Building Hope, Extending Compassion
 


Peace Through Puppets - Breaking Down Barriers
By Bruce L. Reges

Fall/Winter 2008 Issue 24 - << Back to Press

Of course we were concerned; scared is too strong a word. Maybe I was the one who was "concerned"; certainly I felt the weight of waiting in a street in Abu Sayda, Diyala Province, Iraq. We were there to see the mayor and the city council; afterwards we went on a battle damage assessment tour. This is where damage caused in battle is evaluated, and if warranted, compensation is paid to the owner of the damaged property. So there I was outside in the street with other soldiers waiting for the Captain to finish his assessment. This little girl kept looking at me and smiling from the doorway of one of the houses on the street. She kept peeking, and dodging back into the family compound. Who were these soldiers in her street, what did they want? Why was the biggest one smiling all the time? One of her family picked her up to meet this big soldier with the smile; she screamed in terror, she cried, she looked away. It is one thing to see something from a distance, quite another to meet that something face to face. I tried to say soothing words in English. This did not help. I tried to look reassuring; however all that body armor and weapons gave a different impression. I reached into my cargo pocket and took out a puppet, a small white one, and tried to give it to her . . . .she cried. Her Uncle or family friend put it on his hand and tried to coax a smile . . .nothing but tears. They went back into the courtyard of her home and closed the door. I felt defeated in my effort to bridge the gap of language, culture, and fear. My friends said to me "you lost that one". They had seen the magic of puppets before, how the world seems to stop, and a child smiles, and then the parent smiles, and the barrier goes down.

I saw another child at the end of the street with a toy automatic weapon, just like the ones that are used against us. I warned the other members of the team about the child; no one needs to have a mistaken incident in such a street when we are there to help not hurt. I heard the door open behind me; a different man came out with the child. Obviously he was the father, she was not crying now, and he held the puppet in his hand. She would look at me and smile and then hide her head in the neck of her father. He smiled; I think he brought her out to thank me. I didn't need thanks. I could see from the expression on her face and his that I had won one more small victory in my small part of this operation.

All I could think of as we moved along was the difference in toys; one to build trust and understanding, the other child had a toy gun used to perpetuate the killing and violence surrounding this small town. My friends laughed and said it turned out for the best in spite of my fearsome image. We went from site to site, and cautiously, carefully we made friends and demonstrated that US Soldiers do care, and they do understand. "Peace Through Puppets" developed through a need I had to communicate to the children I was meeting. That, contrary to what they had been told, we as soldiers were not to be feared, that we were there to help. I was asked once by a teacher why Americans only kill and destroy everything they come in contact with. I had no answer. I vowed I would demonstrate every chance I could that we were not that image; we were also compassionate human beings that acutely felt the pain and suffering of the common people. My mother, a lifelong puppeteer, came to the rescue. I asked for some small hand puppets I could carry in my slash pockets to help me communicate with children and their parents. She came through magnificently. Puppets began to arrive, and other soldiers wanted them too. I cannot describe adequately how much it meant to me to see fear transformed into smiles, and children laughing and happy. We are good as soldiers in giving away things, and soccer balls will always take priority over puppets. However, when you have a parent tell you that their children thanked a US soldier for those wonderful puppets as they went to bed, I knew that I was winning my small part of this war. Thanks to so many giving people in the US, I was able to bridge an important gap, and make peace in my own small way.