Back to Kandahar

After I woke up and got ready for the day, I collected the 4 or 5 page newspaper that the staff leaves on my doorsteps. It reminds me of the Stars & Stripes military newspaper that is circulated throughout the bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, but more geared towards civilian expats.

I thumbed through it and noticed a write-up on Daykundi province, which is where Nili is located. I read it since I was involved with the master development plan there. Apparently, another aid organization just completed a renovation of the small dirt airstrip there. This is good news since the town is remote and hard to get to by car, especially in the snowy and muddy winter months. Perhaps we can take advantage of this airstrip to ferry non-local materials in and out.

This morning, our small group went to pay a visit to the Ministry of Agriculture. We discovered they had a GIS department up and running and are very interested in any data they have collected and are willing to share. Although, they will likely not have exactly what we look for, their data may prove useful. Getting up to date and accurate geodetic information is always a challenge in Afghanistan.

This is not the best picture in the world, but I was able to snap this while in our car. Kabul is a city of contrast indeed. I probably saw a dozen of these horse drawn work buggies navigating around the sea of countless cars trucks, pedestrians, bicycles and military vehicles.

Unfortunately, our plans were cut short when security we informed us that they were able to get us a flight back to Kandahar. We were supposed to take a USAID flight yesterday, but it was cancelled due to some security reason. Being the dedicated worker-bees they are, our operations group were able to book us on an Embassy air flight, which were not being cancelled by the security issue, go figure.

After about a 2 hour flight, I arrived safe and sound back in Kandahar. It’s good to be “home”, or at least back where my stuff is.