Germans in the North...and Swedes and Finns

Traveling from one corner of Afghanistan to the other opens your eyes up to a new culture, not only a new Afghan culture but also a new International culture. It's amazing how diverse our military forces are here in Afghanistan. As I stepped on to a plane in Kabul headed towards Mazar-e-Shariff, I quickly realized that I was on a German aircraft with German pilots and mostly German soldiers. Very clean and orderly aircraft, as was the military based headed by the Germans as we arrived. Before staying in Mazar-e-Shariff, we flew on to Kunduz Province. I was asked to fly in the cockpit with the 3 crew and I did with pleasure:) They shot off a few flairs during the flight and pointed out different parts of the country as it drifted by. Such beauty in Afghanistan, pure, untouched magnificence of landscape. Once we landed it was off to the Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT) base for a meeting, dinner and a nice walk back to our lodging. The next day we packed up and flew back to RC North HQ in Mazar-e-Shariff for meetings but we also enjoyed meeting new people along the way. Our next stop was at the PRT in Mazar where the Swedish and Finnish provide construction and development support to 4 Afghan Provinces. During the visit, there was a celebration for two new shops in the bazaar they have on base. Both were women-owned shops and of course I shopped a little. Both women were smiling with pure joy for having these new businesses and I could feel their happiness as people entered the shop and as they departed.
Our adventure back to the RC North HQ was fun...we headed back with the Swedish drivers in uparmored jeeps and the road felt like we were driving on a gigantic washboard!! Fun, fun:) And it sounded as if something was about to fall off the vehicle but we didn't question it b/c they knew the way. We also enjoyed a bit of a German tradition: Oktoberfest! There was a gathering of over 100 people at a large dance hall and the music was loud, the people were laughing and the food was great - Bavarian pretzels and mustard, sauerkraut, turkey legs and lots of sausage. Yummmmmy.

Made it back to Kabul safely, glad to escape to Europe for a few days!!