Bob & Patty's Excellent Afghan Adventure - Day 3

If you received our daily email updates you've seen most of it, but not all. Since our return I've added a few notes and comments which I've put in blue italic type so those of you who don't want to read it all again can pick out the "new stuff." <g> I've also added a couple photos from each day of the trip, which weren't always in the daily updates.

If you'd like to see more photos from the trip, follow the link to the left. I took most of them, but some were taken by other team members Ron Atchley, John Eisel, Gary Goodenow, and Susie Knezel. (John and Susie are pros, so the best ones probably came from them. <g>) If you'd like hi-rez copies of any of them just let me know.

Wednesday, April 23

We're here!!! We landed at 2:45 p.m. local time (we're 10.5 hours ahead of Denver time) on Wednesday and have gotten settled in to our accommodations in the guest house in Kabul.

Words could not have prepared us for what we're seeing, nor can they adequately describe it this city is in ruins. We haven't seen the "downtown" area yet, but the suburbs and outskirts have been completely destroyed by decades of war from within and outside. But people are active everywhere recon\structing buildings and roads and trying to make a living selling anything they can reclaim from the rubble to anyone who can afford to pay for it.

After a brief orientation and lunch at the guest house, we assembled 700 kits of school supplies (pens, pencils, erasers, notebooks, etc.) for the kids at Barek Aub, which we hope to distribute on Thursday, security permitting.

At sunset we took a short trip up "Prayer Hill," a hillside cemetery in Kabul where scenes from The Kite Runner were filmed. On top of the hill we ran into a group of kids playing soccer and had a great time having our pictures taken with them. I was smitten by how outgoing and extremely friendly they were.

After that we had dinner at the guest house and crashed for the night. I'll try to write more later hopefully after we visit Barek Aub for the first time.

Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and support.

Prayer Hill in Kabul... a giant cemetery.

There are no grave sites on the very top of Prayer Hill and it makes for a great playground for local kids who LOVED having their pictures taken.