Goooooooooooooaaaaaalllll!!!

Hi Patrick,
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Sorry it's been a couple of days since I posted here.  I was having some problems with the website, but I think that is fixed.
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Your mom, and Bobbi and Grandfather told me about your goal at soccer on Sunday.  I am SO VERY PROUD of you.  I know that you like soccer and I also know that you work hard at practicing both with me and when you have practices with your team.
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Good play like your goal happens when you practice hard and when you like what you are doing.  I can't wait to see you so you can show me exactly how you scored.  Maybe you will have scored more goals by then too.  Who knows?
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I do know that if I had been there, I would have sounded like the guy on this soccer broadcast:

Do you think I could yell that long?

Love you louder than the loudest yell,
Dad

You're special, too.

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Hey man,
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There aren't alot of kids like you, because you've lived on TWO continents.  When we lived in Latvia, we lived in Europe.
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When you were born, and now that you live in Mechanicsville, you are in North America.

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Europe is west of Asia and north of Africa.  Latvia is pretty far north in Europe, but Russia is the easternmost country in Europe.
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Russia is a special country, because it is on TWO continents.  Part of Russia is in Europe and part of Russia is in Asia.
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Can you find Latvia on this map?  Can you find Italy?  Some people say it looks like a leg, or a boot.
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Love you like a map of my heart,
Dad

Iraq is in Asia

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Hi Buddy,
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Did you know that now that I live in Iraq, I've lived on three of the seven continents in the world?

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Iraq is in Asia.  Asia is the biggest continent there is!  You can see from the map that Iraq is in the southwest corner of Asia.  It's close to Africa, another big continent.  The southeast corner of Asia has lots of water and islands.

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Iraq is in Asia because it is east of the Ural Mountains.  Europe and Asia are part of the same big land mass and are divided by big mountains called the Urals in Russia.  West of the Urals is Europe and east of the Urals is Asia.

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Here is a map of the Ural Mountains.  They go from north to south, straight up and down this map.

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Love you like the whole world,

Dad

Saw your pictures!

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Hi soccer guy!
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Your mom sent some great pictures of you playing soccer.  I was very proud to see you in that great red uniform!  You looked alot like the big Kickers.
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I hope you had lots of fun playing.  I know I enjoyed hearing about it.
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Be good doing your homework, so that Mom doesn't have to bug you about it.
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Hey, have you ever hugged a slug on a rug?  Have you ever been for a jog in the fog?
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Love seeing you more than I love pictures of you,
Dad

First game of the season

Hi Buddy,
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I was so glad your mom called me last night (even though I was asleep) so that I could talk to you about your game.  I'm glad you were well enough to play.  I'm really glad that you had fun.

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I can't wait to see the pictures that your mom is going to send!

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You have to tell me more about your team soon.  What is the team's name?  What are your colors?  Who are your friends on the team?  Are there boys and girls?

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Oh well, so many questions!  I can't wait to be there for Thanksgiving so that you and I can play soccer on the beach like last year.

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Love you like a beautifully curling free kick,

Dad

One more thing about citizenship

Hey man,
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Citizenship is especially important to me because the Department of State, where I work, is the only place that can tell a person that they are a citizen of the United States.  We make passports for people and passports are the only thing that can really show what citizenship you have.
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Because I work for the Department of State, I've given hundreds and hundreds of people their passports so that they can show anyone in the world that they are Americans.

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When we lived in Latvia, you had a friend named Kristofers Gobins.  I got to tell his parents for the first time that Kristofers was an American citizen and got to give him his first ever U.S. passport.  I love giving babies new passports.  It makes me proud.

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Love you like I love being an American,

Dad

An American Citizen

Hello my good friend,
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Did you know that EVERYONE born in the United States is an American citizen?  That means that all the important rights we have under the laws and Constitution of the United States belong to us.  Those laws give American citizens the most freedom of almost anyone in the whole world.
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Because everyone who is born in the U.S. is a citizen, not everyone thinks about what a great thing it is.  Some people who think about it alot are the people that serve our country, like soldiers and sailors and marines.  Oh and people like me who work for the State Deparment.  Because we live overseas and work with people from other countries who might not have as much freedom, we really love the fact that we are Americans.  Our citizenship is very important to us.

