I closed the circle.

When eventually I left Afghanistan I burned out. I resigned. I was still a vegetarian. And it wasn't easy. I was travelling around the Balkans and Turkey. I visited the United States for a few times. I've done a specific pilgrimage, the "Camino de Santiago" The Way of St James. I walked 610Kms (380M) on the Portuguese way from Lisbon, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. When I eventually reached Compostela on foot I said to myself “ Finally I closed a circle...So let's do some other adventure!"

Then he opens a can of Coke...

7:20 pm. Busy chatting with my gf. I've got lots of dollar bills on my table as I prepare to pay out wages to my guys the next day. Suddenly, a machine gun is barking from somewhere in the mountains, then another incoming fire. Fuck, I take my body armour and my battle jacket, find a pair of socks somewhere, jump into my boots and grab my weapon. I almost forget about the heap of cash on my table but quickly I wipe the dollars into my cargo pocket before I put on my Kevlar helmet. I run out from my hutch; its bloody pitch black outside. Luckily I know the way by heart so it doesn't matter, but the constant incoming machine gun fire makes it a bit more difficult. No mortars yet, so instead of running to the safe bunker I ran to my outside perimeter position in the tower in front of those angry mountains. There is a secret gate to exit, and I meet the storeroom man who is responsible for the key.
"Is the gate open?" I shouted at him from a distance. "Yes, Sir, the gate open."
Already two Gurkha are at the gate waiting, perhaps struggling to open it.
“Go! Go! Move forward!” I order. We run to the outside perimeter, the fire still intense.
"Don’t stop running," I shouted, arriving at my tower and climbing up. Another half a minute and someone else climbs into my tower. A Gurkha. So we're two now. I carefully observe the enemy position when suddenly there is a large flash from above.
“Incoming rocket!” I report to the radio, then the rocket is right above my head and flying into the client camp behind me. It detonates some 20 meters away. I crawled away a little, then started to observe the enemy again.
“Rocket incoming!“ I shout in the direction of the client camp, then I get down behind a barrier of Hescos. The missile is accurate, detonating almost on the same same spot as the previous one only several meters from my position.
"That’s fucken close," I say to the Gurkha.
“It is, Sir,” he answers.
"Just keep your head down,” I tell him that while I watch the enemy. Several other rockets are detonating behind us. Then a couple of incoming mortar some 5-10 meters in front of my tower, outside the perimeter. Fuck them! Our heavy machine gunners are accurate and constantly zipping the enemy. I can see the tracers. Not too bad, actually, very nice shots. I don’t even attempt to open fire coz I know that my AK-47 is useless at that distance. I've already been at this enemy position 3 weeks ago with a mountain patrol; the distance is more than a kilometre. Then comes a lolling fire from the enemy side.
Suddenly another Ghurkha appears. "Hey man, where have you been?" I asked him. "Sorry, Sir, they did not let me go from the bunker. The bunker is full, Sir." Then he opens a can of Coke...
The Indians behind me start to move. "Get back to your bunker and switch off the fucken light!" I shouted to them. "Tell them in Hindi don’t fucken get out from the bunkers!" So the two Gurkha start to shout in the Indian language and that’s effective.
I constantly observed the field in front, no movement, but one of the guys suddenly cocks his weapon.
"What’s up?" I asked. "Have you seen something?" "No sir, I heard something." We listen carefully. But nothing happens.
In the next half an hour everything’s gone quiet. Then we get the order to stand down. The heavy machine gun operators stayed for another half an hour. Some team leaders were hanging around in case of a secondary attack.
Luckily no one was wounded.
In the previous day our base had also been attacked at 07:30 in the morning. I was off base on a mission with my team. Several days before that, there was an attack on the American base as I worked some 2 km away from it. So we were expecting this one.

