Horse and donkey carts congesting the highways
Hard to believe, but we got another mission to return to our former camp. We rolled through the capital city with very little traffic this morning, other than the typical herd of sheep, horse and donkey carts mixed in with cars and trucks swerving potholes on their way to work. It’s truly a dichotomy to see technology mixed in with primitive modes of transportation. Can you imagine in the United States if farmers herded their livestock through major cities and dozens of horse and donkey carts would slow down traffic as they gallop on their merry way. But the real kicker is when people park their cars on the main highway (not on the side or berm) causing traffic to bottleneck and go around them. I suppose at one time when Henry Ford introduced the Model T to America, such was the case. Even now you can still observe this in Pennsylvania where the horse and buggy is still the primary means of travel for the Amish and blends in with the automobiles on the highway.
Unaware to us, twenty minutes after we passed through the heart of the city, a suicide bomber in a SUV struck near the Indian Embassy. Seventeen civilians were killed and over 80 people were injured. I recall reading India just pledged $1.2 billion in assistance to Afghanistan. Afghanistan and India suspect Pakistan intelligence played a role, even though the Taliban has publicly claimed responsibility for the bombing.
New overhang at ANA Land
While at the former camp, I had a chance to inspect some of my special projects initiated before coming to this camp. The overhang for the vehicles was finished. I envisioned it a little big bigger, but somewhere in the translation or my metric calculations, it was downsized. It looked pretty sturdy and hope it will withstand the falling
Miracle Gro roses in MSG Abdullah's garden
snow in the winter time.
I also used this opportunity to visit MSG Abdullah’s Miracle Gro garden. Unfortunately MSG Abdullah was out of the office, so I toured the garden on my own. I was surprised how much the rose bushes have grown and how large the flowers were. A few months ago, these plants were floundering until the Miracle Gro was mixed with
I just woke up from my nap, what are you looking at?
night fertilizer and added to the soil. Now these plants have grown as if they were on steroids.
My trip wouldn’t be complete unless I stopped to say hello to Justice and Liberty. As usual, they were taking their mid-afternoon nap. They looked healthy and it’s obvious the soldiers are still accidentally dropping food from their plates into their awaiting mouths. It must be those slippery plates.
Woman in burqa begs for money
Due to traffic, my team took an alternate route back to the camp. It wasn’t as desolate as the “Old Testament” road we had taken on a previous occasion. Instead this road cut through a middle class neighborhood of shops and small industry. In the middle of the road, women dressed in burqas begged for money. Their child would lie down on a blanket and an occasional car would stop and toss them some coins. I have seen this before, but today there were 5 different women on the same road begging for donations.
We arrived back at camp before sundown. The DFAC was having meatloaf for dinner. It paled in comparison to the home-made meatloaf that my mother makes. Usually at this time, I would be in Erie, Pennsylvania fishing for steelhead trout with my family. It’s been 5 months, but I finally made contact with my parents on the phone (tried many times but always missed them and got voicemail); we mostly communicate via e-mail and through the blog. My mother informed me she is the only one catching fish. My father will say she is only catching the dumb ones. I hope to resume this family fishing trip tradition next year when I return.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Afghanistan, begging, convoy, Deployment, ETT, Miracle Gro, poverty, Taliban, U.S. Air Force, war
