taking back the country

recent events in the province south of where I am...

news story

Tuesday evening sunset

I think the clouds made it that much better so I had to shoot it. Clouds aren't too frequent around here, and with temperatures approaching and surpassing the century mark already clouds would be very welcome!

and we are still only in May!

but at least it's dry heat... like that makes it better!

dust tornadoes

It's pretty neat to see these form up and travel through the camp, nothing harmful but a lot of dust.

Memorial Day

recently married during his two week R&R period, enjoyed his tour he extended 6 months, killed in an ambush on sunday, will be remembered every Memorial Day

Sunday morning

I was asked if I wanted to go along on a CERP (Civil Engineering Report of Performance I believe) mission this morning, and was even asked whether I would be willing to drive there. Needless to say I was more than willing to oblige, a chance to get off the camp for a few hours and see some of this fascinating countryside, and get to drive a hummer while doing so.
We left camp this morning and headed north along the ring road (paved road circling Afghanistan, a little like a ring) for 15 minutes or so before taking a right to some village. As soon as we left the ring road the way to our destination turned to dust, most roads in this country being dust tracks. We spent another 30 minutes driving through various villages before arriving at our destination. The purpose of this trip was to inspect a wall around a school, and this took a half hour, give or take a few minutes. I had no role in the inspection and instead stayed near the vehicles and met some kids, apparently not privileged to go to school. With all the candy I received I thought my teeth would appreciate if I offered these kids some sweets, and I also had a gatorade bottle to donate.
I hope I will be able to go on one of these every week, a great opportunity to see more of this country and its people!




more pictures

family vacation

So my mother was born in Cape Town and was adopted by loving Belgian
parents. She grew up in the Belgian Congo next to a lake where she
could water-ski just about every day, and eventually ended up in
Belgium when the Belgian Congo did its thing and became Zaire.
Incidentally it is now again called Congo.
Well, a few years ago my mother found her biological family, and
along with her husband they have been to Cape Town to visit her
family on a couple occasions. We had planned to go together as a
family, my two brothers and I with my mother and her husband, this
year except for one unforeseen event at the time, here I am in
Afghanistan.
So we then planned to go in 2009, and during some of my rare moments
with little to do I thought I would check out flight prices for next
March. Gunter and I expected flights to be in the $2000 price range
what with the rising oil prices and all, but it turns out the cheap
fare was under $1400, and some were already selling out... for March
2009, 10 months away. We then decided that if we wanted that fare we
had to buy our tickets now so we did. I will be leaving on 31 March,
arriving in Cape Town on the evening of 1 April (not exactly a short
hop, with a connection in Johannesburg), and returning on 14 April,
arriving in DC in the wee hours of 15 April. My two brothers will
only stay a week returning the 8th, and my parents will stay until
the 22nd. They will spend a few days at my new "mansion" before and
after their trip.
Well, it might be a few months away but we are most definitely
looking forward to this trip. It has been a while since we were on
vacation as a family and we thought we'd go big by spending a good
15-16 hours together in a steel tube to kick it off!

26 June

It might still be a little early to look forward to 26 June, but it is never too early when here to look forward to going back to the States, albeit only for 15 days. So on 26 June I will be flying down to Kuwait via Qatar on what will probably be another comfortable military flight. With all the military flights I have been on I should definitely have enough frequent flyer miles for a free round-trip... on a military flight!
From Kuwait I should be getting on a charter flight most likely to Atlanta, not sure if it is stopping anywhere in between but it probably will. Fortunately my leave does not begin until I reach Atlanta since getting there could well take a few days or even a week. Those military flights and schedules are anything but reliable, and flights do get cancelled at the last minute.
Once safely back in the US and after having gotten accustomed to the high gas prices, I will spend a few days in the DC area during which time I will plan on meeting with a real estate agent so that I can hopefully buy me a home with a couple months of my return in November. I will also of course get reacquainted with a "normal" society, hang out with some friends, and catch up with all the beers I haven't been allowed to drink while here. But I have been invited to Italian and Spanish dinners and barbecues, and there was beer and wine present at these functions. I shall leave it at that.
I will also spend about a week in Miami where I plan to do not much but rest and be lazy around the pool at their apartment, and of course enjoy the company of my parents! I also plan on catching a few movies while in the US, there are a few ones coming out soon. Iron Man might no longer be in theaters but Indiana Jones will be, and perhaps a few others.
Then finally I will return to the DC area for 1-2 days before starting the trek back to my current home... Afghanistan!

