The Day of Rest March 11, 2006


In the Islamic world, Friday is the day of rest. For Air Serv pilots, this is also the case. Thursday evenings are taken on the town, a Friday morning Christian service can be found, and everyone plays in the afternoon.

Thursday evening began meeting fellow pilots for a get together at a local “Safe” house. This means it is situated down an alley, far from the road and potential unwanted visitors and fireworks, not to mention barricaded and guarded. What makes this place interesting is the underground “Speak Easy”, which doubles as a bomb shelter. One enters the establishment through a large metal hatch and descends 2 flights of stairs into a cement-lined hole. The proprietors have furnished the place with furniture, airplane pictures and a bar constructed of the finest cement blocks in Kabul. Discussions are what one might imagine but with distinct English & South African accents. Next door is the “Elbow Room”, an excellent restaurant with a fireplace, and comfortable surroundings. It is the kind of place one might find in Aspen or Santa Fe, but not Ruston, La.

After failing to locate the discreet Christian service, I went on an afternoon voyage up Swimming Pool the hill and found that it is the closest thing to a city park on a Sunday afternoon. Families were enjoying picnics while watching the setting sun over the towering westward mountains while women prepared meals and girls tended to siblings. The boys and men played volleyball at the base of the hill or a game of soccer in the empty pool. The most interesting sporting event I saw was a given event from the ancient sport of Track & Field: the Shot Put. As there are plenty of large stones in Kabul, finding one approximating a 16lb ball is easy to do. Though the competitors were not the large men seen in international competition, everyone took the matches seriously and marked the furthest throw with a small stone. Young boys retrieved the stones and marveled at their hero’s accomplishments.

On the north side of the hill, every available open area hosted a soccer game. Each kid in the neighborhood seemed at play in the almost balmy late winter afternoon. As I have mentioned and will mention many times more. I have never met a more hospitable people. It is very hard to imagine why we have 12,000 US troops here alone with a large NATO delegation.

Until today. This Saturday morning marked the first voyage into Taliban country. Following a restful day, we departed Kabul and flew just above the towering white peaks surrounding Kabul. My job here is to fly members of the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) to areas of development and construction. Each flight into these areas carries a security detail with MP5’s and Glocks. As our terrain went from alpine to desert, the sparse settlements became smaller until the arrival at a destination near a river. A radio call was made to ensure security, as we do not land otherwise. The mile long gravel runway soon had a SUV racing along making a cloud of dust, stopping every 200m to drop off an armed guard. Once in place, we circled, landed and exchanged passengers and weapons. The Taliban are still a minor nuisance here and are still upset over Afghanistan’s celebrating last week’s World Women’s Day as well as your tax dollars at work at this particular location building roads and irrigation canals. My guess is that they disdain anything bringing humanity beyond the 8th century. Think of them like the Amish, but desiring to live 1000 years earlier and not playing well with others. Still, the village of Lashca Ga looked every bit like the ancient settlement it was and even boasted a 2000-year-old fortress at the end of the runway, which is pictured on Afghan currency. On departure, a camel train could be seen trekking through the southern Afghan desert. Indeed, little has changed in this region in the past 1200 years.

JLH
 

Ahmed & Mohammad play volleyball at the base of the hill

Everyone likes the summit of "Swimming Pool" hill

Man prepares shot throw using the classic technique