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Love you like freedom,

Dad

OH NO!!!

Hey big guy,

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Mom says you came home from soccer practice feeling yucky and now you have a fever.  That STINKS.  I wish I was there to help you feel better.  I could dress up like this action figure and bring you medicine!

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Maybe even by the time you read this you will be feeling well.  I sure hope so!

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Love you more than nurses love their patients,

Dad

Important here ... and everywhere

Dear Monkey,
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When you work in an Embassy, you sometimes get to know secrets that no one else can know.  So before you work here, they want to know for sure that they can trust you.  They look to see how honest you are.  So they ask all your friends and some of your neighbors whether you are an honest person.
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If they say that you are, then the Embassy knows that they can trust you, but if people tell them that you are not honest, you can't work for an Embassy.
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Sometimes being honest is hard.  It might mean that you have to say something you don't want to say.  It might even turn out that you have to admit that you did something dumb or mean.  But being honest about those things is important, because then people know that they can trust you, even if you might make a mistake sometimes.

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And if you feel bad about having to be honest, that bad feeling goes away, because you know you did the right thing in telling the truth.  But when you feel bad about NOT being honest, that bad feeling stays with you for a long time because you know you've hurt the person you lied to.

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Love you like the truth,

Dad

Diversity in Iraq

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Hi Big Guy,
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I wanted to tell you about how in Iraq there is diversity in the people who live here, just like in the United States.
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Here, some people are Arabs, and some people are Kurds.  And there are two major religious here too.  There are Shi'a Muslims and Sunni Muslims.
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Iraq has a long history of all three groups getting along to make their country great.  They remember the things that they share and have in common and remember that they love their country and they can work and play together.  They remember that their differences are part of what makes their country great.  Just like in the U.S.A.!
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But when people want to make trouble here, they try to point out the differences and make people angry about things that happened a long time ago.  That's silly, and just makes things worse for everyone.

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We should all try to remember how important diversity is to a great country.

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Love you like apple pie,

Dad

Not too much to say

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Hi Buddy,
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Just thinking about you and wanted to make sure you knew that I was.  I think that I will move the furniture around in my room soon.  I got a new bed and it's more comfortable and a little bigger than my other one.  I also think I'll move the TV into the living room so David and I can have people over to watch movies or sports.

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I hope we'll get to see the World Cup here.  If we don't I'll be really angry.  Grrrr.

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Love you like a crisp Fall morning (which we haven't had here yet),

Dad

One of the reasons we are here

Hi Patch,
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One of the reasons it was important for Americans to come to Iraq was to make sure that everyone got to use their right to vote.  Before we came, there was only one person to vote for, and almost everyone thought that he was pretty mean.
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Now there are lots of people to vote for, so Iraqis can choose someone who will work in the government to help them.  That right is very important to them and the first time that they got to vote for anyone they wanted they were very happy.

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There will be another election soon and we will help to make sure that things go okay and no one cheats.
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They use ink to show when someone has already voted and you can see in the picture that the man is so happy that he is kissing the ink!

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I wonder if his lips turned purple!!!

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Love you like a representative democracy,

Dad

Mail Call!!!

Hi buddy,
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My big boxes from home finally came and even with all the stuff that was in them that I needed, the most important three things were:
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1.  The picture of you playing soccer that Gram framed for me.
2.  The picture of you in the sweater that Mom-Mom made for you.
3.  The sign that you made for me in the multi-colored frame.
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Do you remember what the sign says?  It says: 

I love you, Dad.  You are the best Dad in the whole wide world.  Love, Patch Derks.

And it has a picture of you and me holding hands in the sunshine.  It makes me happy every time I see it.

Love you like the hot sun,
Dad.

Kickers are Champions!

Hi Buddy,

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I saw on the news that the Kickers won their division in soccer.  They are champions!  Isn't that great?

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I was so glad to take you to the Kickers game before I left, because I remember that one of the first things you and I ever did together, just you and me, was to go to a Kickers game.  You were a tiny little baby, just two weeks old or so. 

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I think you liked it, but you didn't even know how to smile yet!

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Love you like a Jamie Moreno goal,
Dad

A picture of your Dad

Playing Dodge Ball....

At the Embassy....

In Iraq....

