Today marks the first month of my arrival in Afghan lands.
I would be lying if I said that time has passed fast, but it is true that the worst were the first two weeks. Once you get used to every day being on Monday and this desolate landscape, you are less uphill the road.
In fact today, full of optimism, I almost see the end of the mission at the end of the tunnel and those desired vacations, although four months and a half are still missing.
And here, the main factor is that, the psychological factor. That factor helps you to make certain things, no matter how small or silly, help you to keep going. For example, last night I went to bed quite late trying to fix the Internet in the outpost, which I finally got and the effort was grateful in part for the cooks, who gave me two "Kit-Kat's" ...; May seem silly, but these things here are a small push forward. That factor also helps you to assimilate and naturalize complex situations that I will not detail here.
I can not help remembering certain comments from people who read the communiqué that the Ministry of Defense did to the newspapers on July 9th, if I remember correctly, in which a Spanish wounded soldier was reported in an insurgent ambush that lasted five hours and In which we had to ask for American air support, they had the nerve to say, convinced, that coming here is a vacation for us, that we do nothing here, and that they give us the money for free....
Honestly, I would love to see these people here, to see if they changed their minds and even better, to see how much they endured.
In general, on July 19th, 2012 and completing a month of mission, I am proud to be part of a contingent that tries to mediate the enormous crisis of a divided government and full of fundamentalists. Contingent that actively helps people and families in almost infrahuman life situations.
Proud, for those children that when they see you, smile and greet energetically as if they had seen their savior.
Pvt. Cabanes, Telecommunications Specialist.