Sean caught me on the cell phone on my way to the grocery store. We talked for almost half an hour. He is allowed to reveal that he is in Baghdad and expects to remain there until the end of the Operation -- no hint on when the mission will be complete or at what point Sean will come home. He sounded great. He was very relieved to have reached me, since he tried yesterday morning when I was out at Mick's Field Day at school, and he was only able to leave a message.

He described the degree to which some buildings had been looted, much more than furniture, way beyond even light bulbs and toilet paper, down to switch plates and wires. He also told me about how the children swarm around the troops when they see them. He said part of it is probably the candy, but they also just love to talk to them, maybe because they're different. Some of the children asked Sean if he had children, and when he told them two boys and patted two little heads to indicate the approximate sizes of Jack and Mick, the ones who didn't get patted were visibly disappointed. He said he is continually amazed by the effects of the malnutrition (all the children are so small for their ages) and probably patted two teenagers' heads. Hopefully, that will be one of the first improvements the Coalition forces can bring.