Pre-Election Gunfight

"What the fuck was that?"
One of my fellow team leaders suddenly asked me while we were busy talking about the Afghan national election, which would take place the next day. I also heard that distant detonation. “Perhaps a fucken lorry backfired,” I answered, then another one, and at that time I saw the flash too. For fuck's sake, it’s not a bloody dump truck, it’s an RPG-7. Then the machine guns and a high-calibre Russian cannon start firing from various positions on the mountainside. Luckily I didn't have any clients today as I was leading the rowing patrol team. I jumped into my 4x4 and drove into the direction of gunfire, which was approximately a kilometer or two away from my current position. We left the vehicle behind the last safe cover; then I ran to the first defense post in front of that mountain where the Taliban shot at us, on top of the hill. I left my guys at the bottom of the hill where they covered me from the back. I reached the post, a ditch with sandbags where four local guards were in the bottom, struggling with the machine gun as it has a stoppage. I jumped into the foxhole, grabbed the weapon from them and fixed it. Then I crawled out covered by some bush, carefully observed an enemy post and shot a few short bursts into the direction. The enemy gunfight wasn’t very intense at that stage because our heavy machine gunners also started to engage the enemy from higher ground. The Afghan National Army started to throw mortars from their position some 4 Km away as we directed them with radio. I went back into the hole and handed the weapon back to those guys. On the bottom of hill I met another team leader who had a minibus so I jumped in and we drove further through the road into some enemy fire, where a client stayed with another team under safe cover behind a hill. I jumped out, asked the clients (formerly under my watch) if they were okay...minor injuries, as both of them had fallen on the rocky ground. The enemy was pretty accurate even though it was a relatively long distance. One of our machine’s wheels had been shot out but luckily we had no wounded. They still carried on firing at us with that high-calibre cannon as I watched them from the side of the hill. We decided to withdraw the clients from the danger zone. One by one, vehicles left the place covered by fire. We were the last. We moved back on the other side where there was an outpost of the Afghan army; they were also busy engaging the enemy. I climbed into the post and observed the enemy.
They started to pull out as the US army Apaches appeared. They started to fly above the mountains and finally they fired on the other side where no enemy was there at all...

We worked through the day but due to the high threat of suicide bombing and ambushes the management decided to give everybody a day off on the following election day.

Village kids

Today I've been in this village. They have no water supply anymore due to the road project, which cut their brook. In order to keep a good relationship with the locals, some of the main engineers travelled out to talk about a solution. Ultimately they agreed to drill a well. My team was part of the PSD unit. In the meantime we also met some kids from the village. They were so friendly, apart from trying to steal my buddy's knife and his illumination sticks. Also my camera. And on top of that, my hand sanitizing gel...I just can't really understand...what for???

Typhoid nightmare

Two days ago I had an hour-long conversation with one of our medics about his life, his future plans and everything like that. Finally, he told me that a UN health officer had informed him that there is a Typhoid fever spreading around among Afghanis in this area. He said he already has several patients; the weather is changing so it’s the perfect time for tropical epidemics. He explained to me the symptoms in a very pictorial way. Then he told me if he catches the disease in its early stages he can treat it within a couple of days, with antibiotics injection and oral pills, apart from that in the meantime the patient is suffering a lot. This is a third world Muslim country: the hygienic system is crap and people are often touching each other, shaking hands, and they pass the bacteria on.
“How can I avoid from shaking hands but keep good relations with locals?” coz hand shaking, it’s like mandatory.
“You can’t really,” he said, ”but always use hand sanitiser after shaking hands. You have to be careful.“ Then we said good night.
On the way back to my hutch I was thinking about what he said and about the symptoms. I suddenly remembered that my interpreter had been sick with some stomach problems in the last couple of days. Eventually he appeared today but he looked bloody weak...fuck...

Then I slept. I got up in the middle of the night. I was shaking and my forehead had sweat a lot. My stomach was uncomfortable. I had the symptoms of the Typhoid fever. I got up, went to the bathroom and watched myself in the mirror. It’s must be a fucking bad dream I decided ...so I went back to bed. I woke up again in the morning and the symptoms had disappeared. Luckily it was only a nightmare. But extremely intense.

