Afghanistan My Last Tour

Are you sure this is the right road to the city?

Its 0430 hrs (4:30 am) and the annoying beep of my alarm clock reminds me it’s time to wake up and prepare for another mission.  I was proactive the day before and stored my rucksack in the HMMVW and shaved before going to sleep.  The stubble on my face didn’t have much time to grow.  All of these proactive measures would permit me enough time to eat a hot hearty breakfast and pacify my coffee tooth.

Driving through the market area

Today we would be part of an 8 vehicle convoy.  Only 2 of my ETT teammates would accompany me as I was their HMMVW chauffeur.  The twist in today’s mission was we would travel a route that had never been driven before.  After departing the camp, we later turned down a dirt side road through the market area.  The locals stared at us as we passed by.

Little Afghan girl in a red dress

The vendors were carefully arranging their fruits and vegetables as they put them on display. A butcher was skillfully using a hatchet on a goat’s carcass and children dressed for school were meandering in the streets.

We departed the bazaar area and at the end of the town, the road ended and we entered a mud field.  Judging by the tire tracks, only a few natives used this road or livestock path.    We followed the newly carved ruts and drove over narrow drainage ditches.  My gunner was being bounced around like a ping-pong ball from traveling over the bumps in the road.

Surprisingly this road winded through the middle of some sparsely populated hamlets.  A little girl in a red dress and bare feet caught my attention while I was driving.  I’ve noticed a trend and observed even in the most desolate villages; the very young girls wear bright colors.  Specifically they don red, green, purple, and yellow hues.  I don’t know if there is any correlation or not.  The boys on the other hand, are usually dressed in off-white, dark brown or drab colors.

Pedestrian traffic in Kabul

After an hour and a half of driving the dirt path turned into a shale road which eventually transformed into a 4-lane asphalt highway.  There are no signs or indicators providing any advance warning or information about this modern highway.  Logic tells me as the government funds more highway projects, this 4 lane road will eventually extend into the “Old Testament” villages we traversed by.

Modern housing in Kabul

Anyhow, as we drove down the 4 lane highway complete with a median, the landscape quickly changed and the streets were annexed with small shops, people and traffic.  It was apparent we were headed into Kabul, the capital city.

Kabul is the home of more than 3 million people.  The traffic composition has its own unique persona too.  The roads were congested with large transport trucks, vans, cars, SUVs, donkey carts, wheelbarrows, bicycles, and thousands of pedestrians crowding the sidewalks and parts of the road.

Wheelbarrows and donkey carts in Kabul

This 3,000 year old city is still repairing 30 years of war wounds and is under constant construction.  The infrastructure struggles to support the addition of new vehicles and the continual influx of migrating people who seek a better life accompanied by electricity and flowing water.  At one point, on-coming traffic dominated the open lanes and was 3-4 car width thick forcing us to drive on the sidewalk.  Later on I found out we accidentally drove down a one-way street.  This would explain the unpleasant gestures of the local citizens as we passed them in our armored vehicles.

Afghan woman in burqa

The diversity of the people and the mixture of attire are notable too.  I observed Afghan men dressed smartly in sports coats and leather shoes, younger men wore blue jeans, while the majority of the men wore the typical cloth garment and some sort of head covering.  But there was something that really stood out to me today.  It was socks.

Female university students in Kabul

I witnessed many men wearing socks with their flip-flops.  I’ve never seen this before and found this to be rather peculiar.  Perhaps this is proper city attire or a growing fashion statement, I don’t know.

The women wore varied clothing too.  Unlike the villages where women are seldom seen, the women in Kabul walked freely about the city streets.  Some women only wore the hijab scarf, while others wore the restrictive and all encompassing burqa.  The female university students were decked out in dark black and white shawls were wrapped around their hair and draped over their shoulders.

Our convoy snaked through the city center and maneuvered through traffic circles before departing the population center.  It wasn’t long before we had reached our destination.  As we approached the guarded entrance, I recognized several of Afghanistan’s infamous historical landmarks.  Part Two (tomorrow).

Me in front of Tajbeg Palace

Filed under: Missions Tagged: | Afghanistan, Darulaman, Deployment, ETT, HMMVW, Kabul, photography, Tajbeg Palace, U.S. Air Force, war