A big Day at KIA

I am still making my way slowly through the different intermediate camps and stops enroute to my final destination. Each level of headquarters has its own briefs and forms, which take time. Then there is waiting for transport to the next spot.
Yesterday was a banner day since I flew into KIA. All airports have a 3 letter code with them, but Kabul International Airport's code can give you the creeps just from the acronym.

While we moved from the airport to this camp, I was struck by the gardens and vegetable plots along the route. There were small family gardens and fields all along the way. In a land of predominantly brown dust and sandy soil, beautiful green spaces can occur. People were out grooming, weeding and tending their crops. It very much reminded me of the same scenes I had seen in vegetable gardens called ortos in Italy, or similiar home gardens in Okinawa. It was refreshing to see life and growth in an area that has seen so much destruction. It was a heartwarming scene, and made me miss our home and garden at home.

There were buildings as well that were obvious casualties to the 30 years of war that Afghanistan has endured, but I was also very impressed with how much construction was going on here in Kabul.

Please note since I am moving 'downrange' I will really only mention things in the past tense and may use generic descriptions of people I interact with or places for security reasons.