I think you can see from the picture what a great Dodge Ball player I must be. Look in my eyes. Look at my posture. Ready to go. Ready to dodge or throw. No matter what, I'm ready.

Pretty exciting, huh?

Oh, I'm the guy in the red shorts, in case you couldn't tell.

Love you like a hot summer day,
Dad

Juice Boxes are Messy

Dear Buddy,

At our cafeteria (the D-FAC) they have lots of juices to choose from. That's the good news.

The bad news is that they mostly come in juice boxes.

Now you and I have had some disagreements about you making messes while drinking from juice boxes. For that I want to say "I am very sorry."

It is very, very hard to drink from a juice box and not make a mess. I have found that out the hard way and on several occasions. I will try to be more patient with you and juice boxes from now on.

Better yet, we won't have juice boxes.



Love you like a mountain,
Dad

First Day of School!

Dear Pawjee,

I can hardly believe that it is your first day of school! That is so exciting! You are now a second grader. You'll have a great time in school and learn great new stuff.

I know that you will do very, very well in school this year. I am always very proud when I think of you, and I know that your schoolwork this year will make me even prouder.

I'm a little sad that I won't be there to walk with you to school, like I did for kindergarten and first grade, but I know that I will be right back by your side for the first day of school next year, when you start third grade. Maybe you will be too much of a big guy for me to walk you to school next year ... who knows?

I hope that you like Ms. Brown and that you have a good year together.

I will try to Skype with you sometime today too.

Love you like a chimpanzee loves a banana,

Dad

clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on www.DiscoverySchool.com

Dodge Ball

Hello, my little friend,

Today at the Embassy we had a dodge ball tournament. I haven't played dodgeball in a very long time, and it showed. I didn't do very well. I didn't hit many people and I got hit pretty quick in all of our games.

But I had fun, and that's the important part. I have to say that I was surprised to be playing dodge ball in Iraq, but they like to do lots of things to make sure we don't get too bored from not being able to travel around town very much.

Do you think you will play dodge ball this year at school? It's kind of competitive and a little mean. I like soccer a lot better.

Love you like a thunderstorm,

Dad

NO Rain

Dearest #1 Son,

I was watching a weather report for Baghdad and they said that there would be NO rain for Iraq in the whole month of September. And they said that there was NO rain here for all of August.

Can you imagine? No rain at all? It seems very weird to me that I can't get used to thinking that there really is no chance that it will rain here this month.

I know that it will rain in Virginia. Virginia is a very rainy place compared to here. I think I will be missing the rain by the time I come home at Thanksgiving. So if I go outside and stand in the rain, you'll know why.

Love you like the flowers love the rain,

Dad

My Roommate: David

Hi Monkey,

Here is a picture of my roommate, David. He is a friend of mine. I knew him before we came to Iraq. We both worked in the same office before.

He is really nice and funny. He is very easy to get along with. He doesn't make too much noise and he doesn't mind when I make some noise sometimes. He doesn't leave a mess in the kitchen or in the bathroom, so I try not to either.

That's probably what is most important about being good roommates: treating the other person the way you would want to be treated.

David has a wife and two children at home in the U.S. He misses them, just like I miss you. He'll get to go home three times this year and do special stuff with his family, just like I will come home and do special things with you.

I hope you like his picture. He was saying "Hi, Patrick!" when I took it.

Love you like a hurricane,

Dad

Caught a cold

Hi Buddy,

I don't know how I did it, but I caught a cold. I've been washing my hands a lot, like you are supposed to do, but I still got sick. Sometimes when you move to a new place, there are germs that your body is not used to, and you just get sick.

I heard that it has been cooler in Virginia. It is still plenty hot here, and that makes having a cold here even worse. But I've been drinking lots of juice and getting lots of rest. It was a doozy and I was in bed early two nights in a row to try to get rid of it. I think I am almost all better, but it was a nasty bug.

I hope you stay well!

Love,

Your coughing Dad

Out my window

Hey Bud,

Here's the view from out of my window. Sort of grey and brown isn't it?

In the first picture, you can see the Tigris River a little. There's a bridge waaaaaay back in the background. Can you see it?

In the second, you can see the D-Fac, where we eat everyday. It's all the way in the back.

To the left is an apartment building that looks exactly like mine does. The trailers in between are where lots of people who work here live. I'm glad I have an apartment!