Last night was tough, I had to say goodbye to Firas.
Firas has a crazy story. He is Iraqi, and when America invaded, his life got flipped turned upside down. Long story short he has been on the run in Europe trying to seek asylum for the last 9 years. He got denied and this morning he flew home.
Firas has been working as a cleaner at the hostel for 2 months now, and since the start we have been buddys, but especially in the last couple weeks our friendship has deepened. We hung out and talked about Iraq, and America and politics and all kinds of crazy things.
When I started looking into traveling to Iraq he told me all I needed to know to stay safe and where to go. Then when I started looking into working as a military contractor there, Firas explained that if he was trying to blow up a Humvee with an RPG and he saw me inside he would say "Hey Taylor, move out of the way!" before firing, it became our joke, he would mime an RPG and tell me to get out of the way!
We gave him a Arabic/English bible when he left, and I wrote him a note inside the cover, it loosely translates "I will miss you brother, I hope we see eachother again somewhere in the world. Thank you for your friendship"
Firas has a crazy story. He is Iraqi, and when America invaded, his life got flipped turned upside down. Long story short he has been on the run in Europe trying to seek asylum for the last 9 years. He got denied and this morning he flew home.
Firas has been working as a cleaner at the hostel for 2 months now, and since the start we have been buddys, but especially in the last couple weeks our friendship has deepened. We hung out and talked about Iraq, and America and politics and all kinds of crazy things.
When I started looking into traveling to Iraq he told me all I needed to know to stay safe and where to go. Then when I started looking into working as a military contractor there, Firas explained that if he was trying to blow up a Humvee with an RPG and he saw me inside he would say "Hey Taylor, move out of the way!" before firing, it became our joke, he would mime an RPG and tell me to get out of the way!
We gave him a Arabic/English bible when he left, and I wrote him a note inside the cover, it loosely translates "I will miss you brother, I hope we see eachother again somewhere in the world. Thank you for your friendship"
We listened to Amr Diab last night, and sang along with eachother while dancing in the cafe! It was great. We hugged goodbye, and he told me that when he gets home he will talk to his friend in the embassy and see about getting a visa for me. Me getting an Iraqi visa is technically impossible through normal methods. But there is a chance Firas can work something out. I would love nothing more than to go spend some time with him and his family in Iraq!
I have been looking into jobs in both Afghanistan and Antarctica. Doing various support work (Warehousing, dispatching, food service, etc) on the bases there. My current thought is to go home for a few months in November, and then maybe around the first of the year head to one of these places and work long hours in a high paying job for a few months. Then head out on the road again to either The Middle East or Russia.
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