Hello everyone!
Last month, many of you e-mailed me with notes of encouragement for Corporal Lee Molson, the British soldier with the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers who is stationed in Iraq. Since so many people wrote in, I couldn't fit all of the well-wishes into an e-message. Instead, I printed them up and mailed them to him along with a box of "supplies" such as toiletries, a few bags of hard candy, a disposible camera, instant coffee/tea and dried soup packets.
He finally had the chance to write back a few days ago! In his letter, Lee writes, "Say thank you to all your friends/relatives for their support. I'm thinking about going to America after this tour of duty, so you never know!!" hehehe I think he's a big fan of Americans now...he even addressed his letter to "my American Angel"!
In his letter, he told me about his time there. Lee reports that it's 46ºC over there....that's 114ºF!!! I mean, come on, that's hot even by southwest US standards! He said, "I'm not coping. I have to slow down at 12 [noon] everyday otherwise I pass out. But, you don't want to hear about that!" He also apologized for his poor handwriting and mentioned that he broke his thumb when he fell off a ladder while on Guard Duty. Poor Lee!
He told me that the locals are very poor and that all the girls do all the work ("Lazy men" he says
). So, he thought he would pass out some of the candy I sent him. He describes, "You should have seen the girls' faces light up. But, before I knew it, my whole box had disappeared with my dinner!! Oh well, they needed it more than me..."
Since several people made comments about "I don't know what you do there..." Lee explained, "My job is Avionic tech which means that I work on aircraft (Lynx/Gazelle [helicopters])..."He also said, "Last few days have been fun; drove a tank 3 days ago. A wee one (Warrior) and a great massive one (Challenger). Boys with toys eh..."
Lee doesn't know when they will be able to go home. He says that some people are saying May 15th and others are saying July 31st. He says that July won't be good because his birthday is on July 13th and he's never been away from home on his birthday. So, if he is still there on his birthday, I will be sure to enlist all of you to send him birthday wishes!
I just thought that you all would appreciate hearing about what Lee had to say. Thank you so much for taking the time out to write even the simplest of messages for him. I know that it meant a lot to him to hear that people were supporting him in his job.
.....Kelly
Threaded Mode