From battlefields to bodyguard – Meet Ballito’s Mr Monk, the mercenary

Pain, blood, sweat and tears are the words tattooed on his back, his muscular shoulders and chest laced with tribal mercenary symbols of manhood.

Aaron Green has not chosen these tattoos to suite his intimidating build, the mercenary veteran has earned them in a life that played off like a war documentary.

“Our bodies are work horses and our ink has a reason, a sentimental value. None of this is for show,” said the surprisingly soft-spoken Green, sitting barefoot in his Ballito-based centre, Upstart Functional, where he teaches self defense.

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Growing up as an orphan, despite having a mother, Green joined the army at 17 and left the country in 1989.

The 56-year-old soldier worked all over the world both in war zones and as a professional bodyguard for the likes of Angelia Jolie and protected assassination targets such as Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky.

“I was always on the move. One of my most hectic and uncomfortable jobs was fighting drug lords in Columbia. I also did a lot of work for the Pentagon and was in Iraq from 1999 to 2007.”

The last year in Iraq was a game changer for the iron man.

“Al-Qaeda took my team and me in an ambush. I managed to escape, but my team were sent home in body bags, their heads cut off.

“When I got home, my wife – who worked for MI5 in London – divorced me because she could not handle watching the news to see if I was dead or alive. I was angry and lost faith.”

He left the world of war and went to the temple of Bukram where he spent two years in silence learning from the Shaolin monks in Tibet.

“It was a deeply mental time and you are put through intense physical endurance. There is no communication and nothing around you – just nature and you.”

After the time of meditation, he went back to Afghanistan in 2009 until he felt called to Ballito in 2017.

Now, he lives a simple life, present in every moment, taking nothing for granted.

“We design our lives to be so complicated and make everything confrontational. This causes anxiety because we worry about tomorrow instead of living today. I teach my clients the simplicity of life. I always say you are not having a bad day until you have a gun to your face,” said Green, who does not own a television nor a computer.

“I only got a bed after six months of living in my new home. Sleeping on the floor is what I knew,” said Green who is fondly known as Mr Monk.

“On average, 20 veterans commit suicide every day because they cannot cope. I am lucky to have a life now – I sleep in a bed, have a fridge and running water. When I am asked to go back, I just send them a picture of the cold beers in my fridge.”

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