Impressions of Afghanistan

I am currently deployed in Afghanistan with the US Marine Corps.  In the context of my job I have the opportunity to travel a fair bit around a pretty wide area of southern Afghanistan.  These are just some of my impressions of the land and people, adapted from a newsletter I wrote for the families of my battalion:

This is a rugged and austere land.  The open desert is as dry and desolate a place as you will ever see.  There are very few plants – mostly a scrubby grass or a thorny plant somewhat like the bush in the United States that turns into tumbleweeds.  As you get closer to the river, though, green sprouts everywhere (at least this time of year) and some places can even look quite lush.  Although it is not widespread, beauty is possible to find if you look for it.  And, it is all the more noticeable for its humble surroundings.  There are vinyards scattered around here and there.  I think they grow grapes mainly for making raisins.  In two of the vinyards I saw during a convoy I went on just yesterday, there were small clusters of sunflowers; the yellow petals glowing brilliantly against the mud brick walls. 

The children, too, are (mostly) beautiful.  Generally their faces light up with a big smile and they wave or give the thumbs-up sign as we drive by.  Some of them are a bit rascally though and make obscene gestures (probably taught them by Marines on patrol).  Some even throw rocks.  I think it is their form of “trick-or-treat”.  They make signs asking us to throw them food or bottled water.  If we don’t, they throw rocks at our trucks.  If they can, some will also try to steal things off our trucks.  They seem to know just where to look and can get compartments open and the contents out in a split second.  Mostly, they are cute kids – tending flocks of sheep, playing, or swimming in the canal. 

The people live a hard life.  Most of what is around is rocks and dust the consistency of flour.  The people are geniuses with that dust.  Add a little water and bake it in the sun for a little and it turns into brick.  They build everything with it.  They even shape it into latticework and fancy arches.  They are also very good at irrigation.  Canals of every size criss-cross the landscape for about a mile or two on either side of the river.  They grow everything from grapes and corn to wheat and poppy.  There are some tractors around (the rich folk) but their farming methods are almost all by hand.  I have seen them plowing behind a donkey, sowing seed by hand and harvesting huge multi-acre fields of wheat with sickles. 

Vehicles are much more common here than we expected.  There are delivery trucks, pick-up trucks, vans and sedans.  Almost all of them are white (makes sense in this hot region I guess).  But, more common than anything are the little motorcycles that almost everyone seems to ride.  We have seen whole families of five on one motorbike: father, mother (in a burkha of course), and three kids ranging from infant/toddler to tween.  They ride these things without fear in and out of our convoys, through deep dust and gravel, and over narrow foot-bridges about 18 inches wide.  They get their gas at little road-side shacks with a 55-gallon drum out front and plastic jug and a funnel. 

It is an interesting country.  The people, for the most part, are just doing the best they can to make a living and provide for their families.  The efforts of all the Coalition Forces here are having an effect and are making things better.