Wednesday December 26

Boxing Day in Musa Qala

There is lots of activity because General Page is visiting Musa Qala. He arrives and talks to the troops and members of the ANA. After that we are off into the town centre.

It is repopulated and men sit drinking Ch’ai and the stalls are crammed with goods for sale. Apparently they are exactly as they were when the people fled and left them.

I get pestered by kids who have their eyes on the karabiner torches attached to my bag. I refuse – otherwise I would not have been able to get rid of them wanting more stuff.

The town centre looks as though it has seen better days with rubbish all over the place.

The transport of choice is a 125cc motorcycle.

The bazaar is busy and we are definitely the centre of attention.

We pile back into the transport and move onto a hospital which looks a bit run down but is apparently quite clean inside.

We are subjected to a terrorist rocket attack but the missiles fall wide of the mark.

Hitched a lift back to FOB Edinburgh with an artillery convoy. There are lots of north eastern lads there and we have roasted goat, Fijian-style, which is very tasty.

The FOB is in the process of being built but they have made good progress in 10 days.

It gets dark really quickly and I feel my tent has been pitched where the most stones are. It is only now that I realise that I left my washbag in Musa Qala.

This means so I have to clean my teeth with sugar free chewing gum, as there is no shop here, which is a tip I picked up from watching a documentary on the special forces at some point in the past.