Mazar-I-Sharif from the ground and air.

In the past week I have had the pleasure of driving through and flying over Mazar-i-Sharif.   Mazar-i-Sharif is the 4^th largest city in Afghanistan with a population of about 370,000 inhabitants.  I tried to look up more information but Wikipedia is down because of SOPA and PIPA protesting… so you will have to do that on your own in 24 hours.

My drive through Mazar-i-Sharif was with a German caravan.  On the way out there I traveled in the back of an APC.  I will avoid doing that again at any cost.  It’s like going on an old wooden rollercoaster ride with no windows.  The ride took about 50 minutes, and lucky I didn’t eat breakfast or it might have been all over the inside of the APC.  On the way home, the German’s were nice enough (or didn’t want to have to clean my lunch off their equipment) to let me ride in an Eagle which has windows.   I did not take any photos on my ride back, sorry, as it was my first ride and I was too busy taking everything in. 

Also, to make life a little more interesting the day before my trip is when the video of the US Marines urinating on dead Afghans was released.  There was concern for the backlash this might have caused or demonstrations that might have transpired as a result in the city.  Fortunately the trip was uneventful and successful.

Few things I noticed on the trip:

1)      Mud!  It was raining but everything I saw was made of mud or covered in it.  It seems when you get a piece of property in Afghanistan the first thing you do is build a huge mud wall around your property.  Even if you don’t built a house on the property… you make sure to have this mud wall up.

2)      Afghans seem to wear the same attire in the summer and winter.  I saw men walking in sandals with their feet covered in mud.  Even a delivery guy had his back stripped with mud from spray off his bike tires.  There were a few women walking around with Burka but mostly I saw men and children in the streets most without gloves or winter gear of any kind. 

3)      Children for the most part waved at us as we drove by.  Some ran by the side of the road to follow us.  I saw a soccer game being played on a muddy field with most of the kids barefoot (note: the temperature was about 45 degrees F).

4)      There are a ton of yellow cars.  I would say 80 percent of the cars on the road I saw were yellow.

5)      Men seem to loiter on the side of the road, not really talking, just staring at the cars as the pass by.  And majority of these men don’t stand when loitering, they seem to squat like a catchers in baseball.  An interesting site to see all these grown men squatting next to the road.

6)      They do have food venders selling food on the side of the road.   Looked to me to be some kind of nan bread and a lot of fruit and vegetables.  I also saw a whole pig strung up outside someone’s home.    

7)      Afghans so far seem to be happy, friendly, and nice... and love mud walls!

Smiling... this is before my ride.



Inside the APC



APC... my ride out.

German soldier... if James Brown (my JB) was in Afghanistan and German this would be him!

My flight over Mazar-i-Sharif took about 10 minutes.  I flew on a Sikorsky 61.   This was my first helicopter flight.  The morning flight was too dark to take pictures but I took some on my way home.  A couple of my tent mates happen to be on my same flight and I took a picture with one of them.  I hope you enjoy the pictures of Mazar-i-Sharif as seen from my chopper.

In the chopper with Hanzel, one of my tent mates.

Mud walls

some more mud walls

city center

Yup you guessed it... more mud walls.