Cyclic leaving - office --> guesthouse --> office ---> guesthouse

It has now been two full days in Kabul. And they have been good so far. I am staying at Sierra Base, one of five guesthouses located very close to the MC office, and also home to our country director Christine. She has been a very hospitable host. I'll include a picture at some point but a brief description will have to do. The two-story house sits behind one gate and two sets of walls. We have a full-time guard (basically manning the gate and generator and doing odds and ends around the yard) and a cook and cleaner. The cook Ali can make just about anything you request, does all the shopping and the cleaner does laundry. On Monday morning we asked him for salad, curry and stir fry and when I went home for lunch that day, it was all there. He proceeded to rattle off all the possible things I might like him to make adding "Do you like pies or cakes?" I think he is rather bored and itching to feed people.

Christine and another colleague have set up a small gym room at Sierra Base. This is especially important considering that movement is extremely limited and we are driven everywhere. But before this starts to sound glamorous, it's not. My room is rustic, there isn't much of a closet and no dresser - the desk drawers are standing in for that. The power goes off regularly and when it is on, the lights are dim unless the generator is on. There is currently no internet. But it's comfortable. And hey, I have all the Al Jezeera, BBC and CNN news I could hope for.

Did I mention being driven everywhere? The guests houses are all within a couple minutes drive to the office but we are picked up and dropped off everyday and there are drivers on duty around the clock. The security level has been lowered slightly post-election and today two colleagues and I actually walked the two blocks back from a cafe - a cafe with two gates and an armed guard who checks bags. When you are outside the guesthouse and office gates, wearing a headscarf is actually a nice thing. Not that I don't for an instant think everyone knows I'm a foreigner but it gives you something to feign hiding behind.

It's evening prayer call during Ramadan. The office is quiet and the smells of break fast and the clinking of food preparations are coming through the open windows. But the sounds of helicopters flying low over the city remind you where you are.

The long road to Kabul

It is Monday, most of the staff have taken off already as it is Ramadan and they can leave at 2p to prepare for the break fast, prayer and what-not. So far so good here in Kabul. I arrived Saturday afternoon without much incident. The flight to and the overnight in Dubai went as smooth as I could have hoped. Successful found my hotel and my friend Jeff - a former MC employee in Afghanistan who is currently in Dubai waiting for an India visa. He was able to give me his version of a pre-arrival orientation. And while I arrived successfully in Kabul it was not without an introductory testing of nerves.

My flight was almost entirely expats. Upon deboarding, it was headscarf on for the women. First obstacle was obtaining a registration card which was no big deal - but it was interesting the people who would come up to the desk - say their employer i.e. Blackwater, and be waved on through.

Next hurdle was exiting the baggage claim area where I had to bypass the start of a 40 person airport employee brawl. Exit stage left, and I began the quest to find the ellusive Parking Lot C. Two maps and Jeff's description of how to find it, barely helped. I ran into a dead end in Parking Lot A which was where people such as the Blackwater contractors were being picked up, and upon asking one of their handlers, was directed to go through Parking Lot B and then finally towards what looked like it might be Parking Lot C. Fortunately, there was one other lone foreigner heading that way - a German from my plane. He was greeted by his Afghan colleagues and they offered me their cell phone to call the MC radio room who assured me my driver was there and would have an MC logo'd sign. So I waited a few minutes and sure enough saw the tell-tale unmarked Toyota Corolla drive up with my name and the logo on a placard. For whatever reason he didn't quite know where to take me but after a few transmissions to the radio room and I was on my way to Sierra Base - my guesthouse for the near future. Welcome to Kabul.