Today is Fred Lameki's birthday. He is my only Facebook friend from Kenya. In fact, the only people I know personally from Kenya, Uganda and several other central African countries are people I met in Iraq. Fred, like many people from Africa and south Asia worked on Camp Adder, Iraq, and at bases across the country making food and performing a hundred services for to keep the bases working while the soldiers patrolled the ground and the skies.
Most of the baristas in the Green Bean coffee shop were from Nepal, the affable Fred Lameki was one of the Africans who worked making designer coffee for soldiers.
As this new year begins, Iraq seems long ago and far away. I am glad that with all the money we spent winning the war and losing the peace in Iraq, that some of it went to providing good-paying jobs for men like Fred.
Happy Birthday my friend.
I hope to see you again some day.
