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.