Children of Ad Dulayiyah

This is one of my favorite pictures. We initially oulled a security halt during a patrol. I tossed some candy down to these children who were playing in their yard. The parents were definately anti-coalition here and would hit the kids when they went to pick up the candy, that didn't seem to phase the kids much however. They were to busy gathering up the candy anyways. Soon the kids came up to our trucks trying to talk to us, but we only knew a few arabic words so communication was difficult. We gave them hand lotion, shampoo, soap, more candy and some dinars to help their family. We were at the spot for quite awhile and the children ran these items to their parents who then seemed to change their opinion of our presence for the moment at least. The elder male of the family even walked the long distance of the driveway with a cane to see us. We gave him some bottled water to take back to his family. Overall I think we may have changed this families opinion slightly, or I would like to think so. The kids seemed happy to see us and posed for some pictures. It was a good experience overall.