Address!

So below is Billy's address. My first package to him will have some homemade goodies (with the help of friends because I cannot bake), gum, loose leaf tea from teavana, and a little tea steeper, maybe a new book, ohh and his bible, since he left it here. Any other thoughts? I'm making a costco trip for him this weekend!! If there's something you want to get to him just drop it by my house and I'll send it with my stuff to him. :) I know Billy and his guys really appreciate it, even letters are awesome!!

SSG William A. Slater
1864th Trans Co. 1st PLT
Camp Arifjan
APO AE 09366

On the road again!

I don't have many photos on my phone right now, but here's one of my
gunner's hindparts hanging out inside our truck. This won't be too
long of a post; I'm sending it via my phone from a small camp in
Baghdad where we've stopped for the night along our route. I'm
actually surprised at prevalent wifi access has been on some of these
camps, but I still haven't had the inclination to lug my laptop around
on convoys yet.. (at least not until I get a sturdy case). As Amy
said, in a couple weeks we will be replacing our counterparts who've
been here for the last year, and who just recently have been training
us to take over their missions. I'm looking forward to moving into
their nice barracks and acquiring some of their stuff secondhand, eg
fridges, furniture, tv's, so we don't have to buy those things new.

**Update**
Well, I had a lot more than this tapped out on my little phone, but it looks like when I sent this post out to get published via email, it somehow got truncated by about half.. Bummer. Anyhow, I just said it seems like the roads here are much more secure than they were when I was here 4 years ago. The civilian traffic has picked up a little, and although that may add a little to the pucker factor, it's not a bad sign by any measure. It means they feel safer on the roads (I hope). I also wrote a little about my techie desire for a flexible or folding travel bluetooth keyboard for making blog posts via iPhone. Apparenly some people much smarter than myself have figured out how to connect a wireless keyboard to an iPhone/iPod touch to pass the keystones on as if they were tapped on the screen. Iphone typing isn't bad, but a full size keyboard would be awesome.

Anyway, I'll refine my methods for mobile blog posting, so I don't have to retype another post like this. I miss all of you, especially my little muffin back on Nunan street! (I love you!) I'm praying for you and I hope to be back home in a hurry! Love,
Billy

Kuwait

Two Sunday's ago Billy and his unit finally made it to Kuwait. Right now, they are in temporary housing/tents until February, then they move into their permanent barracks with internet access, etc. For the moment, we are doing fine, just trying to deal with the time difference, and the limited accessibility to internet and phone. The staff sergeant who preceded Billy gave him his Kuwaiti cell phone... so my little electronic savvy husband took it apart, and put the sim card in his iphone. So now, via Skype or Nimbuzz, which I've installed on my iphone, I can call him for about 14 cents/min. The connection is sometimes fuzzy, or the call drops, but we are learning to deal with it. It's much cheaper than him calling me, which costs about 60 cents/minute from his phone. It has been a blessing for Billy to have that sim card, especially since it's still going to be a while until he has regular internet access. The other guys in his unit are only able to communicate with their families every third day or so, which makes us very lucky. We normally talk for 2-3 minutes twice a day, once around 930pm stateside, 530am over there, and again around 700am stateside, which is about 3pm there. I'm very thankful to hear his voice and say hello and that I love him, even if it's only for a minute. Billy is taking lots of pictures (per my request) and when he has regular internet access, he'll share them with us. He misses everyone a lot and misses being here with us, but we keep each other's spirits up by looking forward to his next break, although we don't know when that will be. Well, it's getting pretty late and it's about time for me to check in with Billy. I hope this post finds everyone well, and Christmas and the new year were wonderful for all. Please keep Billy in your daily prayers, he needs all of our support and love. I'll post his address soon, he should be able to get it to me tomorrow.

Warmest regards,
amy