Solution

Since yesterday the blockade is gone.
Day before the US Army turned up, the local governor,a General from the Police, the local supplier and his opposition. They had a meeting with us; it was successful. Everything is back to normal.
Some contact and short fire fights as usual. Nothing serious. Regular stuff.

Blockade

Since 4 days we are under blockade. We can’t get out. We can’t work,
we can't do anything. Apart from that we're waiting for a solution.
We don’t really wanna get involved because the whole thing is only against the current local Afghani supplier. Nothing to do with us. Just like a strike.
Therefore, no work for us. Only some guarding duty for an hour each day in order to keep one eye on those people outside. The Afghan National Police outside are handling the situation.

Roadblock!

I’m slightly wounded as of the 19th. It’s nothing serious but hard to walk. I twisted my right foot, for which I got a cortisone injection straight to the ass and some pills, but that was only the tip of the shit iceberg.

It all started day before yesterday. The base commander called an unscheduled meeting in the night. He said a group of 200 men were aiming to take over the current security supplier’s position, possibly by force. This is the Afghan company who provides our vehicles and guards.

We were alert in the morning when the men arrived, but they said they weren’t going to cause any problems. Still, they were gathering outside the gate of our base. By 1 pm they decided they would close the road. And at 2 pm, my team couldn’t get back to base.

So there we were, some 3 km away from base. The police turned up. And they did fuck all. We tried to get American support. They sent two apaches after several hours, but didn’t really know what to do. They were flying above us. I thought because we had three teams on both sides of the road they were gonna open fire, because surely they reckoned that my teams were the ones blocking the road, and we all had guns as well. After ten minutes of low flight they quit.

It’s Ramadan, so my guys were fucking frustrated, because they hadn’t eaten all day, the clients too...They all became more angry. It was a hard job to control them. I’d had my breakfast at 5 am too... And my boss did not let us go on foot. I said, we just walk in. But no, they were waiting for a miracle.

The police turned up with eight armed vehicles and they were standing by some kilometers away. And an American convoy approached us but stopped 2 kilometers away from my team, some 3-4 kilometers away from the roadblock. Obviously they didn’t want to be involved.

After 6 pm the main contractor went out and talked with those people. It was effective. They removed the roadblock and then I was able to lead my teams and all my clients back to safety as we quickly passed through. I went to the canteen and ate a big meal.

Then a firefight began. Fucking intense shooting. So I ran to my hutch, got my weapons, armour, and magazines and ran out. But the firing came from the other side as usual, so I went in that direction. I saw the base commander, who ordered me up against the wall. I ran, and as soon as the bitumen road finished I fucking stepped into a little ditch, lost my balance, flew into the air, and did a salto mortale (somersault). When I landed on my back my gun hit my head and I twisted my ankle. I was on the ground like a sitting duck under serious fire. I showed my co-workers that I was okay, got up and limped to the wall.

Apparently our guard had started the shooting outside. People say he was the first to open fire. It stopped in ten minutes. One of the drivers got shot in the ass and a bullet scratched his balls. I made a video when the medics started to treat him. After everything was quiet I saw the medic too at the clinic. I heard a click when he injected my ass with cortisone. Another medic took a picture. "Got you!" He smiled. I didn't. "You Fuck off!" I said.

Then I remembered that, one of my friends once told me, “Medical privacy is not a big deal in this country.”

That’s right!

Anyway I'm not going to facebook that picture.

Return to Afghanistan... Again!

