Today is my first patrol after recovering from my injury; we are to conduct it around a very busy part of the city.

We leave at approximately 08:00 and head out of the main gate.

My position is at the rear of the patrol, turning to face backwards every so often to make sure there are no threats or dangers posed to the patrol from behind us.

The first thing I notice is just how hot the weather is getting out here. Compared to our first few weeks where it was either raining or snowing it is now dry and becoming dusty. Smells in the city are becoming more potent especially where the open drains are situated and piles of rubbish have been left in the street to decompose.

The first few streets were quiet and pretty well much deserted, just the odd person walking past and one or two supply carts being pushed by local store traders. This could not be said as we hit the main road; it was manic, really congested with vehicles parked on either side as well as stalls lining the pavements. Hundreds of civilians bustling about their daily lives, many of them waving and sounding their horns at us. It was all we could do just trying not to get knocked over.

As we made our way through this part of the city, there were new buildings going up alongside old buildings that had seen better days. One building had obviously been through the war, it was huge and derelict; there was hardly a square inch without a bullet hole in it.

As we made our way up past the main roundabout a group of children surrounded us asking for sweets, pens, money and water. They looked very poor, their clothes were just rags, they were unwashed and only had run down sandals on their feet. They followed us for over a mile, I did feel sorry for them and the urge is to give them something, however we can’t do this. If we give them anything the next time we come out on patrol we would be swamped by them and this could cause big problems, one that we couldn’t conduct a patrol properly, but more problematic would be if were to get attacked by insurgents, the children would more than likely get injured and none of us want to see that.

After a long hard and very hot patrol we walked through the back gate of the base and unloaded our weapons.