Kabul, Afghanistan

Greetings Family and Friends!

It has certainly been a LONG time since we have updated our blog! But, rest assured, we are still alive and well on our way around the world!  The question remains though: where in the world have Joe and Carol been? Before we tell you about the last couple weeks, we need to jump back about 6 weeks and write a bit about our time in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Nothing says "Afghanistan" like a mug of hot chocolate

From Dubai where we posted our last update, we went to this central Asian country for about three and a half weeks to visit some friends.  We had a very wonderful as well as eye-opening time and felt extremely blessed to be able to see first hand what life in Kabul can be like, as opposed to through the filter of the news and media.

Our Afghanistan adventure really began in Dubai where we spent a day picking up our visas for entry into Kabul at the Afghanistan consulate.  After several wrong turns we found our way to the consulate, waited in several lines, filled out lots of forms and then stood in some more lines (a bit like a visit to the DMV).  When we finally made it to the front, we were asked a few questions like, "why are you going to Afghanistan as tourists?" and "why are you staying so long?"  The Afghan gentleman at the window asked me all the questions (likely because I looked a little more nervous than Joe) and when asked why were going to stay almost a month I simply explained because we wanted to stay with our friends through Thanksgiving.  He replied that Thanksgiving wasn't a part of Afghan culture, and I responded by saying that it is a part of our culture, and went on to explain turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and such.  The rest of the folks waiting at the consulate got a nice giggle out of the whole thing.  But, we DID in fact get our visas and off we went a couple days later to Kabul on Fly Dubai Airlines.

Carol was told by our friends to put on appropriate Afghan attire on the flight into Kabul-- a large scarf to cover her head and a skirt put over her jeans to cover her hips.  Our friend met us at the airport and drove us to his home and we got our first glimpse of Kabul.

Carol hanging out in the Kabul bush bazaar

It is difficult to describe all the different aspects of driving or walking through a place like Kabul. There is the war torn aspect which is evident from many of the buildings that still stand in ruins, but there is also a lot of rebuilding actively underway, with larger apartment complexes, shopping centers, and new homes being constructed right along destroyed ones, some of which are positively palatial. The contradictions are fascinating; like seeing a brand new gaudy palatial home with wireless security cameras on a potholed mud street standing across from a crumbling house with missing upper floor and bullet holes in the walls.

The streets are full of people going about their normal everyday business of shopping, transporting things on bicycles, running errands, going to school, playing ball in the road, and working in the multitude of tiny little naan (bread) shops and fabrication facilities that line the roads. Alongside this normal everyday life however, there are definitely more security forces than we have ever seen. Between the police, military, and private security guards, it was nearly impossible to walk more than a block without seeing at least one machine gun mounted on the back of a pickup truck and a few rifles slung across the backs of men standing around doorways. After a few days though, the constant presence of firearms ceases to be frightening and we began to respect the difficult task of protecting a city full of people who for the most part just want to live in peace. Moreover, as westerners we actually felt welcomed by the Afghans that we met, and many people would smile and wave (including guards) as we passed by.

A chilly afternoon walk around the neighborhood

Ironically, driving felt more dangerous than anything else in Afghanistan. After a few outings, we eventually became accustomed to the extremely creative ways in which Kabul drivers use their vehicles offensively and defensively to make it around traffic circles packed with cars, bicycles, horse drawn carts, pedestrians, police checkpoints, and potholes. Honestly, I've never seen cars going both ways around a traffic circle before, the secondary roads are unpaved and reminiscent of African dirt roads with major craters to swerve around every few meters, and and the primary roads feel a bit like a rally car race with everyone competing to get to a different finish line.

The weather was perfect during our visit, and reminded us of late fall in the Pacific Northwest, with a few frosty mornings, falling leaves changed to reds, oranges, and yellows, just a few high clouds, blue skies, and chilly nights. Highlights of our time included a visit to the bush bazaar where an extremely wide variety of goods could be found (Cliff Bars, thermal underwear, cookware, socks, brownie mix, etc.), a trip to the former palace (currently a bombed-out and graffiti covered shell of a formerly magnificent building constructed back in the 1920's), a feast of homemade Mantu (a traditional Afghan food a little like dumplings) by some friends we will never forget, and of course Thanksgiving dinner with our hosts.

Truly amazing scenery on an excursion to Bamyan

Most special though were the flights that we got to take West and North of Kabul. The mountains in Afghanistan are simply breathtaking, and can't compare with anything that we have seen elsewhere in the world. Once above the sooty brown layer of air that surrounds Kabul itself in the winter, the clear air and jagged peaks rising as high as 26,000 feet in some places come into view, freshly covered in snow from recent storms when we arrived. Carol and I both got to travel to the village of Lal this way, about an hour flight West of Kabul. Neither of us could hardly stop taking pictures the entire flight, as we flew past mountain peaks, rivers, canyons, lakes, and tiny little villages situated at elevations higher than most mountains reach in the US.

Traveling to Afghanistan was truly a special and unique experience and we are so thankful for our wonderful friends who are working there and their dear friends we met and shared life with for a few weeks, both westerners and Afghans.  We both felt a sadness as our plane lifted off, thinking about leaving our friends and a place that has so much to offer the world.  We also felt incredibly joyful for the memories we got to take with us and for getting a glimpse into the new Kabul that is emerging from a pretty rough past.

Sincerely,

Joe & Carol