After 25 days of adventurous travel across the world visiting at least 3 continents and lots of countries from the UK to the US, I travelled back to Afghanistan, and arrived at the same compound in Kabul as before.
The next morning I was deployed to my base in southern Afghanistan, via that old Russian helicopter. The whole exhausting journey itself took 3.5 days which was extremely tiring. But that was no excuse and I had to work on the following day. I got two new teams and a brand new mission. My former site has been ambushed at 8am this morning, approx 8 km away from my new site. I heard other team leaders constantly reporting on the radio and I thought: Fuck, I should be there. But I couldn’t do anything to help them out. I had to look after my own clients. The firefight was serious; at least 25 RPG rocket detonated on us.A mortar, several large calibre cannons, a sniper, machine guns, and assault rifles fired constantly on us for almost two hours. No air support as usual. Finally we managed to drown out the clients and the troops. It’s Ramadan so we're doing short days. But still everybody was frustrated.
I could feel it.

Independence Day

4th of July: Independence Day in the US.

The Taliban launched a new offensive today, and they are extremely active in here. They have heavy weapons and planted lots of IEDs. They already kicked some ass. They are probably celebrating too. The US Armed forces are busy operating in my area of responsibility. All movement has been cancelled, including my mission. I am also celebrating a little bit because of this unplanned day off.

Last few days

Several ambushes on us in the last few days.
One local national died and another was wounded.
One of our local guard commanders was wounded in action.

Lovely Indian Food in Southern Afghanistan.

I love Indian food. I spent a year on the subcontinent.
Yesterday my clients invited me to have lunch with them in the field.
I had never accepted that kind of invitation before, but for some reason I did this time. The food was very nice, hot and spicy sabji with rice and raita, typical from the south Indian kitchen.
Today at 5 am I got up and ran to the toilet. This is my day off. Nice.
Took a shower. I didn’t feel very well. Gone to the canteen. Tried to eat some breakfast, but I had no appetite. I couldn’t eat as much as normal, but I managed to eat some. And I picked up a couple of boxes of 100% orange juice.
On the way back to my beautiful hutch I had to run again. I caught the toilet just in time. Bloody Indians. They bloody poisoned me.
Got a beautiful day off with diarrhea. Well, there’s nothing to do anyway, apart from clean my weapon and wash my body armour.
A couple of hours later the problem was getting serious.
I thought to go see the medic, but I was a bit scared because of a conversation I had previously heard: “So this guy came to me, and said he’s got diarrhea. I said to him, what are you talking about? Do you know what diarrhea even means?!! When I was in Congo we got diarrhea. When you got blood in your stool constantly for weeks, and not only because your asshole is bleeding, but because you’re shitting all day and all night...man! That’s what I call diarrhea!
Well, to be honest, I was scared shitless (not entirely) but I would have to see him.
Finally I gathered my courage and went to see that medic. I found two other ones there instead, and they were extremely helpful. Not what I expected. I got some pills and some advice: Sorry we didn't mention it to you before, but please, never ever ever eat the Indian clients’ food.
A nice conversation followed. Apparently they both were poisoned previously from eating that Indian food. Finally, one of them performed a health inspection in the Indian kitchen.
“I would have burned it down,” he said. “We have all been poisoned by the Indians since we started working with them.”

Friday's Attack

08:03 AM Friday. A mortar missile sailed through the sky and detonated just about 100 meters from my position, and then another one. What the fuck? Luckily both landed in the ditch. At the same moment, machine guns started firing from several different positions in the mountains. We are under attack. Some other explosions were close, probably RPGs.

My guard commander had asked me just a half hour ago, “Sir! Is it gonna be a half day today?” “No, don’t think so, expect the Taliban is gonna ambush us,” I answered.

We went through exactly the same evacuation procedure as the previous attack, except this time the vehicles turned up for us without any request. I quickly took the clients to the vehicles and sent them to the police station, the nearest safe haven.

It was a serious firefight, more than an hour long. It was a miracle nobody was injured. Some vehicles were zipped by bullets.

The US military confirmed that we can’t get air support, for some reason I suppose, because they’re busy in Kandahar, or worse, they don’t give a shit about us. Also, no support from the Afghan National Army because it s Friday and they are all having a bloody day off, so we have to leave the area even after all the enemy are gone, because there is no evidence from the air to know if they are really gone or just waiting for another opportunity. So we had to withdraw all the clients and all the machinery for today.

