Back from Bamyan, Back to Bagram

So, I've been back from Bamyan for two days now. I gotta say, that my limited time in Afghanistan has given me an interesting perspective on the eastern part of Afghanistan and how the military does its thing in different sections of the country.

Bamyan is, so far, the best province in all of Afghanistan. In terms of counter-insurgency, the New Zealanders (who control the province militarily) have the Hearts and Minds game in the bag.

So, the trip happened the 20th. I buckled into the smallest plane ever made ever. It seated 8 people, and the pilot handed out earplugs. Then he told us of all the safety features, like the exits, the fire extinguishers, the GPS locator beacon and sat phone. That's in case 'we land somewhere other than we are supposed to.' Great.
So, with a flight that showed me that fishtailing in the sky was possible, we landed in Bamyan, on a dirt runway. This was cool, because I could actually see the landing from a pilot's perspective. The plane was really that small.
Getting off the plane gave me yet another image of Afghan beauty. The pictures will be the only real way to tell you what I mean when i say that I was in the most beautiful place imaginable. Panjshir was nice, but Bamyan sweeps Panjshir under the rug.

Picture time!!



So, like I said, I knew something was different with the Kiwis than the Americans right from the get-go. Now, let me say this: Bamyan is much more peaceful than Parwan, (which is where Bagram is, which is where I'm stationed most of the time) and considering the attack that just happened to Bagram about 2 weeks ago, it is totally understandable that the people there are paranoid. So, the laid-back-yet-ready-to-go additude of the Kiwis might be a product of Bamyan. I think it might be the other way around.

I had an amazing time at an orphanage while I was in Bamyan. Now, I have to say here that I love kids. I think that they are awesome. Usually, when I'm around kids, I have my body armor on, with my weapon at the ready. With the Kiwis, it was much more relaxed. I could play with the kids. Now, don't get me wrong and think that the people of New Zealand were not ready and able to defend themselves and the kids of something happened. If you think that, get real. We still are in Afghanistan. But the level of paranoia and alertness was proportional to the situation at hand.



I hope the pictures I took show the amount of awesomeness the kids were. I even let them play with my devil sticks.

I'm sure I'll write more about the Kiwi adventure another day, but as it stands now, it's 22:00, and I've got a 4-mile run tomorrow morning. So, I'm gonna go.

Peace to the three people that read this.