August 2010 - Traveling Some More

  I finally left Kandahar.  But then I immediately found myself on a flight to Mazar E Sharif.  That is located in the far north of Afghanistan, across the mountains.  I thought it might be cooler there, was I ever mistaken.  It is across the mountains, not in the mountains, and much hotter.
  The purpose for me going was to meet the military there, make contacts, and start preparations for setting up a regional support center.  I took a new employee with me.  She was supposed to stay up there.  It is a nice place and seems pretty quiet.  There are German, American, and Norwegian troops there.  They say you can actually get a beer at the german mess hall.  I did not get a chance to check it out though.
  After getting there, we got a ride with the Seabees tp Camp Span.  It is about an hour from Mazar E Sharif.  We then took a convoy in a Cougar. That is a style of MRAP that is very well armored.  We got there without any problems.
  The next day, the sergeant major took us to the building sites in his humvee.  I did not realize that it was outside the gates.  It was too late to change anything so I just crossed my fingers.  The company does not let us outside the gates without prior approval and arms.  All I had was my pocket knife.  It was uneventful and we saw what we needed to.
  After a couple of days wandering around we went back to Bagram.  I got a lot of pictures of the local people there and their markets.  I normally do not get to see the towns.