To Miss Lisa’s class at Calvary Chapel Christian School, North Bend:

Greetings from Baghdad. My name is Andrew and I am a soldier in the Army. I’m from North Bend and grew up in that area.In May, the Army sent me here to Iraq to fight a war.

It is a desert here, made of mostly sand like what you would find on a beach. It is very hot here, above 100 degrees every day. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many trees, plants or rivers like in Washington. It is just way too dry for that.

The Iraqi people are generally very nice and friendly. They come visit with us, we have lunch and dinner with them often. They have a lot of food similar to what we eat in the U.S. Sometimes, my soldiers and I start a soccer game with them. We always end up losing, but we have a lot of fun playing.

We spend a lot of time talking with them as well. They are people, like you and me, who have lives which are very different. They don’t have any X-Boxes or Playstations. Children your age spend most of their time outside; they help the family with chores  like taking care of the animals and helping in the garden. For fun, they mostly play soccer and they love just simply hanging out with their friends.

The reason why we are here is to keep the Iraqis safe. They have a whole bunch of bad people here who make bombs and hurt our soldiers and innocent Iraqis. We drive around in our trucks and tanks trying to catch all these bad guys. Since we have been here, we have caught quite a few, but there are still many bad guys out there.

Enjoy your schooling and listen to your teacher. You are very fortunate to have a great classroom, a great teacher and great opportunities. Most of the children in Iraq are not as fortunate as you are and will never have the same opportunities.

Please write back. I will answer all of your questions to the best of my ability.

Best regards,First Lt. Andrew Conway

• Lt. Conway is the son of Sandy and Joe Conway of North Bend. He serves with the U.S. Army in Iraq, and is a 2004 graduate of Mount Si High School.