Tashakor

The plane was zooming into the air. From my seat in business class, I looked back at Kabul as it disappeared behind us in the mist. A week ago, I had expected I would sit with a relief in my heart. Relief that I could leave. Unscade. Instead, I sat with a sense of gratitude. Gratitude of what I had experienced these short days. With a slight nervousness when I arrived. To the final taxi-ride to the airport. When everything around me was beginning to become familiar.
It was a feeling that I have had before. Many years ago. It was a wonderful feeling. A feeling of exploring. Not just traveling. Not just hopping into a place for a few days to have a stamp in my passport and a few lines and images on this blog. But really exploring. Being in a place few have been. Seeing things that few others have seen. Collecting stories few others have. And I loved it. And I survived to tell the tale. The image below, I took through the bathroom mirror before I left the apartment. The smile on my face is real. I was happy. Not just to leave, but happy about the whole trip.

Although I didn't get to see and feel the dangers lurking in this city, it is obvious to anyone who wants to see, that this city isn't safe. No matter what people want you to believe. I could claim that since I survived, it must be completely safe. But many people, even soldiers in the battle zone, survive war. Doesn't mean war is safe.
I did get to see something that I have seen so many times before. On many levels. In many countries. And for many reasons. People tend to want to survive. To exist. We live, and do everything we can to live. No matter how bad things are, we really want to survive. How we go about surviving, is different in different countries and situations. But the will to live is within us all. And seeing people picnicking in the park in Kabul, or people enjoying themselves around the Blue Mosque in Mazar, are etched into my mind as joyful moments.
It is understandable that many may be on the edge here. Attacks happens regularly. Like I wrote about my first evening in Kabul. The lights went out. I later learned the Taliban had blown up a pylon just outside the city. And when US defence secretary James Mattis visited Kabul last year, the Taliban shelled the airport a couple of hours later.

Looking back, it does feel strange to have been in this almost mythical country. But I am glad I went. I have met wonderful people. Seen wonderful places. Eaten wonderful food. This trip is something that will stay with me for a long time. And it has revived in me the same spark for travelling I had many years ago. But also made me acutely aware, as I have written before, how lucky I am to have won the birth-lottery. Some may think they deserve what they have. I have come more and more to see it as a lucky draw. I was born in a free country. Not because I deserved it, but because I was lucky.

On a last note : It was obvious as we walked and drove through the city, that there is a delicate balance here. Heavily armed police and soldiers on regular intervals. Signs saying "Police iron ring such and so". I later thought about all I have read about Afghanistan and heard from locals, that the relative peace and quiet in Kabul is much like holding a cyanide capsule between your teeth. Perfectly safe as long as you don't break it.

So is coming to Afghanistan something I would recommend? Absolutely not. Afghanistan is a dangerous place. There are shootings and bombings at irregular intervals. Hundreds of people are killed and injured every year. For all practical purposes, it is a war zone. Although a relatively "quiet" one. So this place is something I cannot recommend. But if you have a lot of experience in traveling, is not a thrill-seeker, and listens to advice from either locals or ex-pats, you have a relatively good chance of staying alive. But there is a warning to everyone even considering this place : With attacks happening everywhere, even if you are not the intended target, you may end up dead. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time. A bomb or shootings. Most people killed here are "collateral". And sometimes, the collateral fatalities far outnumbers the actual targets.
Welcome to Afghanistan.

Ragnar
Checking out of the war zone