A Christmas Eve Remembered

The roads were slick with ice and snow as we made our way up the MSR to where we were going to turn.  To tell you the truth you really couldn't see the road, we could only guess we were still on it by the relative thickness of the snowdrifts to the right of us.  To the left of us was a steep drop into a cut on the side of the hill that the road followed.  

Winters in Kosovo were supposed to be relatively mild, but it seems like the 10th Mountain Division brings the harsh upstate New York weather with us.  I was told this was the coldest winter in Kosovo in something like 75 years and on this Christmas Eve we were in the third day of a four day blizzard. 

It had been quiet the last few days.  Most of the locals could only drive out of their villages by following in the tracks we had left behind us.  So we had made an effort to drive out to most of the larger villages in our sector to help them out. 

Tonight we were on a different mission though.  SSG Lovallo, my third squad leader, had recently discovered a remote village that was populated by a couple very poor families with lots of kids between them. They didn't have much and we were worried about their welfare with the blizzard coming.  I had made some inquiries with the civil affairs officer whom I had a good relationship with and together, SSG Lovallo and I had decided on a special mission. 

We finally got to the point on our GPS that told us where to turn off the road and we followed a heavily snowed over unpaved trail that went up a ridge line for a little ways. When we finally got to the point where the snowdrifts were too deep to drive further we dismounted the HMMVW's.  

We left one of our team leaders and another driver to sort out the vehicles.  The rest of us strapped our snowshoes onto our combat boots and grabbed our rucksacks to start our march up the ridge line.  

We made slow progress.  The snow was coming down which made it hard to see, but we had the village plotted in our GPS. After about 45 minutes we started to descend to a low spur where we saw several huts (for lack of a better word).  The kids saw us coming down from the ridge first.  By the time we got to the village there were at least 10 of them running around waiting for us.  

An old woman with a kerchief around her head invited us into her home with four or five other adults and some more kids.  Ramiz, our interpreter, said they never would have expected us.  

Tired as we were we took our rucksacks and snowshoes off.  

I told the patriarch of the extended family that made up the village, "Merry Christmas."  We began handing out boxes of MRE's, clothes that we had scavenged from my civil affairs contact, and some toys.  

As little as two winters before this night this family was huddling in the woods.  They were trying to evade Serbian army units who were coming through the area burning people out of their homes and killing Albanians who made trouble.  I can't imagine what they had been through. 

I have never seen such joy and gratitude for something as simple as second hand clothing and bad food, but they were overwhelmed.  They served us hot chai and hugged us graciously.  When it was time for us to leave they would scarce let us go to ascend to the ridge line in our snowshoes again.  

Though they had nothing to offer us in return, I've never forgotten them or the joy I had in meeting them.  I think I got more from their reaction and their story than we ever could have given them. 

This time of year we can so easily get caught up in so much hustle and bustle that it's easy to lose focus on the important things.  

God has given us so many blessings.  Sometimes we just need to stop and remember them, and then remember to be a blessing to others.  

Merry Christmas.  May you remember the blessings in your life, the creator who has provided them, and do your best to be a blessing to those around you.