Day 0 (181 days to go…)

I took a taxi back to the airport. It cost 11 Dirham which is like 3 Dollars. Not a bad deal. I then left for Bagram, Afghanistan on a small commercial plane. After landing in Bagram, I transitioned to an even smaller plane that would take me to Kabul, Afghanistan (after stopping briefly in Jalalabad). This was the smallest plane I had flown on. There were less than 20 seats, including the 2 pilot seats. The place where the pilots sat was not even separated from the rest of the cabin. It sat one person on each side of the (very narrow) isle. There were no places to put you bags except on your lap.

After arriving in Kabul I expected to pick up my body armor, and fly back to Bagram. Turns out plans changed while I was in transit and I was now going to be stationed In Kabul. Surprise! Amanda, a coworker, greeted me and helped me load my stuff in the company SUV. We drove through Kabul, and let me tell you, what a ride. Apparently there are no rules for driving, even though there are quite a bit of cars and traffic on the roads. There are no speed limits, no stop signs or stop lights, no pedestrian walkways, no turn signals, there weren’t even any lanes on the roughly 4 to 5 lane road. Everyone just kind of “figured it out.” Cars, bikes, pedestrians, carts… goats… all vying for position along this road, some going quite fast. It was kinda scary at times.

Eventually we got to the base, NATO ISAF HQ. The base is basically a square with the secure part in the center. Amanda signed me in and got me into where the office is located. I met all my coworkers and got a temporary space to set up. For dinner, Amanda brought pizza from one of the restaurants on base back to the office. It was pretty good, though it had peperoni on it… At night I was supposed to sleep in the transition tents because my room was not ready yet, but one of my coworkers was on leave so I got to stay in his room. This was quite a lucky break as the transition tent has about 20 beds with no privacy at all. I settled into my temporary bed for my first night here in Afghanistan.



~David