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.