Our Next Stop...

We were up early to finish packing and get ready to head out to our next destination. I got a quick bite for breakfast and snuck in a phone call to Sandy to tell her that I was well and heading off to my next assignment. She tells me that my Blog titles are confusing and not very descriptive. My apologies to all my followers but I am restricted from giving any details of my locations. So please bare with me and I will try to be more creative :)

Off to the airport again. Wasn't I just here? There's a heavy layer of fog and we start to worry about our flight going out. Alas, we're told the flight is a go and we'll only be delayed a few minutes. I get to talk to Jason while I wait and he tells me the great news that he will be a grad assistant at Crossroads, the counseling clinic on campus. He has wanted to work there ever since he got into grad school so this made my day. It will give him great real world experience in his last year of grad school. Good job son!!

Our flight today is in a Beech 1900D turbo prop which seats up to 18 in single rows on either side of the plane. There are 3 of us from USDA, myself, Dave K and a PRT coordinator visiting from DC. I have the seat right behind the pilot and copilot so I have plenty of leg room. Yeah! We roll at 9:15 and I watch the pilots check and recheck all the knobs, levers and gauges working in perfect unison. We taxi past the helicopter that brought us in yesterday and just past that is an array of old leased Russian HIND and HIP helicopters that are still used to transport passengers across Afghanistan. These were the same type of helicopters that rained death from the skies against the Mujahedeen back during the Russian conflict. The same type of helicopters that were eventually shot out of the sky by American supplied stinger missiles. Now they are leased from the Russians and flown by South Africans. What a strange place I'm in.

The take off is smooth but noisy and there is a vibration through the seat that corresponds directly to the increasing speed of the props. Halfway through our climb above the clouds a very loud alarm sounds and the passenger across from me has a look of sheer terror. I look at the calm demeanor of the pilots and immediately realize that this is "normal". They calmly go through their routine, trimming the rudder, feathering the throttle and double checking the comm and nav readings. The noise stops abruptly leaving the constant shake of the airframe and the hum of the engines. Soon we rise above the clouds to see blue skies at 25,000 ft travelling at just under 200 knots. The vibrations in the booty are non-stop. Two hours later with the flaps at 17 degrees, landing gears down and air speed at 140 knots, we circle the dusty desert terrain on the western side of the country. On our approach to my new home for the next 4 days, with the flaps at 35 degrees, and the throttle pulled back, we hit the long, bumpy dirt runway hard and roll toward our destination – our next Forward Operating Base (FOB) - straight ahead.

Stepping out of the plane I am hit by a warm breeze and as I look around I feel like I was transported to the desert of Arizona - same temperature and jagged mountains – but no saguaros or green of any sort. There is a layer of fine dust on everything and it even hangs in the air like a brown mist. We are greeted by our host and our gear is loaded up in an armored SUV and taken to our quarters. Ouch! Was that an ugly sight! In what would be a small bedroom size area, there were 4 triple bunk beds! Even worse, was the condition of the mattresses - stained, torn, worn – each one worse than the other. Some local contractors who were on the flight with us had already chosen their beds and Dave K, CJ and I looked at each other with trepidation trying to stomach having to sleep in these conditions. Our host having seen our bewildered looks then offered to share his quarters. It had room enough for his single bed but were we willing to, all three, share the floor space? There was one other option. We went over to the USDA PRT office where the USAID office stood vacant for another week. Dave K immediately said he would stay here. I contemplated the options and decided that I would also stay and chose to sleep on the floor of the office. We used the security of our equipment as our excuse and since the office door could be locked, this was the perfect solution. Not only would I have the floor to myself but I would also have access to the Internet –what could be better! The showers and latrines were a short flashlight walk away and I had become accustomed to that at our last stop. CJ eventually decided he would stay in the meeting area outside the offices, on one of the three small couches.

After we settled on our sleeping arrangements it was off to the chow line. Again, these soldiers are fed very well in the field. The kitchen is run by a navy chef with locals doing the cooking. After a satisfying lunch we are given a security briefing by the FOB intelligence officer. A few hours later we are attending another briefing. This time it’s a mission briefing to talk about our outing tomorrow morning. We will travel for a couple hours in the cramped confines of a HUMVEE – woohoo!! The forecast is for a sunny, hot, 90 plus degree day. Hydration will be key and food will be at a minimum (thank God for my energy bars). I will have to make sure my videographer drinks as much as possible as we will be wearing our 30 lbs of armor while running and gunning (forgive the pun) in the heat.

I will fill you in on my return hopefully with pictures to share. Good night from "our next stop"...