Let's set the stage a bit

Ok well day one!! I landed in the airport, got off the plane and immediately... I noticed I wasn't in Kansas anymore. The airport kind of had the feel of... well if you've ever been in an office building in the states that was built in the 60s or 70s and hasn't really been modernized it was kind of like that with modern lighting and heat added. I got in the car with our local driver... (Hmm gonna use aliases here because in this place flying under the radar is the name of the game. so from now on the driver is Mike) Mike, and because I've been riding around in contract and rental vehicles and planes for the last few days, out of habit I reached for my seatbelt. Mike stopped me immediately he says "You don't need that... pfhh you in Afgan now you make the rules here!".  So we started out... OH holy shit since "I'm in Afgan now and I make the rules here" can I make some rules about traffic!!!! Oh I'm only able to make rules that I'm able to enforce as an unarmed civilian???  Hmm guess I'll just stick with making rules about my own personal seat belt wearing then. Traffic here.... where to start? Ok well first off there are no lanes... I mean yeah there are yellow lines on the road but I'm not sure why they bothered to paint em'. No, here the only "lane" is wherever you manage to fit your vehicle, that is your lane. Now as a courtesy to each other drivers will stay to the right side of the road... but at one point in our journey the ditch (or what we'd normally call the ditch) of the opposite side of the road going against traffic works just fine as well. Fortunately by this point my natural fears, that a life of cozy American driving had built up, were gone. I think my days as a young hellion behind the steering wheel were to prepare for this. So by this time when I see that we are about to go from the opposite ditch and through oncoming traffic to merge into traffic my internal reaction is somewhat a mix of "Oh shit we're about to merge across an oncoming lane ?!?!!!!!!"  and "We are about to merge across an oncoming lane! Let's do this!"  Now quickly a word about Mike... Mike is a younger guy early 20s and I will say he does drive a bit more aggressively than the other drivers. But to think about his perspective for a second he is driving a white dude around what most would consider hell on earth.... Drive Mikey drive... get my white ass from point a to point b!

Now to take just a second to be more serious. I know there are friends who are worried about me over here. I appreciate that and all the people who have sent wishes of my safe return. I can only comfort some of those concerns by saying there are safety protocols in place. That's really all I'm going to say about them because releasing anymore than that puts my coworkers and myself at greater risk. The company I work for...
Well, I probably couldn't ask for better. I met the president of the company when I went to Washington state for 3 days. This guy is probably one of the smartest guys I'll ever meet and he sincerely cares about all of us who are working for him. Everywhere I go I'm accounted for and the second anyone is missing there are people worrying about it. So just wanted to drop that in so give some level of comfort because I know a lot of what little I may decide to write is going to seem like there is no method to the madness but I think it's more fun to write about it that way! I hope some of this makes people smile or gets a laugh or two! I love making my friends laugh and that ain't about to change just cause I'm in hell... well, hell with internet access anyway.