Journey to Kabul

My journey began at 4 am this morning, but I was wide awake then... had been since I woke up at midnight! I met a few nice Americans on the plane and sat beside a fluent young Afghan fellow with whom I discussed religion and culture all the way accross the deserts of Iran and Afghanistan. When I arrived, I made my way through a small, crowded airport to the outdoors where I was met by the company security team. I donned an armored vest inside a Toyota SUV and with another one following behind us, drove through the craziest traffic to the villa. The villa was like a temple in the wilderness. About the driving... imagine a thousand cars in a hurry, no traffic signals and yielding such that cars crossing your path are but inches from your car body. Lots of honking too. Every car has body damage. The walkers and bikes are right in the middle of this. It all moves very slow. I'll try to film it sometime.

Shortly after I arrived, I found that my new supervisor, a British man named Robin, had invited me to visit a large tract of land on the outskirts of town where a military training school will be built. It will be like Westpoint. The attached movie file is a panorama of that scenery.

The Afghan I met on the plane told me he thought I was an Afghan and was really suprised I didn't speak Dari. The movie ends with a couple Afghan soldiers standing near me. The chattered at me for a minute in Dari looking confused before asking if I was an American. They couldn't speak a lick of English otherwise. I signed to them that I'd been in-country for only 3 hours. I hope it is possible for me to learn their language.