Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Greetings  Everyone,

Two weeks I took a 5 day trip to a place called Bamiyan, Afghanistan. This region is one of the safest places for us here in Afghanistan as we can actually go outside the wire. The people are very nice and despise the Taliban. One reason is due to the fact that on March of 2001, the Taliban destroyed 3 of the largest statues in the world carved out of the cliffs that overlook the valley. They were the Bamiyan Buddhas constructed in the 5^th century (about 507 AD) when the region practiced the Buddhist faith. The region is now Muslim like the rest of the country, but they took much pride in these structures. You can read more about it on the Wikipedia here and I have some pictures as well. We were able to climb to the top, of the hillside and inside the actual caves that are in and behind the structures as well.

The people there look more Asian as they have been ruled in the past by Genghis Khan for some time as well. We even saw some blond children from the time that the Russians were here. There is also a hill known as the City of 10,000 Screams in the middle of the valley that we hiked as well. Story here is that Genghis Khan's grandson slaughtered the inhabitants of the city.

 

I went to Bamiyan with one of my NCOs to troubleshoot some communications equipment, which we completed in the first 48 hours. So we had plenty of time to chill out. The operation in this location is run by the New Zealand Armed Forces or Kiwis. They are very laid back and pretty chill. They say "Sweet" a lot. Two of the people I came over with on this mission are stationed at this location so we hung out quite a bit and traded stories of our different experiences so far. We had a good relaxing time. Tempo on smaller bases is much slower and way more relaxed than places like the large airfield where I am located. A lot of brass here so it is a lot like being on a military post back in the states. They also have a good size hill just outside the base that they call PT Hill. They climb the ridge-line for exercise. Being as how we are at about 9000 feet here, it is no small task with the air being a bit thinner. I am at about 6000 feet were I am stationed so I did pretty good, even beating them up the hill. It is about a 1000 foot assent up some pretty steep terrain. Just felt like hiking back in Washington, without the trees of course.

 

We did get out to do some shopping. Picked up some polished stones called Lapis, which is native to Afghanistan. It is a deep blue stone found next to gold veins.  Gems stones are another big thing here as they are much cheaper than in the states.  Haven't really picked any of those up yet, but some of my Soldiers have picked up quite a collection.

 

I am now back at Bagram and back to the grind. I am now working to improve the computing skills (MS Office, SharePoint, Printing) of those located here in the office. I feel like I have gone back 10 years in time as no one really knows how to use basic office applications properly. At times it seems that in the military, especially active duty personnel just try to pound their way through things instead of learning how to use the tool efficiently. I get a lot of really basic questions over and over again. Thankfully my background is training and my goal here is to move the level of knowledge a little farther to the right before I leave here using some of my civilian employment skills as a coach. I am already in the process of creating Job Aids to give them when they ask a basic question (those of you from work know what I am talking about). I am really trying to teach them how to fish here which will be an uphill battle. They pretty much view my NCO and I as their personal, on-call IT person.

 

I guess I owe you an update on the inventory situation. I finally got that all cleaned up. It took almost 6 weeks, but we made it happen. This is why I am now able to travel a bit and work on other projects such as educating the masses.

 

That is all for now. Enjoy the pictures below. I will put as many as I can in with the network being so slow. I took a couple hundred while I was there. The views are pretty awesome!

 

TTFN,

Travis

Getting on the flight to head out.

The top of PT Hill looking back on the trail.

The top of PT Hill with everybody.

Afghan National Police Trainees.

The Afghan National Police Training Center Commander with Stanley and I.

Shopping in the bazaar.

Buddha statues from a distance wit all the caves.

You can see there the the statues no longer stand. All the pieces are in the tents and buildings behind me. The next picture was taken from the top of the cut out where the head would have been.

Inside where the head would have been.

A view from the head.

View of the valley and the Hindu Kusch mountains in the background.

One of the ornate caves cut out of the mountain.

Another view of the valley.

City of 10,000 Screams is just left of center. We hiked up that one as well.

Some of the local children that were walking with their mom.