You won’t even believe where I am and what I’ve been doing the past 11 hours. Even I can’t believe it. There were two very big surprises. The first was unwelcome but, in the end, unavoidable. The second was one of the great experiences of my life so far. But I need to back up several thousand miles and a couple of days first to get some things that are heavy on my heart out of my thoughts and onto the page here.
First…news flash to all the U.S.-based airlines. A couple days ago, on a Kam Air flight from Heart back to Kabul, I managed to fall asleep and awoke only when the wheels touched down on the runway at Kabul airport. Because I was asleep, I did not return my seatback to its full and upright position before landing. And get this… Nothing bad happened! We didn’t crash or anything. And that’s not all. My tray table was down the entire time. I am not making this up! The flight attendant never woke me to say anything. In Afghanistan they don’t much sweat the small stuff.
Yes, on Tuesday I (along with Peter the Aussie and another friend on this trip, Hal) left the team in Herat after an emotional goodbye and returned to Kabul, hoping to make a connection to Dubai. It didn’t work out, though, so we had to spend another 30 hours in Afghanistan. I managed to find an English language Afghanistan paper to read on the flight. A quick scan of the headlines painted a vivid picture of the situation here:
“15 Militants Killed in Volatile Helmand”
“Sources of Terrorism in Pakistan”
“720 Million Sq Meters of Land Not Cleared of Mines in Afghanistan”
“ISAF Vehicle Patrol Attacked by Suicide Car Bomber”
“Bin Laden Still Deadly Relevant”
“4 ISAF Soldiers Injured, 9 Rebels Killed in Kandahar”
“World not Doing Enough on Afghan Drugs, Karzai”
All that in the current issue of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan.
Later, on the way from Kabul airport to find a hotel (we decided not to stay in the team guest house this time) I saw more amputees begging alongside the road.I had, before leaving the relief team in Herat, been reading the little Bible I keep with me. Jesus’ words in John 16… “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” I wonder, had I not come to faith all those years ago, how hopeless I would feel in this dark place? Afghanistan breaks your heart. At the same time, what but the heart of God could compel a person to voluntarily come here and try to make a difference? There is indeed hope in that.
I will never forget the people I have met here. They came before me and they stay after.
**
SURPRISE SURPRISE
The unwelcome surprise… At 2 a.m. in Dubai, Hal and I finally board the Olympic Air flight to Athens. But guess what. It doesn’t go to Athens. Not directly, that is. I asked the flight attendant how long to Athens, and she said, “you do know this flight goes to Kuwait, first?” Umm, no, actually, I didn’t know that. Somehow the travel agent who booked all of this neglected to put Kuwait on the itinerary she printed up and included with my ticket package. We’ll be having a little chat when I finally get home.
The welcome surprise… And this was just unbelievable. We did, eventually, get to Athens, earlier today. I’d never been to Greece before, although I’m not sure landing and taking off again a few hours later really counts for visiting Greece if one doesn’t even get out of the airport. Ahh, but it turns out I did. We had a five-hour layover so we decided to grab a taxi and see what we could see. The taxi driver said it would take about half an hour to get downtown, to Constitution Center. So we said, “well, what are we waiting for?”
Once there he casually mentioned (his English was good) that the Parthenon was only another 10 minutes. Before we knew it we were hiking up the hillside of the Acropolis to the Parthenon. Who ends up at the Parthenon without planning to go there?Then again, who ends up in Kuwait without planning to go there?
