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.”