All is well on the Silk Road.
So what is Afghanistan and Kabul like?
Kind of what you probably imagined. Flying from Bagram to Kabul, I was able to take a good look out the window. This area of Afghanistan (northeaster quadrant) is mountainous. Think Rocky Mountains minus any type of tree or vegetation. There is vast expanses of nothing, and then there will be a tiny little village or commune, or often times, the outline of a village that probably was destroyed decades ago. You can still see the outlines of the walls, the foundation, but the structures themselves are long gone. Then all of a sudden you'll see a couple of SUVs and a few people hanging out in the middle of nowhere, way off the nearby road. Just like in the movies.
Flying into Kabul, you can see the density that exists. Kabul has about 3.5 million residents. That's larger than Chicago. All you can see is wall after wall. Each residential area, also known as a Qalah, is essentially an extended family compound, surrounded by walls. So when you build one family compound next to another family compound, it starts to look like a maze of walls from the sky. Imaging an American suburb, but instead of curbs and fences, you had walls completely enclosing your property. And every one of your neighbors did the same. Some of the structures themselves within the walls are colorful (bright pink, turquoise, etc.) but there is no grass.
Transport from the airport to the base was even wilder. I got a first hand look at how residents live and work. It's thing upon thing, and person upon person. Want to push a wheelbarrow full of stuff down the middle of a major 6 lane road? No problem! Want to cross six lanes of traffic in a circle intersection in your sandals? Go for it! Want to sell hubcaps and silver teapots on the side of the road? The chamber of commerce welcomes you. And since the elections are coming up, there are posters and larger than life pictures everywhere.
What has surprised me the most about Kabul is the weather. Everyday has been the same. Sunny and about 85 degrees. A haze will develop in the afternoon, especially if the wind is kicking up sand, but otherwise it's not too hot. It's pretty much ideal summer weather. Early in the morning (4am early!) you can hear the neighborhood public address systems going off with the morning prayer music. It is eerie and kind of cool at the same time. You can tell the speaker system is old, yet you can hear the music fairly well. You can even hear the speakers from further neighborhoods going off, once your closest speaker has stopped. The songs go off again at 5am, but then I don't hear them the rest of the day. During the day you can see the tops of kites flying around the city.
So Kabul is a little like Chicago in terms of population, a little like Denver in terms of terrain, and a little like San Diego in terms of weather. But it's not France. And the reason I say that is because now that I have internet in my room, every site I go to defaults to French as the language. Do you know how hard it is to figure out in Yahoo and Google how to change your language settings when you can't read the buttons?
