Kabul, Day 1

Hello, everyone. I am now back in the US from Afghanistan and am posting photos and my journal from the 10 day trip to this blog. I was unable to post from Afghanistan due to security problems that made it difficult to get to reliable and"fast" Internet connections. It's good to be home!

Day 1 - Dubai to Kabul

I knew the trip from Dubai to Kabul would be "different" as soon as I arrived at the airport. Ariana Afghan flights have been relegated to Terminal 2 of the Dubai airport - no fancy stores or palm trees, no food court...lots of people in turbans and robes, carrying burlapped bundles rather than luggage.

I met up with our tour group after flight check-in - it wasn't hard to pick out the members of the group in the departure gate area. There were 11 women and 1 man in our group. We debated "when" we needed to get the scarves off of our shoulders and put them on our heads - and fumbled about how exactly to do "the scarf thing." Most of us waited until we began boarding the plane.

In addition the women in our group, there were a couple of Western women who worked for NGO's on the plane, and one female flight attendant, but otherwise it was all men.

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