well, we’re in Kabul now. but not without incident.
by far, the most annoying bit was being hassled by airport security. the supplies we brought along were thoroughly inspected by friendly TSA agents who decided to confiscate several canisters of pepper spray because we went over the limit. then, upon arrival in Dubai, our boxes were dissected once again and we were bereft of all remaining mace canisters. the latter entanglement delayed us for almost two hours during which we can only assume our names and passport numbers were quietly added to the list of international troublemakers.
the first two international flights (Detroit to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Dubai) went pretty well. the food wasn’t halfway bad and every seat had a personal entertainment screen so i took the liberty of killing some time by losing several hundred rounds of Bejeweled. then, halfway through one of my losses, i was elbowed in the ribs by the guy sleeping in the seat next to me. naturally, i retaliated by calmly and systematically relocating items from his open luggage to the rubbish bin in the aft lavatory.
Dubai to Kabul was another story, however. the airline we took was nothing short of complete ghettoness. my seat didn’t have a solid back, a few of the overhead compartments wouldn’t close and the plane felt like it was barely holding together. surprisingly, the food was pretty good.
Kabul International airport is about the size of a handful of peanuts and as dirty and sweaty inside as one might expect. our boxes of supplies were finally seized and are to be released as soon as the people we brought them for fill out some boring paperwork.
shortly after our arrival, we heard several explosions in the distance. it turned out that they were clearing landmines and were holding a series of controlled(?) demolitions. then i spent about half an hour waiting for my e-mail to load, shot a quick one out to tell some people i had arrived safely, and promptly konked out.
