his friend was killed, a young woman who he said was very optimistic about life, very friendly, a lovely person. He was very depressed when she died and he misses her still.

He tells me that he feels very lucky that he� talked to Iraqis and finds them to be well-educated and very respectful people. Many Iraqis have made him feel like he is back home. He says if you pay attention to the language and listen carefully you can pick enough of it up to say Arabic phrases and respond to people around you.

He tells me Iraq is a beautiful country. He� describes the moon and stars at night, as bright as can be; the sun, he says, has a direct light, something like he experiences in Nicaragua; the stones in the rivers are smooth, as if they�e made of silver.

I� proud to hear him describe nature this way as I tried to teach my children to appreciate nature. I� happy they�e had the opportunity to be raised in the US and in Nicaragua as they appreciate the gifts of nature from both places.

At first when I came to this country I was shocked at what I saw. For example, in Nicaragua people wear the Nicaraguan flag on t-shirts. Here, I found people wearing the American flag on all kinds of clothing, including underwear! I still don� understand why they do that.

I am against war. In Nicaragua I saw both sides in that war just destroy the country and the countryside. A few people got very rich but most people sufferedthe soldiers and the people suffered but the people behind the war got rich. That� the way it is now, too, in Iraq. And, in this case, the whole world protested against striking against Iraq and still we failed to prevent it.

In this country, the US, we say proudly that we are keeping our land safe but we are going into another land to do this. It doesn� make sense. Instead of making anybody safe we are creating enemies that will last a long time. There are not enough locks to keep anybody safe if we make enemies in the way we are doing in Iraq and around the world. Citizens from any country will rise up and fight if they�e invaded; it is not just America that wants a safe homeland, everybody wants that. Why do we see ourselves as so special that we can act this way and nobody will retaliate against us?

One of my friends in the neighborhood has two young children and her husband is in the Army Reserve. He� is Iraq and due to come home soon. But he� telling her that he may have to sign up for another year. The Army leadership tells him, �ou can either sign up now for another year and just stay here or you can go back home and we�l just call you back. Better to just stay now than go back, get set up on a job, then have to return anyway.�

My friend is not happy and with two small children at home I understand her. But her husband is stuck. This is what happens with the Reserves. This is what happens with war: its no good for anybody except the few getting rich on it.