Jimmy Gravitt
Bio
I'm a hyper-curious layman who likes to read with quite a bit of life experience.
Stories (2/0)
As a combat veteran, what shocking cultural practice did you encounter during your deployment?
I first learned about bacha bazi, though it wasn't called that, actually in Iraq. I was talking to a local Iraqi, one of our interpreters, about the Afghans and he called them “faggots”. I asked him why he said that and he told me that they have sex with little boys. I became confused and asked him what he meant. In response to my question, the interpreter became confused and just repeated, “They have sex with young boys.” He added, “They say, ’women are for mating, boys are for pleasure.’” When I asked him how he knew this, he said Afghans told him. It wasn’t for another 2 years when I would deploy to Afghanistan that I would understand what he meant.
By Jimmy Gravitt3 years ago in Serve
Existing for Her
Opening your eyes to the blazing sun shining through a crack in the boards of your shack, you start your morning ritual. You pull out the picture from your pocket. There she is: your baby girl. Smiling. Beautiful. She reminds you of yourself as a child: happy, loved, and wearing the same heart-shaped locket that you were forced to wear as a child for all family pictures. The locket had been passed down for generations. She called it “Nana’s necklace.” She never wanted to take it off. The picture -- and the memories -- give you strength for one more day.
By Jimmy Gravitt3 years ago in Fiction