While my 2IC took care of the clients I remained in the field to take care of the expensive construction machines left behind. The fucked up thing was that the Indian operators took the keys from the machinery so when the local drivers came to recover them it was a huge fuck up; they can’t start them.

By the time we realized that particular hiccup, all clients had gone back to the base because of the ongoing firefight.
I contacted my Gurkha on base and requested that he bring the keys. But all the operators had already disappeared into their hutches, so it was really difficult to find them. Several hours later my Gurkha 2IC finally got the keys to me.
In the end, my guards drove the machinery back from the work site, including my guard commander himself, who rode a roller back to the overnight parking.

On the way back I also found several dump trucks and a bitumen lorry. Most of the Indian operators quit and left their vehicles on the spot but out of my area of responsibility. As the very last team out I had to recover them but I didn’t have enough drivers, because they were busy driving the dump trucks and steamrollers, so I had to drive my own team leader vehicle back to base. But one of my bosses got to drive the bitumen lorry.

Machine gun duty

Since the last attack against the base, the base commander ordered that everyone should go on duty at least once or twice a month in order to man several Soviet PKT Anti-Aircraft heavy machine guns, which are positioned in front of that mountain range from where attacks are most likely to come. The whole idea is that if they start to shoot us we immediately respond with heavy machine guns to surprise the front line of enemy troops, to buy some time for our men to get to their firing positions. Got night vision, Infra-red Imaging system, illumination rockets and binoculars. So it was my turn, and actually, I really enjoyed it. Was no enemy activity. Well, we also have mandatory night duty around the base in the towers but staffed mainly by local nationals. So no comment on that.

Ambush

Yesterday at 11 am there was another attack on the other side of the project, approximately 30 km away from my site.
Six of my coworkers are wounded: 3 team leaders, a Gurkha, and 2 local nationals. Of the three team leaders, two are my friends.
Their vehicles have been ambushed by Taliban with two anti-personnel RPGs and machine guns.
Day by day closer...

Exchanging fire, and a bullet scam...

A couple of days ago at 10 am we exchanged fire. There were several incoming machine gun bursts from a distance. Our guys fired back, then took the clients to safety. My site was approximately 2 Km away from the contact, down in the walleye. Although my position was above that, on the top of the mountain, I couldn’t really see what was going on. When I heard the gunfire burst, and shortly after on the radio some of my fellow team leaders reported, “We are under fire!” So I grabbed the main client by his body armour and covered him behind the construction equipment. Then I ordered the vehicles to roll up. The client climbed out, so I took him back behind the cover again. I ordered my Gurkha second-in-command (2IC) to take all the clients to the next police post about one km away from our site. Part of my team and I remained, to take care of the million dollar heavy machinery. I ordered them to get into firing position around the machines. “Safety catch off!” I shouted. “Don’t cock your weapon!” Everything went pretty well. All the other teams drove past us loaded with scared clients. Down on the walleye a couple kilometers away our Quick Response Force (QRF) handled the attackers. Finally they were gone.
It was short but intense contact. Luckily no casualties; no one injured, and a few bullet marks on a couple of vehicles. After an hour and a half everything went back to the normal daily routine.
My teams didn’t fire a single shot, but some of the teams claimed they had fired thousands of rounds in a few minutes. This is a bullshit scam, because now the company will have to replace the “fired” rounds. But then, the company eventually has to buy new rounds. So these teams will sell their pilfered ammunition back to us. When we looked for cartridges that day, we hardly found a hundred on our side.
One of my fellow team leaders said, ”They’re a bunch of criminals.“

IED days

The Taliban are active. In recent days our vehicles have set off several IEDs, but no casualties.

