Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Afghanistan Graveyard

The theme of this blog is death in Afghanistan. Not death in the macabre sense (except for the mouse) but one of the long struggles this country has had. Each day we wonder if we will just be another passing conquerer these people will wait out or if we will enact some real change.

We have a mouse problem. We are staying in warm little huts/cabins with snacks lying around. We might as well have put a sign on the door inviting the mice in. I got some traps, the sticky kind where the mice get stuck and can't escape, from the welcome office. We caught 4 mice in 36 hours. You might call us mouse killers, but don't tell my kids. It is sad, but they carry disease and are generally unsanitary, thus need to go.

We heard some shuffling in the middle of the night, so we turned on the tactical light and this is what we saw. I will not go into detail about how the mice leave their mortal coil.

Stuck Mouse
This is the Russian tank graveyard. Look how many tanks are stacked on each other in the distance. This was a day first exciting by seeing these old vehicles, then introspective as we wondered if in 15 years there will be a graveyard of Humvees and 7 ton trucks. Time will tell.
This one was particularly interesting. Think Indiana Jones and the Last crusade, when they are fighting the German tanks in the North African desert. Something bad happened to the cannon on this tank.
A Mike Crandall cameo next to a sweet (at one time) tank. Don't I look totally excited?! I am losing my mind at this moment!
This is the humorous death photo. Even the goats smoke in Afghanistan. If it's not war, people here are dying of smoking. Actually, I wonder if the average mortality age is even high enough for a large percentage of the people to grow old enough to die of lung cancer.




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