business trip to kabul

I enjoyed my second trip to Kabul since settling down in this most hospitable of countries, and I must say it was nice to leave Herat once again, if only for a few days and to spend most of my time away in Camp Phoenix, by far an unexciting place to be.
We flew out last Sunday on ISAF 72, an Italian C-130. All the flights are military, operated by various countries, and they all have the same number attached to them. In this case, ISAF 72 will always be Italian. It did not have a good reputation, it would appear Italian pilots like to "shake" their cargo around for lack of a better term, and occasionally the cargo gets sick. Well, I found my flight with them rather uneventful, not comfortable by any stretch of the imagination as I was in a C-130, but nothing happened that would have caused my stomach to churn. The return flight with the US Air Force was another story. We spent the last 20 minutes of the flight at a low altitude banking left and right in what I understand is a combat approach. Why you might ask a combat approach when we were landing in Herat in the peaceful western part of Afghanistan? Beats me, and I was starting to get annoyed by all these maneuvers after the first 5 minutes. I did not get sick, didn't even come close, but some poor Afghan bodyguard to some Afghan National Police bigwig wasn't so lucky. Fortunately a trash bag was within easy reach.
While in Kabul, I spent most of the time in the aforementioned Camp Phoenix where I took part in a briefing to a bunch of generals, and we went out to Camp Morehead on the other side of Kabul for a graduation ceremony for the commandos that will be stationed out west. This meant that I would get to enjoy another couple drives through the center of Kabul, the weather wasn't the greatest for pictures nor was the vehicle I was riding in, but I still took a few pictures that show the overall extreme poverty and gloominess that is Kabul. Enjoy if you'd like these mediocre pictures...

pictures from kabul

a lucky shot...

I like this shot. Granted, I took it, but it was taken through the
rather filthy windows (bulletproof, so two windows) of a moving
humvee. I like the scene depicted, the man sitting on the cab and the
other one just standing there. I like this shot. The street is quite
colorless, the cab providing the only piece of color along with the
lights in the background. The picture might be a little grainy due to
the high ISO setting used to try and maximize the shutter speed, and
I just like this shot!

military flights

This morning (Thursday) I was on yet another military flight from the
booming metropolis that is Kabul to the quieter more serene city of
Herat in the West. I am working on an upgrade to first class with all
the frequent flyer miles I have accumulated so far, but I am not sure
if the different "airlines" operating over here codeshare. So far I
have flown with the US Air Force, the US Marine Corps, the Germans
and the Italians, and none of these flights were particularly
comfortable. And no inflight service whatsoever! They're lucky I
haven't had to pay for any of these flights or they would have
definitely heard from me by now, that is no way to treat a human being!
Well anyway, this morning's flight was a little different as for some
reason the last 20 minutes or so were spent at a low altitude with
the plane banking constantly left and right. Five minutes of that
shit would have been more than sufficient yet it kept going on.
Fortunately I have a pretty strong stomach but there were times when
it felt a little queasy, but it never gave up unlike some poor Afghan
on our flight. But a plastic bag was readily available. I was told
once safely on the ground that this was called a combat approach, not
sure why it is the way it is though!
Today's flight was on a C-130 operated by the USAF, and as I happened
to be next to one of the few windows I naturally thought of taking a
few pictures. It is quite the sight to see us climbing between
mountains.

my little brother

So my younger brother finally decided to pursue a hobby he might
enjoy, and of all hobbies he chose marathons. My parents have friends
who have run and continue to run marathons, and I believe this is
part of the reason my brother started running them. I have a hard
enough time driving 26.2 miles especially in and around the DC area,
I couldn't fathom running such a distance. Yet there goes Jonathan,
aka Chouchou. He started maybe a little over a year ago, and it
wasn't always pretty. He couldn't run through his first in Miami,
then he went to the City of Angels where our older brother lives to
run his second. When it was time to put on his brand new running
shoes he realized that he had grabbed one new shoe and one older
shoe, and he ran the whole marathon with mismatching shoes. Not sure
if this is recommended by professionals, and he ended the day with a
rather swollen knee.
Well, he then decided to improve his preparation and also started
running shorted races to improve his speed. He even recently finished
first in his age group in a 5k in Miami again. His goal is to run 3-4
marathons each year, a good opportunity also to travel around the US
and to other countries and sightsee. What else is there to do while
running 26.2 miles.
So Sunday, he ran the flying pig marathon in Cincinnati. His goals
where to run the half in 1:30 and finish the whole affair in 3:10,
and incidentally qualify for the highly sought after Boston marathon,
the only race requiring a qualifying time. He did not feel he was
well prepared to accomplish these goals but philosophically stated
that should he fail, life goes on! He did study psychology in college
if my memory serves me right.
Well, to make a long story short (or maybe that is too late now), he
finished the flying pig marathon in an official time (I think) of
3:10:18, and he is now qualified for the Boston Marathon. He also
claims that the distance was an extra 1/4 mile longer due to a house
fire in the morning race officials decided to race around, and this
means he would have finished a couple minutes earlier.
I sure hope he got me some pig shorts!
And of course a job well done to my little brother!

200 days left

Where does time go? Only 200 days before I am eligible for parole!

the drive back to Camp Stone

I almost forgot I still had some pictures from my road trip south, these last ones being from the drive back to Herat. A fairly uneventful drive, no kids throwing rocks at us or anything of the sort. And we did it in pretty good time, a little over 4 hours with a stop along the way in Showz. That is a good thing because the hummers are anything but comfortable, but they'll protect us from rock-throwing kids!

pictures