Attack

I survived an attack against my base in Southern Afghanistan last night at 19:40. No problem. I was busy with the administration when the shit hit the fan. We received 4 incoming mortar rounds and RPG missiles, and on top of that, constant machine gun fire from the mountains. I grabbed my weapons, my body armour, the spare magazines, and my kit, and ran to my position. My lungs are fucked now, as I had to run a half mile to get to my post. This is normally not a problem for me, but under the circumstances, it was. I had to carry 50 pounds of equipment at an altitude of 10,000 feet, under heavy enemy fire. Then I had to climb a 30-foot tower, and I had been breathing tons of dust during the past few days.

But after all that, I took command in my tower and gave my guys (2 Gurkha and 4 local Afghani guards) firing orders to waste that RPG operator about 400 meters in front of us. I didn't see the result, as it was dark, but I hope the bastard got zipped. I fired some shots as well with my assault rifle, and from then on there was no more activity. Today a patrol is going out to have a look in those mountains.

No one killed or injured from our side. I've found a bullet hole in the wall of my well-protected accommodation. Intelligence says during the summer period attacks and ambushes are more likely.

So I have decided to write a blog.

Happy days....

Landmine story

About a week ago an Italian landmine has been found in my area of responsibility.
It was brought by a truck, which dumped it when unloading some soil.
I suspect that the soil came directly from a minefield and the driver and the laborers were lucky enough...It hasn't gone off.

Nice present. Cheers for that, we all were pretty grateful.

Finally the US Army turned up and took care of it. They instantly initiated that landmine on the spot using a special robot and some heavy explosives. Before setting it off, the Army blocked the road with heavily armed vehicles on both sides in approximately a one-kilometer radius for about 15 minutes.

The local drivers started to complain about it, as usual, but the Americans didn't give a shit, also as usual. One of the local taxi drivers came to me and asked me to let them pass because there was an emergency case that needed to go to the hospital. I was busy talking with one of the Staff sergeants. He took us to a vehicle and showed me something in the boot covered with a blue burkha, possibly a woman...
But I couldn’t see any emergency, well, actually I hadn't seen anything, because the emergency was wrapped in that burkha. Finally, I told my interpreter, "That's fine, but if they are going through and that explosive goes off I’m pretty sure nobody in that vehicle is gonna get to the hospital, but instead to the Paradise."

The Staff sergeant just smiled. From that moment on, no one was in a hurry.

Children’s toys, and a stoning

For several days, I was working near a very poor village just behind my work area where there was a bunch of kids, maybe 30 to 40 children hanging around with nothing to do apart from watching us, all day, every day. So I decided I was gonna buy some sports equipment. I bought five footballs, a cricket bat and balls, and other things like that. I handed it over to the leader of the village and then he gave it to the kids…they were really happy. Immediately afterwards, due to an early morning traffic incident, the leader of the village went to stone someone to death, because that person shot a man from a neighboring village in a traffic accident. Two cars had crashed on the dust-road about 2 km away from my workplace. Both drivers got out and started arguing, then one drew a pistol and shot the other. By the way, the village leader attended the victim’s funeral too. Then the villagers handed over the stoned-dead body to the police. They really know how to make a point.

Pain in the ass

The work is ongoing; I still enjoy it so much. Both of my teams are getting better, but I had to change one of my drivers and my local guard commander too, for similar reasons: they were absolutely useless. My interpreter is also a pain in the ass, but I’m giving him one more chance...nothing wrong with him, besides that he’s a stupid bastard who doesn’t understand English.

Vegetarian revival

On the very first day I realized breakfast is on base every day at 5 am, which is nice, like in the army, 5 miles of free movement allowed in a relatively safe working area, but I have to work about 30 miles away from the base, in enemy territory, where I am trapped when lunch is provided by the company at 12. On day one I had to eat a piece of chicken because I was starving.... and the second day I ate half a quarter-pounder beef burger, same issue. Then I made a decision: Fuck that. I am a bloody vegetarian. So since that day I’ve been eating my breakfast and the side dish of my lunch and a nice, big veggie dinner...that’s it.

Local Country Nationals...

