Kabul Mosque

I arrived in Kabul New Year’s eve. Nothing like beginning a new career in a new country on New Year’s! Flying into Kabul requires a quick descent over rugged mountains into a bowl. From my isle seat I could observe precious little – but was interested to see walls surrounding everything – homes, businesses even fields were surrounded by walls. Wonder what this might say about Afghanistan.

After a bit of turbulence we were on the ground… exiting the airplane passengers milled about on the tarmac as military personnel looked on. Seeing an “Arrivals” sign on a building 50 yards away I began heading toward the door, only to be turned back and told to wait for transport.

A bus soon arrived and passengers shuffled aboard – crushed bag to bag. The bus pulled away from the plane and I began to think that perhaps “Arrivals”  had meant domestic and that perhaps there was an International Terminal. My theory was quickly dashed as the bus driver cranked the wheel hard to the right and withing seconds had stopped in front of the building. A passenger across from me had begun to grin as the bus leaned hard into the curve – as the bus pulled up in front of the terminal our eyes met and we both lost it!

Kabul Kite Flying

We were met by one of our agency’s drivers and were soon settled into a local hotel.

Saturday was the Nowruz – which marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the new year in Afghanistan. The streets were crowded as we toured Kabul with children in colorful dress, women in burqas or scarf wrapped heads and men dressed in everything from the traditional salwar kameez to flashy suits.

Our driver gave us a tour of the city replete with a description of each landmark – or former landmark we saw…unfortunately I did not write them down.

Colorful kite string.