I figured I'd better get up & moving - so as not to be a hermit all day and risk waking up my roomate who works nights - or getting more sore muscles due to lying in a bed all & shifting around while I use my laptop. I'd kill for a comfy couch to relax on! Anyway - I went to the base, ate a meal - and was forunate to be offered a road trip to go on. Seems one of my drivers needed another person to go with him to the airport to pick someone up. Something about the ID requirements changing or something. I had mentioned to him how bored I was when I have days off - so it worked out well.
I was really curious what things would look like - since the last time I was on public roads, I hadn't slept in well over 24 hours, and was somewhat "shell-shocked" by what I was experiencing. This time around, I was familiar with my base's location, as well as the rest of the Kabul cluster of base's - and the housing area I lived in - not to mention I've hit old Google maps a few times to get a better idea of what all else is around me. I was very eager to go.
As we left our "secure" area & hit the public road ways - that "edginess" I had shortly after arriving here came back. Although I tried to fake myself out & play it cool. My living area & the base I work at really are smack in the middle of a very busy & bustling city center. It's so hard to believe when living within the confines of armed guards, concertina wire, hesco & metalith barriers, and concrete t-walls everywhere. I took comfort in the relaxed attitude of my driver. Although even though he appeared relaxed, he was still very focused on the task at hand. Driving the roads of Kabul is an experience like no other. There are civilian vehicles of all shapes & sizes. Some with 1 or 2 persons, yet others packed like a circus clown car with very unsavory looking fellows. There are many different flavors of armed personnel along the way. Many being the "ring of steel" - the Afghan police force - as well as the ANA or Afghan National Army. Military vehicles permeate the civilian traffic. As do the typical Iranian/Chinese/Afghan built motorcycles that are so popular. And, let's not forget the animal drawn cart every once in awhile too!
Our ride to the airport was fairly smooth - with only a couple "tight spots" where our movement slowed to a crawl - and we found ourselves boxed in by lots of different vehicles mere millimeters away from our own vehicle. That's just typical of traffic here, but it has a more pronounced feeling of tension when you know that these are the types of situations where vehicle born IED's (VBIED's) and/or suicide bombers like to make their mark. I managed to snap a couple pics, which I'll post below - but, fortunately, things were typically uneventful and rather boring.
On the way back - the gentleman we picked up talked about how not so long ago, folks from my company actually had the ability to drive themselves around in unarmored cars all over the place. Things have definitely changed out here, and not for the better, from what I learned. All I know is, my intention of agreeing to go on the road trip was to break up the monotony & check things out a little. I barely achieved that. However, it also put into perspective the environment that I currently live, travel & work in. It's quite removed from the life that goes on an extremely short distance away - beyond a couple small layers of concrete, steel & armed guards. Unsettling? Yep. And reaffirming that, once my 1 year contract has been fulfilled, I will be getting outta dodge & never coming back to this place. This I know.
(I know - nothing exciting - but it's not exactly easy to take a picture with
an iPhone while trying to be discrete)
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