Through all this tough time I can’t imagine that I am still alive. I didn’t know that the area that I was in, was exposed to this extreme weather condition. In summer it’s was extremely hot, luckily that I am an Australian and already got used to this type of weather. Not only the summer weather condition had affected us however, now in winter the weather conditions had gotten worst. It turned out to be freezing cold, snow fall most of the time. We were unprepared and only have summer clothes to keep us warm. So when my friends and I were not on duty we all had to huddle each other to try and keep warm as possible. I had seen some people that had to get their hand or feet amputated because of the coldness. I’m wondering when it was my turn. Our location is on low lying land so the rain is a big problem because when it started raining our trenches would fill up with water in a minutes. The rain is making it difficult for us to move around the trenches. If you are not be careful and keep your feet dry you could turn out with a trench foot.
There was not much fresh water. We have to do almost everything to save water. The most horrible thing was that we had to do is conserved water by using left over tea of shaving.
Being away from home made me missed my wife and all the delicious meal that she had prepared for me. Over here all the foods are just horrible and disgusting. We always ate bully beef which is a type on canned meat. When I had some hard biscuit it made my tooth ache. We also receive some tea, sugar and jam. There were no fresh vegetables at all .So we have to eat Julienne which was a flaked and dry vegetable in a tin. My favorite food here is Machonochies it was tinned meat that also contained some potato and some vegetables.
With soldiers lying dead in the field, rats, flies and mosquitos were everywhere munching on the flesh of the stagnant water and inadequate sanitation soldiers. The hungry rats were running everywhere eating the eyeballs of the dead soldiers lying around the no man’s land, another problem was that a swarms of flies that carried diseases from the leftover food and the human excrement. The diseases were widespread because of the rotting empty food tin and many dead body piled across the area.
The sight of seeing this made my mind tumble, not knowing when I’ll be lying there but the only thing that kept me going was the image of my family, that was also what I needed right now.
It’s duty time for the brave soldier now. I don’t think I will be back to share any of this horrible war, but if I do come back and write the ending of this diary, you’ll know that I’m back safe, maybe even with some more interesting experiences next time. Farewell for now.
Edward Cullen.