[ENGLISH] "Operations Zone Soldier's Journal - Afghanistan 2012" [OPERATIONS ZONE JOURNAL EP.3]

   And here we are once again, on the 19th, this time in September, to complete 3 months of mission. There are only 1 month and 14 days left to go back to spanish soil. I'm beginning to reproduce with greater continuity that moment when I get off the plane, see my family and have that feeling of feeling home again. I ask myself: will I be able to hold back the tears at that very moment? Emotional I decide not to know the answer.

   My Sergeant (cool and great man, with good command, and moreover from Sevilla), my colleague (that black woman that says many bad words but has a good heart, coming from the Dominican Republic that was born exactly the same day and month that I was) , and the narrator myself, we're having a lot of work lately, reviewing and organizing a lot of material and preparing it to repatriate it or so everything is in perfect condition for the comrades who will take over. Today we have concretely filled the first drawer of material that will take a little time to fly to the Iberian Peninsula.

   Within 8 days they will send me back to the advanced position for a minimum of 20 days. I would have preferred to stay here until the end of the mission, basically because of the quality and abundance of food, which is bigger here (I was very hungry there last time), the gym is much bigger and more complete (there are 5 dumbbells there , 4 discs, 1 bar and a bench) and also by the companies, since there I will be the only one of my unit. Basically, the overall comfort and quality of life here is greater than there. But if I was once I can be twice; assumed and prepared for it.

   We are almost all bundled with the issue of going and sending all the backpacks to Spain because they take at least 1 month on arriving. This week I have to finish filling and sending it. I will stay with the basics here for what I have left of mission.

   There's no way someone's gonna win the soccer sporting bet! There are already four hundred euros and more, and no guess for now.

   I already finished buying people's gifts. I had to bargain much at the flea market but I think I got everything reasonably priced. There are plenty of things for the family and for the close friends and some detail for the rest, even if it is just the typical keychain with their name in Arabic and the Afghan flag.

   I´m eating at a lot of chocolate lately, something that surprises me enough since I have never used to eat sweet or industrial buns and I try, usually, take care of food. If two months ago this of the chocolate would have happened to me, I would have finished this note, at that time, saying that: "chocolate is the only sweet note of the mission". But if I said it now, at the 3rd month, it would not be true. There are very few sweet notes, but there are, and chocolate is just one of them.

Pvt. Cabanes, Telecommunications Specialist.

   Author's note:The photomontage you see above with my face was the product of my boss's invention, which one day decided to stick it on all the doors of the buildings to which our section had access.

   The brief history of this is that, for a while, we set up computers on the network and played "Call of Duty 1" in "Deathmatch" mode, all against all, (we would be about 20 people) and I always won the games; people began to get mad and to accuse me of cheater and then my boss and I, to fuck them even more so we decided to stick this photo on all entry doors.