My guys, they are the most fucked up gang I’ve ever seen,
but I’m working on it constantly. They can’t stand up for more than half an hour before they get tired and have to go into a crouch, but then they can stay that way for hours, or I guess forever. They are allowed to take a lunch of 30 minutes and to go pray for 20 minutes, but some of them are gone praying for an hour, and those kinds of things. I try to train them but I really have to work at it every single day, because if not, they forget.

Day 2

Second day at work, on the other end of the project, at the border area of Pakistan. It was bloody hot, especially under my 50 pounds of body amour, fully loaded magazines, and of course my AK on top of that. I trained some of the local national guys in the basics; e.g., close protection escort drills, how to hold the weapon, how to seek cover under fire, and so on. During the day we heard a blast from the city. At the time, I was in position on one of the rooftops beside a machine gunner with the other team leaders. As soon as we heard the blast everybody got into position, but our local guards told us, “It’s OK! No problem.” I went to try to find out what happened but they said that it was nothing, so I went back to our site. Later on, our interpreter told me there was a suicide attack on a police station or some foreigner agencies in the city, nearby the airport, and 2 people were killed.
Later in the day I spoke with some of our clients from India, and the brief conversation in Hindi made them happy. Then, at lunchtime, I had to eat my lunch on site, so someone brought it for every team leader. Obviously you have no chance to choose, so today’s meal was a huge beef burger with chips and salad. I prayed for the spirits of that poor animal to forgive me, but I was starved so I had to try and eat it. One of the dogs got half of the burger; to eat a burger was almost torture for me. Eight years in the vegetarian industry suddenly gone...I was pretty upset, so I made up my mind to find a solution, so I’ll probably survive.
Many things have happened, and I learned a lot about my new job...really enjoy it, too, as there are lots of things to do, and a steady stream of work: IEDs, Taliban offensive, gangsters, kidnappers. I have to be aware all the time

Day 1

First day of on-the-job training, first impression: such a bloody organized (hopefully) chaos. The job itself is not too bad but there are long hours, starting at 6 am normally, but breakfast from 5. Then proceed to meet your team, report, if all OK then get your client, set up a convoy, start to move to the actual work site at the so-and-so Kilometer where the client is gonna work with his laborers. Then check the site again, because there could be improvised explosive devices (IEDs) anywhere, then set up the team to look after the area...

The sun is hot; the area is mainly desert and mountains. I spend 12 hours on the ground, pretty tiring because there’s not a lot of shade, except in your car. The threat of ambush is not so likely, but the improvised devices are common. All those roadwork machine drivers wear body armor. Yesterday night the local army killed 12 of the opposition; the next morning, we got a letter warning us to stop all the work. I don’t think it’s gonna happen.

The lunch was not vegetarian today. After 8 years I had some chicken. Terrible feeling, but I forced myself to eat meat, otherwise I’m not gonna survive, especially in these conditions. At approximately 4:30 pm roll back to base, have a shower, eat some nice dinner, then meeting at 6 pm. So it's a long day, but I like it.

Tomorrow I’m gonna go to another location of the project, and the day after I will take command of 2 teams.

I got a job in southern Afghanistan

"One bed available in local hutch in hostile outpost, southeast Afghanistan. Coffee and tea available at cost. Rocket and missile attack certain, ambushes sporadic: please bring own medical support. Evacuation often necessary, no method provided. Weapons proficiency a must.

Hospitality extensive, but remains will not be repatriated to your home country.

Looking forward to your arrival. Please approach with hands in air."

I got a job in southern Afghanistan . After 3-days bloody long travel from UK to Afghanistan, and 3 days bloody stuck on the compound in Kabul, finally I have arrived at my base in southern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border area, via an old Russian helicopter. The journey itself was quite adventurous, like a real military deployment, by the way.

Everything is all right. My weapon has been already issued with a shitload of magazines. The old instrument was a bit dirty but I spent several hours to clean it, check all its part, and change those unsuitable for safe use...like my time in the army.